Month: February 2011

Kate Lenz and Missy Taylor – 1997

“Old Pals,” Kate Lenz and Missy Taylor took a Copper Country Road Trip to Houghton last fall (2010) to see the colors and visit the area. It was Kate’s first visit to the “new” building since graduation. She said, “It’s nice to see that students hopefully never have to endure classes in the trailers again!”  Kate works for the Wisconsin DNR and lives in Peshtigo. Missy lives in Marquette and is employed by Peninsula Land Surveying.

Paul Gaberdiel – 1980

Paul Gaberdiel stopped by the School while his son was attending orientation at Michigan Tech last August (2010). Paul graduated with a BS in Forest Management. He works for the Michigan DNR in Newberry where he is the Forest Fire Supervios for the MDNR Newberry management unit. He is also the incident commander for the eastern Upper Penninsula incident management team.

Larry Jokinen – 1991

Larry “Tree Hugger” Jokinen, who was at  Tech in 1979  and finished his Forestry degree in 1991, stopped by the school while visiting the Lake States for a Fall (2010) color tour. Larry commented, ” I miss the Copper Country in the Fall. ”

Regarding Gene Hesterberg, Norm Sloan and Bob Sajdak, he said,  “I had  these men as professor/instructors in college during the early 70’s. These men were all a great inspiration to me in college, especially Gene.

Larry is employed with the Idaho Transportation Department and lives in Stanley, Idaho.

Dr. David Flaspohler – Hawaiian Sabbatical

Professor Flaspohler with colleagues studying naturally fragmented Hawaiian forests on the Big Island; Mauna Kea in the background.

Professor David Flaspohler is participating in a 5-year NSF-funded research project to better understand how birds interact with naturally fragmented forests created by lava flows.  He and his team are finding and monitoring nests and color banding individual birds in 34 forest fragments that vary in size from 0.2 ha to 30 ha in mid-elevation native Hawaiian forests.  In half of these fragments, we will remove the introduced non-native black rat, and in the other half we will not.    Rats are known nest predators that also compete with birds for insect food so their influence on the food web and on the reproductive success of the birds may be strong.  The work is being conducted by Dr. Flaspholer, Dr. Jessie Knowlton (Michigan Tech post-doctoral associate), and 4 bird interns.   Other collaborators are from Stanford University, the University of Maryland, and the USFS, Institute of Pacific Island Forestry.

See more pictures at: Flaspohler Hawaiian Sabbatical

ESC Announces Fall Travel Grants

The Ecosystem Science Center has announced the recipients of its 2010 Fall Graduate Student Travel Grants. Following is the list of recipients and their advisors.

  • Sinan Abood, Environmental Engineering (Ann Maclean, SFRES) received $500 to attend and instruct a special session at the ASPRS/CaGIS 2010 Fall Specialty Conference in Orlando, Fla., from Nov. 15-19.
  • Ruth Bennett, Applied Ecology (Joseph Bump, SFRES) received $421 to attend the XIV Congreso de la Sociedad Mesoamericana para le Biologia y la Conservacion in San Jose, Costa Rica, from Nov. 8-12.
  • Marcella Campione, Forestry (Linda Nagel, SFRES) received $500 to present a poster at the Society of American Foresters National Convention in Albuquerque, N.M., from Oct. 27-31.
  • Nan Davis, Forestry (Robert Froese, SFRES) received $500 to present a poster at the Society of American Foresters National Convention in Albuquerque, N.M., from Oct 27-31.
  • Kevyn Juneau, Forestry (Catherine Tarasoff, SFRES) received $500 to give a talk at the MN/WI Invasive Species Conference in St. Paul, Minn., from Nov. 8-10.
  • Laura Kangas, Applied Ecology (Rodney Chimner, SFRES) received $500 to give a talk at the Wetlands in the Landscape Meeting of the Wisconsin Wetland Association, in Baraboo, Wisc., from Feb. 16-17.
  • Trevor Roberts, Forest Ecology and Management (Robert Froese, SFRES) received $500 to present a poster at the Society of American Foresters National Convention in Albuquerque, N.M., from Oct. 27-31.
  • Agustin Robles-Morua, Environmental Engineering (Kathy Halvorsen and Audrey Mayer, SS) received $500 to give a talk at the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, Calif., from Dec. 13-17.
  • Shawna Welsh, Applied Ecology (Thomas Pypker, SFRES) received $500 to give a talk at the Midwest Fish and Wildlife Conference in Minneapolis, Minn., from Dec. 12-15.
  • Nick Windmuller, Forestry (Robert Froese, SFRES) received $500 to present a poster at the Society of American Foresters National Convention in Albuquerque, N.M., from Oct. 27-31.
  • Rosa Flores, Environmental Engineering (Judith Perlinger, CEE) received $500 to present a poster at the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, Calif., from Dec. 13-17.