Dodson, Elizabeth M.

Seielstad, Carl A.

English

University of Montana

University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana University of Montana Course Syllabi, 2021-2025 Fall 9-1-2022 FORS 440.01: Forest Stand Management / Service Learning Elizabeth M. Dodson University of Montana, Missoula, elizabeth.dodson@umontana.edu Carl A. Seielstad University of Montana, Missoula, carl.seielstad@umontana.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/syllabi2021-2025 Let us know how access to this document benefits you. Recommended Citation Dodson, Elizabeth M. and Seielstad, Carl A., "FORS 440.01: Forest Stand Management / Service Learning" (2022). University of Montana Course Syllabi, 2021-2025. 1325. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/syllabi2021-2025/1325 This Syllabus is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Montana Course Syllabi, 2021-2025 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact scholarworks@mso.umt.edu. FOR440 Timber Stand Management / Service Learning Instructors: Beth Dodson Office: FOR 201B Phone: (406) 243-5542 Cell: (406) 396-6893 Email: elizabeth.dodson@umontana.edu  Carl Seielstad Office: CHCB 441 Phone: (406) 243-6200 Cell:  (406) 274-0914 Email: carl.seielstad@firecenter.umt.edu Class Times: Two 1-hour lectures (FOR 206): T 12:30 – 1:50 Lab (Field): T 2:00 – 4:50 Required Text: Water Quality BMPs for Montana Forests Montana Guide to the Streamside Management Zone Law and Rules, 2006 Required Equipment: Hunter orange or other high-visibility outerwear (required beginning Oct. 22) Bear spray (recommended)  Prerequisites: FORS 202 Forest Mensuration FORS 341 Timber Harvesting and Roads FORS 349 Silviculture Course Description: “The management and manipulation of the timber resource on private lands to reach multiple objectives, with a focus on the planning of forest operations.”  These goals will be met through a hands-on, semester-long, group-based service learning project. Service Learning is a method of teaching and learning in which students, faculty and community partners work together to enhance student learning by applying academic knowledge in a community-based setting. Student work addresses the needs of the community, as identified through collaboration with community or tribal partners, while meeting instructional objectives through faculty-structured service work and critical reflection meant to prepare students to be civically responsible members of the community. At its best, service learning enhances and deepens students’ understanding of an academic discipline by facilitating the integration of theory and practice, while providing them with experience that develops life skills and engages them in critical reflection about individual, institutional, and social ethics. Course Learning Objectives: • Design and conduct a forest inventory. • Set specific management goals for a forest stand based on the overarching management goals of the community partner. • Design silvicultural systems and associated operational plans to meet various management goals. • Present a timber management plan and a timber sale bid package in writing and verbally to clients (community partners) and potential bidders. • Develop a prescribed burn plan that dovetails with the silvicultural plan and is implementable (where applicable). • Hone written and verbal communication skills. • Solidify your own professional and land ethic.  FORS 440 is one of the FCFC’s distributed upper-division writing courses.  Writing Course Learning Outcomes • Use writing to learn and synthesize new concepts • Formulate and express written opinions and ideas that are developed, logical, and organized • Compose written documents that are appropriate for a given audience or purpose • Revise written work based on constructive feedback • Find, evaluate, and use information effectively and ethically • Begin to use discipline-specific writing conventions • Demonstrate appropriate English language usage  Upper-division Writing Requirement in the Major Outcomes • Identify and pursue more sophisticated questions for academic inquiry • Find, evaluate, analyze, and synthesize information effectively from diverse sources • Manage multiple perspectives as appropriate • Recognize the purposes and needs of discipline-specific audiences and adopt the academic voice necessary for the chosen discipline • Use multiple drafts, revision, and editing in conducting inquiry and preparing written work • Follow the conventions of citation, documentation, and formal presentation appropriate to that discipline • Develop competence in information technology and digital literacy Course Policies: • All assignments are due at the BEGINNING of class unless otherwise specified.  Late assignments will lose 10% of the potential points per day late. • All work must be neat, legible and complete. • All individual work will be submitted on-line through the class Moodle unless otherwise specified. Graded assignments will also be returned electronically. Use of "track changes" will greatly speed the return of resubmitted work. • While you are allowed to work with fellow students on individual assignments, all submitted assignments must represent your own individual work. • Group assignments may be resubmitted as many times as necessary (up to the final deadline) to obtain the grade and quality of work desired. • Individual assignments may be resubmitted once within one week of when they are returned to students to receive up to ½ the missing points. • All course communication (announcements, assignments, schedule with due dates) will be via email and posted on the course Moodle, available through the UMOnline home page. The course Moodle can be accessed from any computer with internet access • Students are allowed to drive their own vehicles to any field trip, but need to communicate with the instructor at least 48 hours prior to the day of the field trip. Students who drive their own vehicles will not be reimbursed for mileage and are covered only by their own auto insurance.  If students choose to drive together (car pool), please note the driver is liable for not only themselves but also the passenger (as with any private vehicle). • Students with disabilities may request reasonable modifications by contacting the instructors. The University of Montana assures equal access to instruction for students with disabilities in collaboration with instructors and the Office of Disability Equity, which is located in Lommasson Center 154. The University does not permit fundamental alterations of academic standards or retroactive modifications.  • All students must practice academic honesty. Academic misconduct is subject to an academic penalty by the course instructor and/or a disciplinary sanction by the University. All students need to be familiar with the Student Conduct Code. The Code is available for review online at Student Conduct Code. Note that the Student Conduct Code also includes a requirement that masks be worn at all times in classrooms and shared transportation. COVID-Specific Policies: • If you feel sick and/or are exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms, please don’t come to class and contact the Curry Health Center at (406) 243-4330. • If you are required to isolate or quarantine, you will receive support in the class to ensure continued academic progress. Please contact Beth or Carl to develop a plan to keep you engaged in the class. • UM recommends students get the COVID-19 vaccine. Please direct your questions or concerns about vaccines to Curry Health Center. • Please note this class may be recorded.  Important Dates: Deadline Description To 15th instructional day  Students can drop classes on CyberBear with refund 16th to 45th instructional day  A class drop requires a form with instructor and advisor signature, a $10 fee from registrar’s office, student will receive a ‘W’ on transcript, no refund. Beginning 46th instructional day  Students are only allowed to drop a class under very limited and unusual circumstances. Not doing well in the class, deciding that the class grade might negatively affect your GPA, and similar reasons are not among those limited and unusual circumstances. Requests to drop must be signed by the instructor, advisor, and Associate Dean and a $10 fee applies. Grading:  Please note, this class is offered for traditional letter grade only, it is not offered under the credit/no credit option. Grades will be based on both individual and group work assigned during the term. All work may be edited and resubmitted (see above). The standard +/- grading scale will be used. All efforts will be made to return graded work within one week of when it is turned in. Posted grades will be updated continuously.  Individual writing assignments: 20% Group writing assignments: 50% Weekly briefings: 20% Final presentation(s): 10% Total: 100% Graduate Increment: This course may be taken for graduate credit.  Any student wishing to exercise this option will work with the instructor(s) to develop an appropriate individual project above and beyond the undergraduate expectations.  This individual project will be designed to benefit both the student seeking graduate credit and the course as a whole.  An example of this graduate increment would be a lecture developed by the graduate student and delivered to the class, including appropriate handouts, on a topic that advances the graduate student’s understanding of a topic of importance to her/his professional or graduate career that also addresses a question of importance to the class. Schedule: To be determined by the class on September 8. Lectures TBD based on need and request.  Note that Tuesdays will be devoted to field and group activities after an initial meeting in the classroom. Individual Assignments: Four individual assignments will be made throughout the semester.  Full assignments will be distributed to the class as the due date for each approaches: • Annotated bibliography of sources describing historic conditions and/or desired future conditions • Wilderness Institute lecture on Elers Koch, evening of October 27 • Job prospects • Presentation of capstone experience, tailored to audience o FORS130 Forestry Field Skills labs on 9/28 @ 2:30, 9/29 @ 8:30, 9/30 @ 2:00 o Missoula Chapter SAF meeting on 11/15 o FCFC Celebration of Field Learning (TBD)  Group Writing Assignments: Each group will prepare a written management plan that includes the following: inventory, silviculture, operations (including a burn plan where applicable), cost and revenue appraisal, and environmental assessment.  These plans should be submitted via email to both Beth and Carl, ideally as a document that can be live edited.  We will supply comments and edits within one week.  Your group is expected to resubmit these documents until they are of professional quality.  Weekly Group Briefings: Each week, each group will be expected to give an oral briefing to the class and a written briefing to Beth and Carl. Specific briefing topics will be assigned and posted on the class Moodle.  Each member of the group is expected to give at least 2 briefings throughout the semester. Final Presentations: Final presentations will take place on December 6. Ideally, these presentations will be held in the field with an audience of professionals and faculty.  The class will be notified if safety concerns dictate these presentations be moved to campus (due to weather or road conditions) or zoom (due to covid or whatever comes next).  Final Exam Period: There will be no final exam for this course.  However, the class will meet during the assigned final exam period (10:10-12:10 on Tuesday, December 13) for a REQUIRED reflection and course/program review exercise.  Career Readiness: The University of Montana seeks to broadly prepare its graduates with UM’s Career Skills, which employers across industries have identified as critical to the career success of college students and recent graduates.  In this course, students are developing the following Career Skills:  • Career and self-development - students are responsible for seeking out information and skills they need to complete their plans • Communication - students hone their written and oral communication skills, both in formal and informal settings • Critical thinking - students must puzzle their way through the non-textbook answers required of real-world situations • Equality and inclusion – students must draw from a wide variety of information sources and keep an open mind when considering management objectives and treatment methods • Leadership - while not formal, each student will take the lead on some subset of the group project • Professionalism - students interact with a wide range of professionals, from calling mills to gather delivered log prices to working with a DNRC service forester to develop an alternative practice agreement to presenting final plans to a panel of professionals • Teamwork - students work with the same team throughout the semester to complete their plans • Technology - students use a wide variety of technologies, including smartphone apps, cruise compilation, growth and yield projections, GIS, and fire behavior modeling • Community and global engagement - students represent themselves and UM as they interact with local and professional communities • Creativity and innovation - students must develop a novel solution to a resource management need and the methods to be used to meet their plan goals  Forestry is committed to the career success of our students and encourages you to participate in ElevateU–UM’s signature career readiness program –to ensure that you graduate career-ready, with the education, skills, and tools needed to launch, carry-on, and pivot your post-graduation career.  Participation in ElevateU is free and can be started at any time, no matter where you are in your academic or career journey.  Suggested ways to get started with ElevateU:  • Create a profile on UM’s Handshake platform to search for jobs and internships. • Schedule an appointment with an Experiential Learning and Career Success (ELCS) career coach or advisor or with a career professional in your college. • Participate in a live group coaching session with industry experts or complete any of 22 career learning journeys within ElevateU Online. • Attend a career fair or event this semester through ELCS.   • Register for the following ELCS fall events in Handshake (umt.joinhandshake.com):  o Prepare for the Fair Workshop, Tues. 9/6 o Student Employment & Experiential Learning Career Fair, Thurs. 9/8 o Explore Your Career and Major Interests, 9/13, 10/19, 10/26 (register a week prior) o Start Smart Salary Negotiation Workshop, Thurs. 10/13 

FORS 440.01: Forest Stand Management / Service Learning

https://scholarworks.umt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2324&context=syllabi2021-2025

FORS 440.01: Forest Stand Management / Service Learning

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