Our NSF CNH grant (affectionately called ViFF, Visualizing Indigenous Forest Futures) was featured in Orion magazine this month. Read quotes by the PI Erica Smithwick, Co-PI Chris Caldwell, and many others from the Menominee.
Come work in our lab!
I'm hiring a full-time technician here at Portland State to conduct LANDIS-II vegetation modeling in my lab. Our research will be focused on Fort Bragg, NC, where managers are concerned about the negative impacts of climate change and hurricanes on Red-cockaded woodpecker habitat. Though the work will be based out of PSU, we will be collaborating with professors at NC State University and Harvard Forest.
The job will start on 2/1/19 and end when the grant ends on 9/30/18. The position is listed as “open until filled” but if I get a decent pool of applicants, I'll conduct interviews the week of 1/21/19. Details below.
SOCCR-2 report released, Dr. Lucash co-authored the chapter on forests along with 21 other scientists
Dr. Lucash was one of the co-authors of Chapter 9: Forests in the Second State of the Carbon Report (SOCCR2).
SOCCR2 is an authoritative decadal assessment of carbon cycle science across North America, developed by over 200 experts from the U.S., Canadian and Mexican governments, national laboratories, universities, private sector, and research institutions.
Our new paper was discussed on the Jefferson Exchange OPB Radio show
Dr. Melissa Lucash and Dr. David Hibbs (Oregon State Univeristy) appeared on a live call-in radio show on OPB Radio in Ashland, OR discussing their latest research published in Forest Ecology and Management.
Link here: https://www.ijpr.org/post/after-fire-douglas-firs-grow-back-without-help#stream/0
Our new paper was featured on EarthFix on OPB
New paper out in Forest Ecology and Management!
Our new paper from our NSF-funded Klamath grant (https://sites.google.com/a/pdx.edu/klamath-climate-and-fire/) was just published on-line.
This paper was truly a collaborative effort. The writing was led by Terry Marcey, NSF REU student in our lab, fieldwork was conducted by Maria Lopez Ortiz (Paraguay) and Jeff Shatford (BC), the study was designed by David Hibbs (OSU emeritus) and writing/mentoring was conducted by Melissa and Jonathan Thompson (Harvard Forest).
Our work shows that:
Management had no impact on Douglas-fir regeneration, the main species of concern in the region
Aspect (North vs. South-facing) overwhelmed management’s ability to influence composition and Douglas-fir regeneration
Managers should tailor post-fire management practices based on both objectives and aspect.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112718309095
Featured in the media:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181031130921.htm
Dr. Lucash visits SUNY-ESF in Syracuse, NY
I met with many students and faculty in the Env Biology and Forestry departments at SUNY-ESF and gave a seminar on my research. It was great to see faculty I hadn’t seen in years (Russ Briggs and Tom Horton!!) and meet some new (and impressive) faculty at ESF. My host, Dr. Don Leopold, was awesome, laying out the “red carpet. He even treated me to a giant margherita to end my 2-week soujourn to the east coast. It was an exhausting trip, but also a lot of fun!
Dr. Lucash gives seminar at Penn State
Dr. Lucash visited State College, PA to work on her NSF CNH grant with Penn State, the College of Menominee Nation and NC State U. She had meetings with all her collaborators at Penn State, attended an all-day workshop on the project and had a wonderful time spending time with all her colleagues.
New PhD student in the lab
Shelby Weiss officially started working in the lab here at PSU as of 9.17.18.
We’re so grateful to have her here working on the Alaska project!
Shelby IDing birds in Alaska
Our REU student teaches middle school students about climate change
In Nov 2017, Terry Marcey, senior at PSU and REU student on our Klamath grant, lead a climate change outreach activity with students at Stayton Middle School in Stayton, OR. The classroom experiment was carried out in Nikita Noelcke’s and Lindsey Kaufman’s 6th grade classrooms. The activity that he carried out consisted of creating aluminum foil models of Antarctica, its mountains, and its ice shelves. We then created a slime solution from Elmer’s glue and borax, which had a viscosity that was meant to mimic the flow of ice towards the ocean on Antarctica. The students placed the slime on the model continent, removed the foil walls that represented the ice shelves, and observed the flow of ice to the oceans. We then looked at time lapse images of the collapse of the Larsen B ice shelf in 2002. We ended the activity by asking students what they thought they could do in their own lives to reduce the impacts of climate change. The activity that we performed was found on the Climate, Literacy, and Energy Awareness Network’s website: