Forest, Rangeland and Fire Sciences

Forest, Rangeland and Fire Sciences Rising to the Occasion

STUDENTS LEAD FIRE MITIGATION AT UIEF AND BEYOND

Heather Heward, left, and Leda Kobziar (center) prepare for treatments with students.

Students have planned and implemented treatments on more than 800 acres on Moscow Mountain in the last four years, employing prescribed burning, thinning and hand/ machine line installations to protect the U of I Experimental Forest (UIEF) and neighboring lands and homes as part of broader forest management goals. They are also responsible for construction and maintenance of roads and hiking trails. The UIEF, overseen by CNR, manages over 8,000 acres on East Moscow Mountain. There are approximately 20-25 student workers during the school year and 10-15 in the summer, and staff efforts are joined by members of the Student Association for Fire Ecology (SAFE) Club. To our students and the community, the UIEF is more than just a forest. It is a classroom and a world-class resource center where students become leaders of natural resources, all while having a momentous impact on reducing fire hazards on the Palouse. During summer 2021, students responded to three lightning fires: the Hatter fire, the Upper Rock Creek fire and the Basalt Hill fire. In September, treatments by SAFE club members slowed the spread of the Idler Fire, which burned about 120 acres, one home and a barn. “That was a red flag day with high temperatures and wind, and if not for the work of the student club some months before to reduce fuels in the area, more homes would have burned,” said Idaho Department of Lands fire incident commander Mike McCannus, a 2008 CNR graduate. When students saw before and after photos of the areas affected, their “hearts swelled with pride,” said Heather Heward, UI Professor, SAFE Club Advisor and chair for the Idaho Prescribed Fire Council. “They’re so excited to do this work. There’s no way to overplay the impact that having a shared mission has on students. They will look back on their experience on Moscow Mountain for the rest of their careers,” said Heward. Fire Ecology Management major and UIEF Student Staff Program Lead Joe Morgan agreed. “Helping train UIEF staff to fight fire has been a real highlight for me. They did great work on the fires we responded to, which showed the value of student involvement on the UIEF and Moscow Mountain area.” Many treatments that students do are specifically to keep fires from spreading to neighboring lands and homes. “In the future, we’ll continue to have collaborative projects that cross borders, helping to co-manage Idaho forests as well as private lands. We hope to expand to a wider area and reduce the overall fire hazard further,” said Rob Keefe, Associate Professor and Director of the UIEF. “The UIEF is the students’ land to manage, which is very unique in the US.” said Keefe. Students don’t just make the Palouse safer — they model modern and collaborative wildfire management efforts across multiple land ownerships. “When U of I President Green talks about careers that matter, this is what he means. We’re making a collective impact on students and the land,” said Dean Dennis Becker. Heward emphasizes that “adults learn by doing and being responsible. The UIEF offers invaluable leadership opportunities. As a land grant institution that strives to improve the landscape and make better leaders for tomorrow — this is how we do it.”

Visit uidaho.edu/cnr/departments/forest-rangeland-and-fire-sciences

Bill Perry Used Forest Service Pathways Program To Lock In a Full-time Forestry Position After Graduation

As a marine, William “Bill” Perry was a sergeant and commander of a Light Armored Vehicle, a mini tank and crew, that prepared for duty in Iraq. He experienced challenges in both the Marine Corps and at U of I, said Perry, who grew up in Grangeville. Completing both military and academic programs back-to-back has given him a sense of accomplishment, and most importantly as a civilian, a full-time occupation working for the U.S. Forest Service. “Bill is extremely disciplined, does a great job balancing school and work life and is well-liked by his peers and other professors, which speaks volumes,” said Randall Brooks, Extension professor of forestry and Perry’s advisor. When he returned to Idaho after serving four years in the Marine Corps, Perry knew he wanted a job in the mountains. He was initially hired as a U.S. Forest Service technician, and through the Forest Service Pathways Program worked his way into a full-time position while enrolled in U of I’s forestry program. But the transition from marine to forester didn’t happen overnight. “After the Marine Corps, it takes a while to adjust to civilian life,” Perry said. “The high pace and stress and lifestyle of the Marine Corps is completely different than what I experienced in the Forest Service and the university.” He was usually the oldest student in his classes, he said, “but everyone was very accommodating and welcoming and that helped me settle into academics.” Perry joined forestry clubs and, when he wasn’t working for the Forest Service during summer months, he worked at the Pitkin Forest Nursery. As a forester, Perry will oversee timber harvesting operations in the Clearwater National Forest. “I was taught to work hard and do my best,” he said. “The University of Idaho and the Forest Service provided me with the opportunities I needed to become who I wanted to become.”

Perry ranked among CNR’s top forestry students for the class of 2021.

By Ralph Bartholdt, UCM, June 2021.

Tasmanian Devils and the Global Biodiversity Crisis

As a top apex predator and scavenger and one of the few carnivores worldwide that consume bones, tasmanian devils play a critical role in the Tasmanian island ecosystem by cycling essential nutrients back into the soil. These nutrients, including phosphorus and nitrogen, would otherwise remain locked in bone material for years. The emergence of a highly transmissible cancer in 1990 threatens Tasmanian devils with extinction — but one population on the Western Tasmanian coast has not yet been infected. The resulting population gradient provides an ideal natural experiment to study how scavenger and predator declines alter energy flow and influence ecosystem services. “We know through population and community ecology that if you remove a keystone species, there’s a reorganization that occurs throughout the food web,” explained project lead Laurel Lynch, who is working with CNR Associate Professor Tara Hudiberg, as well as researchers across the globe and U of I to study whether this “reorganization cascades belowground and influences microbial populations and plant-available nutrients,” said Lynch. When whole microbial communities are more efficient, they store more carbon belowground. Soil carbon sequestration is a key way of reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and combatting climate change. Beginning Fall 2022, this global study will consider the overlooked role scavengers play in ecosystems. Results will be used in modeling approaches to predict biodiversity loss over the next 50 years.