Undergraduate Experiential Learning Activity to Improve Communication Skills and Engage Public School Students in Forest Ecological Principles

Since 1988, Virginia Tech has had various programs in which undergraduate students visited public schools and presented natural resources-based information One of the more popular presentations involved teaching public school students how to identify and measure forest vegetation. In 2008, the Ambassadors for Conservation Education (ACE) Program was developed to enlist a larger, more diverse student body to participate in forestry and agriculturally-related undergraduate degree programs. In this program, undergraduates visited two parks and six high schools with forest nearby to collect forest ecological data with high school students. At each park and school we established a series of 0.02-ha permanent plots. Accurate baseline data on tree species, and tree diameter (\u3e10 cm) were collected on all plots by Virginia Tech faculty and staff. These data, along with the exercise objectives and field trip preparation material (e.g., data sheets), were placed on the internet for use by teachers. To prepare for their teaching days, undergraduate students enrolled in a communication class where they were taught principles of effective communication. The class emphasized outdoor environmental teaching with numerous practice sessions where students improved their skills at teaching outdoors in informal settings. Undergraduates then led high school field trips where students and their teachers visited the plots and collected the same information in the pre-established plots. High schoolers learned principle of tree identification and use of diameter tapes and increment borers. Following data collection, students returned to the classroom and submitted their data via the internet. Relatively accurate data can be collected when trained undergraduates assist high school students closely. Utilizing schools with forest plots nearby greatly increased the number of students reached and eliminates the need for special field trip permission and transportation costs

Fire and gap dynamics over 300 years in an old-growth temperate forest

Questions What are the long-term patterns of wildfire occurrence and gap dynamics in an old-growth deciduous forest? Are there temporal patterns in fire and gap dynamics over the last ca. 300 yrs? How is drought related to fire occurrence? Are there temporal interactions between gap dynamics and fire? Location Lilley Cornett Woods Appalachian Research Station, Southeastern Kentucky, USA. LCW; 37°05′ N, 83°00′ W. Methods We cross-dated and analysed annually-resolved tree-ring data from 35 tree cross-sections in an old-growth deciduous forest to reconstruct historical fire and canopy disturbance and explore connections among these processes. Canopy disturbance patterns as indicated by tree growth release within this collection [fire history collection: (FHC)] were compared to cores from 26 trees collected in 1983 for the purposes of climate reconstruction [climate collection: (CC)]. Results Initiation dates in the FHC ranged from ca. 1670 to 1925. Thirty-three fire scars were identified from 1678 to 1956. The mean interval between fire events was 9.3 yrs, and there were many more fires after 1800 than before that date. Gap dynamics, as reconstructed through growth release detection, were relatively constant through the FHC record and were supported by a similar result in the CC. The mean number of years between detected release events was 5.2 yrs. Many individual trees, and the mean growth chronology for the FHC, indicate that many oak trees exhibit growth release after long periods of suppression and, after a final release, exhibit a step-change in growth rate suggesting canopy accession. Conclusions Fire and gap dynamics occurred through much of the last ca. 350 yrs in this old-growth forest. There was not evidence to support that these two processes were temporally linked – gap dynamics were ostensibly independent of fire occurrence. Even so, we posit that these two processes may have a synergistic effect on long-term dynamics, wherein fire ‘filters’ the seedling pool and gap openings provide canopy accession opportunities. We also note several instances where release events are associated with stand-wide growth increases suggesting large-scale canopy accession. These events could influence the overstorey composition of the forest for centuries

Peer Reviewed Publications From Class Projects

From 2001 to 2008, I coordinated the publication of 13 peer‐reviewed manuscripts stemming from group projects in a graduate‐level Advanced Forest Ecology class. The intention of the group projects was to immerse the students in actual forest ecology research and increase their professional development by personally involving them in the publication process. The student publications appeared in 11 different journals (American Midland Naturalist, Castanea, Dendrochronologia, Forest Ecology and Management, Journal of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Education, Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society, Natural Areas Journal, Northeastern Naturalist, Southeastern Geographer, and Tree‐Ring Research) and each group project had a unique publication history that varied depending upon the skill levels of the students (M.S. vs. Ph.D. students), discipline of the students, and motivation level of the students. Throughout this period, we only had two class projects that were never published and one manuscript that remains in review

Urban High Schoolers as Citizen Scientists: A Collaborative Partnership with University Natural Resource Educators

The EscapE (Environmental stewardship and career awareness program for Education) Program created a partnership between urban high school “citizen scientists,” their teachers, and university professors in the collection, interpretation, and sharing of data at a national wildlife refuge. The goal of the program was to increase student interest in natural resource careers by providing opportunities to work with natural resource professionals to collect and analyze data needed by the refuge. University undergraduate forestry programs are at risk because of dwindling student enrollment numbers and limited student diversity. By allowing high school students to partner with natural resource professionals and university professors, high schoolers would know more about opportunities in the environmental sciences and have a point of contact for questions and advice. Students collected data on soils, tree rings, and vegetative species composition during visits to the refuge and entered this information on an interactive website where the scientists and other students could help interpret the data. To assess interest in science‐related careers and life skill development, students completed an online questionnaire immediately after their data collection experience and then four weeks later. Students also participated in an online chat with university professors following data collection at the refuge. During the online chat, professors helped students reflect on the data collection experience by engaging the students in a discussion about the data they reported on the website and how their findings could help refuge personnel make natural resource management decisions. Preliminary results of the online questionnaire indicated that the experience helped build students’ problem solving, team work, and communication skills. In addition, students indicated knowing more about career opportunities in the sciences and felt more comfortable interacting with natural resource professionals because of the EscapE Program

Influence of Age, Diameter, and Location on Compression Wood Formation in White Pine Following Ice Storm Damage

In 1994, two ice storms hit the ridge-and-valley region of southwestern Virginia. Large-diameter trees experienced high levels of branch breakage and many small-diameter trees were bent under the weight of the ice. To right themselves, the conifers formed compression wood. The objective of this study was to quantify the influence of stem diameter, age, crown class, tree location, and influence of nearest neighbor on compression wood formed following the 1994 ice storms in eastern white pine (Pinus strobus, L.). Pinus strobus within a 50 x 100 m plot were destructively sampled at Virginia Techs’ Fishburn Forest in southwestern Virginia and cross-sectional disks were removed at stump height. Disks were sanded, cross-dated, and scanned. Tree locations were spatially mapped with a laser transit, along with distance and attributes of the nearest neighboring trees. The images of the scanned disks were imported into Photoshop and the amount of compression wood formed in the years following 1994 was measured as a percentage of total area in the cross-section. The white pine exhibited a two-age structure with younger trees establishing in 1990s and older trees in the 1960s. Through a comparison of these two age classes, the formation of compression wood appeared to be age independent; however diameter and crown class were related to amount of compression wood formed by the white pines following the 1994 ice storms with smaller diameter and lower crown classes forming relatively more compression wood compared to larger, dominant individuals

Using Repeat Landscape Photography to Assess Vegetation Changes in Rural Communities of the Appalachian Mountains

Repeat photography is a useful tool for evaluating landscape change and patterns over a long period of time in areas that lack scientific landscape information. The objective of this study was to use ground based repeat photography to quantify and identify landscape vegetation changes over the period 1880 to 2008 and to identify strengths and weaknesses in repeat photography techniques. The historical photograph collection used for this study contained 237 landscape photographs taken in 1880. Fifty-five photographs were successfully relocated and the photograph pairs were analyzed for changes in cover classes and changes by topographic position. From 1880 to 2008, forest land was the most stable cover type (98% of forested land in 1880 remained forested in 2008). Some of the main patterns of land conversion over this time period were (1) agricultural land converted to forest (19%), (2) residential and commercial land converted to forest (18%), (3) transportation systems converted to forest or agricultural land (57%), and (3) lands covered with water in 1880 converted to agriculture or forest lands (15%). Repeat photography when combined with other historical land-use methods can yield a detailed reconstruction of the historical profile of an area; however, if the original locations of the photographs are unknown repeat photography is a very time-intensive technique

Lack Of Gender Bias In Citation Rates Of Publications By Dendrochronologists: What is Unique About This Discipline?

Most academic disciplines have a gender bias that exists in the recognition of research publications: women’s publications are cited at lower rates than men’s publications. In this paper, we examined whether a similar gender bias existed for publications by dendrochronologists. Tree-ring research is a fairly small field where males outnumber females, and therefore the sample size was limited to 20 female dendrochronologists and 20 male dendrochronologists. It was determined that native language (English or non-native English speaker), current employment (government or academic), and gender of the first-author do not significantly influence a paper’s probability of being cited. However, years since dissertation completion was a good predictor of a paper’s citation rate. We suggest that the high productivity of female dendrochronologists and a pattern of co-authoring with male colleagues bring the work of females to the attention of their male colleagues and thus eliminate the gender bias in citation of women’s work common to other disciplines.This item is part of the Tree-Ring Research (formerly Tree-Ring Bulletin) archive. For more information about this peer-reviewed scholarly journal, please email the Editor of Tree-Ring Research at [email protected]

Frequency of sprout-origin trees in pre-European settlement forests of the Southern Appalachian Mountains

We hypothesized that tree form, recorded in historical public land surveys would provide a valuable proxy record of regeneration patterns during early-European settlement of North Americaâ s eastern deciduous forest. To test this hypothesis, we tallied stem form from witness trees used in land survey records in the southern Appalachian Mountains from 13 counties spanning four physiographic provinces: Piedmont, Blue Ridge, Ridge and Valley, and Cumberland Plateau. A total of 3% of witness trees used in the land surveys were of sprout origin. American basswood (Tilia americana L.) exhibited the highest proportion of sprout-origin trees at 12%. Other overstory species with a high proportion of sprout-origin trees were hickory (Carya sp.), red maple (Acer rubrum L.), and sycamore (Platanus occidentalis L.), all with 6% of stems being from sprout-origin. The Blue Ridge had significantly more sprout-origin trees compared to the other three physiographic provinces. Forests in the southern Appalachian Mountains during the pre-European settlement period had a suite of disturbances that controlled their growth and regeneration; however, most of these disturbances did not result in large-scale tree mortality and therefore, sprouts were not an important source of regeneration.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author