3 minute read
Broadening Undergraduate Research
CNR launched the Undergraduate Research Experience (URE) in the 2019-2020 school year, attracting an inaugural cohort of six students. The program quickly expanded to include 16 freshman and transfer students for 2020 – 2021. This year, 27 new students from all over the country are participating. Through the URE, new students foster an understanding of the natural world, grow their connection to Idaho, partner with a faculty mentor, earn three credits and receive a 2,000 stipend, all thanks to funding by generous donors such as the DeVlieg Foundation. CNR established this innovative program to grow enrollment and improve retention. The URE supports their academic development, develops critical thinking and communication skills and stimulates their creativity and intellectual independence. Conservation biology major Harrah Friedlander ’22 came to U of I from Chicago with the help of the URE. “I was excited to explore different areas of study and assist in ongoing research in a supportive environment,” she said. “After the URE, I felt comfortable formulating my own research questions, setting research goals and exploring and managing data.” Of course, other universities offer undergraduate research, but the URE is different. “We start at the freshman year, when others start at the junior year,” said Steve Shook, associate dean and professor of forest and sustainable products in CNR. “Right away, students get to see why research is important, and that our faculty were once starting out just like they are.” “Our goal is to endow the program through private gifts so we can offer it to more students, perhaps even all first-year CNR students who want to participate,” Shook said. Based on feedback from students, it is money well spent. “I found it valuable partaking in research and learning how college level experiments are conducted,” said fishery resources major Kyle Ureta ’24, who researched mountain biking’s impact on trails and soils. Through hands-on research, URE students can see they have a place in U of I’s mission to serve the state of Idaho and beyond. For Friedlander, in understanding and protecting biodiversity. “I want to serve as a conduit between the scientific community and public, finding ways to engage and excite them about conservation, just as my mentors have done for me.”
Article by Jamie Wagner, U of I Communications, and Kelsey Evans, CNR, Fall 2021.
Student Dates Historical Colville Indian Agency Cabin Using Tree-Ring Science
Matt Franz has learned that walls can talk. They just need someone to translate. The forestry and fire ecology senior is working with Associate Professor Grant Harley, who runs a tree-ring laboratory in the Department of Geography and Geological Sciences. In Summer 2021, Harley’s team traveled to Chewelah, Washington, to age the Colville Indian Agency Cabin.
The cabin was the home of Maj. John A. Simms, an Indian Agent of the United States who worked with the Coeur d’Alene, Spokane, Kalispel and Colville tribes. The Stevens County Historical Society believes the cabin was built in the mid-1800s and reached out to Harley for help pinpointing its exact year of construction. The team used hollow drills to extract tree cores from the cabin’s walls and ceiling. Each core contains a record of the tree’s growth, or a ring for every year. The width of each ring varies depending on the climate each year.
The team will compare the growth pattern of the cabin’s tree cores with cores taken from local living trees. If the living trees are old enough that the tree-ring pattern from the cabin logs matches the early rings from the living trees, the team will know when the cabin logs were harvested, helping the historical society piece together the history of the region.
Article by Leigh Cooper, University Communications and Marketing, July 2021.
