Fall 2007 Landmark Newsletter

Landmark News, Volume 14 Issue 3—

Fall 2007 R E N E W A B L E R E S O U R C E S Volume 14 Issue 3

Landmark News

Administration Report

2

Bentley Lecture 3

Alumni News 6

Landmark Laurels 10

World Travels 11

Graduate Student News

15

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Congratulations to Ellen Macdonald, Professor with the Department of Re-newable Resources, who has been awarded one of the eight Killam An-nual Professorship awards for 2007 – 2008.

Since the awards establishment in July 1991, the primary criterion is a record of outstanding scholarship and teaching over three years or more as evidenced by any or all of research, publications, creative activities, pre-sented papers, supervision of gradu-ate students, and courses taught.

A secondary criterion is a record of substantial contributions to the com-munity outside the University, above and beyond what is usually expected

of a professor, as evidenced by community involvement normally di-rectly linked to the applicant's University responsibilities and activities. Ellen teaches our REN R 580 and REN R 601 classes and has super-vised 10 PhD and 18 MSc students to completion during her 17.5 year career. Ellen has invested tremendous time and energy over the years in working to see that the results of her research are applied towards improved management of our natural ecosystems and land-scapes. This has involved active engagement of the forest industry sector, oil sands industry, and relevant provincial government depart-ments.

Towards this end, her research results have been directly applied to development of pro-vincial policy for management of riparian ar-eas (forests next to bodies of water) and to policy and regulations for harvesting of for-ests after fire (salvage logging).

Forestry companies are using results and data she has provided to improve efficiency in their reforestation activities. Knowledge and data are being used to improve models of for-est succession and growth. These models help forest industry to develop both short-

term and long-term plans for sustainable management of the forest resource.

She freely shares her knowledge of, and enthu-siasm for forests and trees with school chil-dren, through on-campus activities and ele-mentary classroom demonstrations.

Out of the eight 07-08 Killam Annual Professor-ships awarded for the period July 1 through June 30 another Faculty member, Dr Norah Keating, Department of Human Ecology, was also awarded a Killam Professorship award.

Our hats off to both of you!

Killam Professorship Awarded to Killam Professorship Awarded to Killam Professorship Awarded to Ellen MacdonaldEllen MacdonaldEllen Macdonald


And something And something And something from the from the from the Chair…….Chair…….Chair…….

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

You will note something new about this issue of Landmark. After discussions with our enthusiastic Editor, Rochelle Jackson, we’ve decided to turn our formerly internal newsletter into a document that might also be of interest to our wider RenR Nation. Thus, in the future, we intend that the three issues of Landmark, taken to-gether, will constitute a sort of Annual Report for the Department.

In addition to the usual bytes, we will compile information as fol-lows: 1) in October you’ll be able to read about conference travel and fieldwork in unusual places; 2) in February we will list formal talks and publications from department members; and 3) in May each year we’ll provide a summary of grants and awards.

In this issue, you will also note a feature story about Steve Luchkow (BSc. Forestry, 1977) presented as the first of a continu-ing series of Alumni Profiles. I hope that you will enjoy this new approach to spreading the word about the many exciting things happening in the Department of Renewable Resources. We’d ap-preciate hearing about any ideas that you might have about how we could make Landmark even more useful to you.

John Spence, Professor & Chair

News Digest from the Assistant Chair

The NSERC Salsa... Over the years, Tri-Council success has increasingly become a key performance measure of Faculties/Departments in determin-ing the allocations of significant amounts of funding. A specific example of this is the University’s (and Faculty’s) method of distributing the Federal Government’s “Indirect Costs of Research” to academic units.

Thanks, pardner… The nature of our staffing growth has changed signifi-cantly over the last few years. External funding, rather than increases to our base University funding, has brought to Renewable Resources positions associated with an NSERC Industrial Research Chair, a position in Environ-mentally Sustainable Agriculture, three Canada Research Chairs, support staffing, and other posi-tions in partnership with external organizations. With growing opportunities for collaborations of this kind, motivated individuals and groups within the Department have helped in developing staffing ini-tiatives.

Recruitment... Unlike the cutback era of the mid 90’s, many people in the department are pres-ently investing considerable energy into recruitment, selection, and orientation activities as we fill newly created positions and positions opened through retirements. With current demographics and continuing position transitions, we expect to be occupied with recruiting into the foreseeable future.

With our two most recent Canada Research Chairs now in place (Uwe Hacke and Nadir Erbilgin), Gary Kachanoski coming on board full-time in soil physics, and Amanda Brown joining us as the new Financial and Grad Program assistant, our recruitment efforts are now focused on the positions in Environmentally Sustainable Agriculture and Soil Chemistry, and the Junior System Analyst infor-mation technology position.

There is a role for all of us in supporting these critical renewal and growth activities and your partici-pation is important in contributing to these long-term staffing decisions.

Our investment in Sarah Gooding’s position has allowed us to take advantage of these opportuni-ties, as well as develop additional research partnerships and collaborative grant proposals.

(Continued on page 3)


Dr. Stuart B. Hill Foundation Chair of Social Ecology University of Western Sydney, NSW, Australia

Underground Ecosystems and the Subconscious: Their Neglect and

Potential to Save Us Date: Thursday, 18 October 2007 Time: 4:00 p.m.

Location: 265 Central Academic Building (CAB)

Bentley Lecture in Sustainable Agriculture #5Bentley Lecture in Sustainable Agriculture #5Bentley Lecture in Sustainable Agriculture #5 & Robertson Dinner& Robertson Dinner& Robertson Dinner

Professor Stuart B. Hill is Foundation Chair of Social Ecology at the University of Western Sydney. He has published over 350 papers and reports. His latest book (with Martin Mulligan) is Ecological Pioneers: A Social History of Australian Ecological Thought and Action, Cambridge UP, 2001. Prior to 1996 he was at McGill University, in Montreal, where he was responsible for the zoology degree and where in 1974 he established Ecological Agriculture Projects, Canada’s leading resource centre for sustainable agriculture.

In Canada he was a member of over 30 regional, national and interna-tional boards and committees. He is currently on the editorial board of four refereed journals and until 2004 represented professional environ-mental educators on the NSW Council on Environmental Education. He has worked in agricultural and development projects in the West In-dies, French West Africa, Indonesia, The Philippines, China, and the Seychelles, as well as in the UK, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.

His background is in chemical engineering, ecology, soil biology, ento-mology, agriculture, psychotherapy, education, policy development and international development, and his experience of working with transfor-mative change has enabled him to be an effective facilitator in complex situations that demand both collaboration across difference and a long-term co-evolutionary approach to situation improvement.

Please contact Darlene Saunders 492-3242 for tickets to the

Robertson Dinner—Faculty Club, 5:30 cocktails

versity’s increasing priority on expanding the number and proportion of our graduate student population. This is certainly not without its chal-lenges.

Those are a few examples of the high-altitude trends evident on the radar screen at this point.

Meanwhile, if you have any comments, observations, concerns or ideas about ad-ministrative matters in Re-newable Resources, please drop by.

Bob Longworth

Space Squeeze… We continue to strain at the seams, while simultaneously enjoying the suc-cesses of bringing on new staff and their grow-ing teams. The Faculty’s space program docu-ment was just approved by GFC, marking another milestone on the way to continued planning for new facilities. Meanwhile, we continue to live with the need to fully utilize our existing space and, accordingly, reno-vate our facilities to keep up with evolving needs.

Growing Grads... Another consis-tent development has been the Uni-

(Continued from page 2) Administration Report


Nadir Erbilgin—Canada Research Chair in Natural Disturbances joins Renewable Resources

Welcome to Nadir Erbilgin, his wife Pei-yu Chen and son, Ethan, who are joining our Renewable Resources family from San Leandro, California.

As Canada Research Chair in Forest Entomology, Dr. Er-bilgin’s research will closely examine the relationship be-tween the Mountain Pine Beetle and jack pine trees of the boreal forest. Dr. Chen, a GIS specialist, will be working with Alex Drum-mond this term as a co-instructor in REN R 201.

Dr. Erbilgin grew up in Tur-key, where he obtained his BSc from the forestry school at Istanbul University. His undergraduate studies in for-estry focused on entomol-ogy, silviculture, forest engi-neering, and botany. His success in qualifying exams after his BSc garnered Nadir a prestigious US scholarship and a move to the Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas to continue his studies in forest entomology in the laboratory of Dr. David L. Kulhavy. Nadir’s MS thesis emphasized the role of forest disturbances, namely wind, lightning, insects and patho-gens, on the survival of the

endangered Red-cockaded Woodpecker.

After his MS, he continued gradu-ate training with Dr. Kenneth F. Raffa, a world-renowned forest entomologist and ecologist, at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Under Dr. Raffa’s tutelage, Nadir was provided with training in for-est entomology and he gained valuable experience in the field of chemical ecology and plant-pathogen-insect interactions.

Dr. Erbilgin published nine peer-reviewed papers from his PhD studies. Nadir worked one year as a post-doctoral associate with the late Dr. Donald L. Dahlsten, a well known authority in biological control of forest insects at the University of California, Berkeley.

While his previous work in Texas and Wisconsin focused on in-sect/tree/pathogen interactions in forests, he was now working more in the area of biological control of pest problems in urban forests. He continued his post-doctoral training at the University of Cali-fornia, Berkeley with Dr. David L. Wood, a pioneer in the work of identification of pheromones of several economically important bark beetle species occurring in the western United States.

Dr. Erbilgin has expanded his skills in forest entomology and has included pathology, ecology, and chemical ecology at many levels. He enjoys using novel methods if they are the best ap-proach to answer a particular re-search question. His graduate and postgraduate training and interaction with researchers in different fields, such as ecolo-gists, biochemists, entomolo-gists, pathologists, and statisti-

cians has provided him with a broad perspective about forests in North America and Europe.

Nadir is one of only a few scien-tists in the US who is trained and experienced with both insect and microbial pests of forests. He feels this rare combination of skills is essential to current ef-forts in North America aimed at addressing emerging, invasive threats (for example, sudden oak death) where insects and patho-gens mutually contribute to viru-lence.

He hopes that this research will be crucial for predicting the short- and long-term impact of Mountain Pine Beetle in the Ca-nadian boreal forest and will con-tribute to the knowledge base required for sustainable manage-ment of forested lands against devastating insect epidemics such as the Mountain Pine Bee-tle.

The Erbilgin family enjoys long road trips and have covered nearly every corner of the United States. The next plan is to drive from Texas-Florida-New York.

Ethan Erbilgin

Pei-yu & Ethan

FOIPP Permission Received


Alberta’s actions against mountain pine beetle in the province were recently studied by Dr. David Suzuki for his CBC-TV program, The Nature of Things. Dr. John Spence, Professor and Chair of the University of Alberta’s Department of Renew-able Resources and a member of the Alberta Gov-ernment’s Mountain Pine Beetle Advisory Commit-tee, was interviewed for the Nature of Things seg-ment.

Dr. Spence reviewed the causes and impacts of Alberta’s mountain pine beetle infestation and said the Alberta government is taking the right approaches to managing the challenge.

Dr. Suzuki and his three-person production team visited SRD staff working in forests near High Prairie on June 25 to see first-hand the single-tree cut-and-burn tactics being used to remove in-fested pine from the landscape. The CBC produc-tion team filmed a four-person SRD crew cutting and burning individually-attacked trees at the site near High Prairie, which is in the leading edge of the pine beetle infestation in Alberta. The area includes both lodgepole pine and jack pine, both of which have been attacked by beetles.

Interviews and filming conducted that day will be included in a two-part feature story exploring cli-mate change. The program, expected to air this November 8, will include mountain pine beetle infestations in a broad examination of the effects and implications of global warming. Also inter-viewed was SRD Provincial Mountain Pine Beetle Specialist Erica Lee, who discussed pine beetle life cycles and signs of infestations, as well as the op-erational tactics used to remove beetle-killed pine trees.

The Nature of Things The Nature of Things The Nature of Things --- Featuring John Spence and the Mountain Pine Beetle Featuring John Spence and the Mountain Pine Beetle Featuring John Spence and the Mountain Pine Beetle

Scientists say pine beetles can survive in jack pine, whose stands stretch across Canada’s bo-real forest to Labrador. Alberta is the front line of the battle to protect this national resource. Along with single-tree cut-and-burn work, Al-berta is managing infestations by directing for-est companies to alter their harvesting plans to focus on infested and at-risk pine stands, and by harvest planning to reduce the overabun-dance of mature pine trees in the province’s for-ests.

Prior to visiting with SRD in High Prairie, the Na-ture of Things production team filmed beetle-related segments in B.C., Saskatchewan and Grande Prairie, Alberta. Dr. Allan Carroll (former REN R Adjunct Professor) of the Cana-dian Forestry Service in Victoria, B.C., who is among the leading pine beetle scientists advis-ing Alberta’s action plan to manage infestations in the province, was interviewed for the pro-gram.

Of the estimated three million beetle-attacked trees in Alberta, about 2.7 million are in the Grande Prairie and Peace regions of the prov-ince. There were 19,000 beetle-attacked trees in Alberta one year ago. Each beetle-attacked tree contains enough insects to infest an addi-tional five to 10 trees. Trees killed by beetles will fade and turn red beginning about one year after the initial attack. Alberta has six million hectares of pine trees, approximately 15 per cent of the province’s forested land base.

Article courtesy of Alberta Sustainable Resources Website ( http://www.srd.gov.ab.ca/whatsnew/natureofthings.aspx )

Suzuki and Erica Lee

Spence speaking with David Suzuki


Steve Luchkow—Alumni—Class of ‘77 We are pleased to present this feature as the first in what we expect to be a continuing series about our alumni. In addition to having had a large and posi-tive impact on forestry in Alberta, Steve has as-sisted his home department and alma mater with development of a number of useful projects. The former head of the Canadian national Networks of Centres of Excellence program once referred to Steve as ‘a true prince of industry’ and we concur. The worth of any institution is best judged by its products and we are very proud to number Steve among the products of our Forestry Program. –

J. Spence

Steve graduated from the U of A in 1977 with a BSc in Forestry and has spent the last 30 years working in Northern Alberta - 11 years with Al-berta Forest Service at a variety of loca-tions and 19 with Daishowa-Marubeni International Ltd.

(previously Daishowa Canada Company Ltd.), lo-cated north of the town of Peace River.

Steve graduated in a time when the forest sector in Alberta started to flourish. This growth brought with it many opportunities and challenges. He had great fortune to be exposed to all aspects of Forest Management and Operations during his ca-reer. Steve has also had the opportunity to influ-ence many projects and programs. The success of projects like Sustainable Forest Management Network Centre of Excellence (SFM NCE), Forest Resource Improvement Program, Mixedwood Management Association, Western Boreal Aspen Corporation and Ecosystem Management by Emu-lating Natural Disturbance, to name a few, far outweighs the failures he has experienced.

When Steve reflects back, he sees in every case they were team efforts. Working in a team was something he learned at an early age through sports and exposure to some really good mentors of the team approach. He continues to be amazed by what can be accomplished when In-

Logo courtesy of Diashowa Marubeni—website: http://www.dmi.ca/prpd/index.html

dustry, Government and Academia are pulling in the same direction. Steve enjoyed the Opera-tions end of the business but finds that it’s the Forest Management work really gets his juices flowing. He has always liked the challenge of managing without complete knowledge and the intrigue involved in seeing whether things turned out the way they were envisioned.

One of the highlights for Steve was involvement in Daishowa Canada’s green field pulp mill at Peace River. This was the first hardwood pulp mill in the province. He found the building, the staff, plans and programs associated with the company’s Forest Management Agreement ex-citing and rewarding. It was a unique opportu-nity to start with a clean slate and to apply the knowledge and experience gained to that point in his career.

Steve has had opportunity to work with some good people in industry, government and acade-mia; people who are open minded, committed and truly interested in doing good forest man-agement. He has always viewed the practice of forestry as the application of art and science. Even though Steve says he would have pre-ferred clear, scientifically defensible direction and practices, forestry is a complex system, one that may never be understood completely; this is what makes the work of a Forester so inter-esting, challenging and rewarding.

Steve laments the current downturn in the lum-ber and panel board sectors of the forestry in-dustry and the trend that sees support for pro-grams developed in the good years decline dras-tically during the bad times. This can be very frustrating for a Forester and he hopes that something can be done in the future to ensure that these long term programs can be sustained in both good and bad times. However, he has thoroughly enjoyed the last 30 years in forestry and would not hesitate to encourage others to take up the profession – there will be many new challenges and opportunities as this sector and forest management evolves and as society’s needs change in Alberta.



Robert G. Wagner is the Henry W. Saunders Distin-guished Professor in Forestry at the University of Maine. His fields of research include silviculture and forest ecol-ogy. Dr. Wagner is Director of the Cooperative Forestry Research Unit (CFRU) and leader of the Acadian Forest Ecosystem Research Program (AFERP). In addition to his silviculture research in New England since 1998, Dr. Wagner has experience as a forest researcher in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and Canadian boreal forest. He has authored numerous publications in the areas of silvicul-ture, forest ecology, and vegetation management. He also is lead editor of the book “Regenerating the Cana-dian Forest” that was published in 2001. Dr. Wagner has a Ph.D. in silviculture from Oregon State University, a M.S. in forest ecology from the University of Washing-ton, and a B.S. in forest management from Utah State University.

“Forest Regeneration Trends in Canada: The Role of Dinosaurs,

Political Correctness, and Emerging Pressures”

Date: November 8, 2007

Lecture: 3:00 pm Location: Myer Horowitz Theatre

Forest Industry Lecture Series # 58

With input from the departments, the list of peo-ple selected to the Teaching Wall of Fame are:

From Renewable Resources

Glen Armstrong Peter Blenis Marvin Dudas Lee Foote Vic Lieffers Anne Naeth

From our Sister Departments:

Heidi Bates Vladislava Blinova Sean Cash Kathryn Chandler Grant Clark Nat Kav

Naomi Krogman Susan Novak Masahito Oba Erasmus Okine Mick Price Frank Robinson Dean Spaner Feral Temelli Jim Untershultz Deanna Williamson Wendy Wismer We are a faculty with very high demonstrated success in undergraduate teaching and to those on the list and to many who were very close to making the list, sincere thanks for your teaching and learning efforts.

Submitted by Frank Robinson

Teaching Wall of Fame 2007


AFHE Associate Dean—International Bob Hudson has been appointed Associate Dean (International), effective immediately. The University of Alberta has placed a high priority on ex-panding our international programs in both research and teaching.

The university is targeting specific countries, so Bob will be working closely with University of Alberta International and other groups to ensure that our international activities are aligned with the priorities of the university.

Bob is committed to working closely with department Chairs to ensure that his efforts build on current activities at the department level. With Bob’s mentoring and leadership skills, it is expected that we can transform our international activities so that more of our students have the opportunity to spend time abroad and our Faculty will have a more prominent role in the international community. Submitted by John Kennelly

Once again Alex Drummond was involved in running both our Field Schools (Spring and Fall) and the annual TRANSFOR tour.

Spring Field School was three weeks in duration and was the largest field school ever offered in the Faculty. With 96 students and 9 full time staff, the logistics and operation of the field school were challenging at times (8 vans and 2 trucks …try turning all of those around on a bush road!). Over 30 instructors from The UofA (profs, emeritus profs and grad students), industry, government and consultancy, came and went over the period of the field school. SFS was again based in Lac La Biche Alberta

and Portage College pro-vided resi-dences and food service on contract.

This is a unique field school in that two programs (Forestry and ENCS) share

the same curriculum. This allows both groups of students to interact and share ideas and per-spectives.

Fall Field School is offered to Forestry students that are new to the program. FFS is offered the last 6 days of summer. Peter Blenis assisted in the academic component of the course and 2 TAs accompanied the 15 students. Many UofA alumni assisted in the delivery of the course.

The group visited Drayton Valley, Rocky Moun-tain House, Shunda (near Nordegg), Hinton, and Swan Hills. The Government of Alberta: SRD, West Fraser (Sundre and Hinton), Weyer-haeuser (Drayton Valley), and the Hinton Train-ing Centre all assisted with sponsorship of the Field School.

Again this summer, the UofA along with UBC, U of Toronto and UNB hosted students from Germany, Finland and Sweden for a 3 week Forestry tour in Canada. Simon Landhausser and Alex Drummond hosted the European students as they visited, Jasper, Hinton, Whitecourt and Swan Hills.

On the tour the students saw active harvesting in Whitecourt, burned areas in Jasper, mixedwood management in the Edson area, Bison and other fire management in Elk Island National Park and (the highlight for many) a tanker drop from a Lockheed Electra in Swan Hills.

Now we rev up to do it all again in 2008!

Off- site Teaching Adventures with Alex…


Saturday, June 30 dawned bright and sunny, and provided the perfect environment for a spectacular day at the Breton Plots. Jim Robertson, along with volunteer Shirley Ross and graduate student Sarab-preet Singh, played host to approximately 50 peo-ple. Jim described the public relations exercise ‘exciting and exhilarating’.

In combination with the perfect weather, it rained the previous evening, so farmers, who could not be in their own fields came to spend time in ours. It seemed that about 50% of those in attendance had never been to the Plots before and knew nothing of their significance. Several people expressed surprise and awe about this gem in their County.

The Plots were in excellent shape that day. Dick Purveen and his crew did an excellent job with the plots, and Dick has been very proactive in the main-tenance of the plots and in initiating new projects.

Conny Kappler, the field person for Brazeau County, was extremely helpful with the Tour and was involved in the planning of the vil-lage celebrations , as well as all other details such as the handouts, bussing, the wagon for guests to ride around the plots, and re-freshments after the Plot tour.

Clearly we made a major impression with our audi-ence!!

Submitted by Jim Robertson

Dr. Cia Jing—Dr. Mel Tyree—PDF—ESB 444

Dr. Kevin Bladon—Dr. Uldis Silins—PDF—HEB 211

Chris Williams—Dr. Uldis Silins—Research Technician— HEB 211

Dr. Xiao Dong Yu—Dr. John Spence—PDF—ESB 230B

Gu Feng—Dr. Fangliang He—Visiting Scholar—GSB 713A

Guo Chun—Dr. Fangliang He—Visiting Scholar—GSB 713A

Jun Zhang - Dr. Scott Chang—Visiting Scholar - ESB 430.

New Faces in the Department

Shelley Pruss has joined the Department of Renewable Resources as an Adjunct Professor, effective July 1, 2007—June 30, 2010. Welcome Back Shelley!

Amanda joined our main office team July 25 in the capac-ity of Financial & Graduate Program Assistant. Amanda has been on campus since early 2006 as a Re-search and Trust Accounting Assistant in the Department of Pediatrics. Amanda is cur-rently an undergraduate in the department of Rural Economy and continues with her stud-ies part time while working for Renewable Resources. Amanda is also an avid horse-woman and loves to share stories about her four horses. Welcome on board Amanda!

Amanda Brown

Breton Plots Tours —

June 30, 2007



Welcome to our new and returning Fall term Teaching staff members: Pei-yu Chen—REN R 201 (with Alex Drummond)

Miles Dyck—SOILS 440

Alastair Franke—ENCS 464

Len Leskiw—SOILS 420

Andrea McGregor—ENCS 474

On Sabbatical: Scott Chang—July 1– December 31, 2007 Phil Comeau—Jan 1—Dec 31, 2008 Lee Foote—July 1—June 30, 2008 Rick Pelletier—Sept 1—Aug 30, 2008 Debra Davidson—Oct 16, 2007—Oct 15, 2008

It is my pleasure to name Bob Longworth as the Fall 2007 Landmark Laureate. Bob is the Assistant Chair (Administration) for the Depart-ment of Renewable Resources He is trained in both human and physical geography, with experience in biogeography, heritage interpretation, and administration. Bob works closely with the Chair and is accountable for the direction of efficient and effective administrative systems and structures within the Department. He oversees the administration unit and assists in the planning, implementation and management of strate-gic initiatives. In this capacity, Bob plays a key role in the management of fall departmental resources including budget, facilities, and personnel.

He is a smiling face during the interview process for new personnel, making them feel comfortable and relaxed, as this is something he has a knack for. Bob always has a ready smile for everyone, whether they

are fellow academic staff, sup-port staff or students. Should you need someone to talk to, or are a newcomer to Edmonton looking for information, you will always find he has an open door, a friendly ear and sage advice.

Bob and his wife Linda have two children, Jackson and Brianna. As a family, they love to travel and have had re-cent trips to Greece and Victoria. Like the postman, through wind, rain, sleet or snow, he can be seen riding his bike to/from work. Bob, in his spare time, is also a talented musi-cian and will usually bring his guitar to department functions for an impromptu jam with all the other musically talented people… ask him about his CD.

Please join me this month in saying “Thank you, Bob, for all you do”. Your hard work and kind attitude do not go unno-ticed.

Submitted by Sarah Gooding

Movin’ On—Brett Purdy, who has been a Research Associate in the department for the past 8 years, is moving on to greener pastures.

Brett has accepted a position as the Reclama-tion Research Specialist for the newly formed Strategic Policy and Innovation Branch within the Oil Sands Environmental Management Divi-sion of Alberta Environment. In this position he will be working with Preston McEachern, who is an Adjunct Professor in the department, in the Research, Science and Innovation Section.

The role of this section is to "influence and support innovative and targeted research to achieve environmental outcomes for the Al-berta oil sands." Best of luck Brett, and we hope to still see you around frequently in the future.

Submitted by Ellen Macdonald

Landmark Laurels ……… Bob Longworth



RENEWABLE RESOURCES was well represented and made an impressive showing at the 6th North American Forest Ecology Workshop (NAFEW) held in Vancouver (at UBC) in June. Phil Comeau assumed the duties of Program Committee Chair and Ellen Macdonald and Vic Lieffers provided valuable input as members of the program com-mittee. John Spence, Ken Stadt and Susan Humphries also attended. REN R students at-tending NAFEW helped out at the conference and several also brought presentations or posters. Thanks to the following students who attended NAFEW 2007: Colin Bergeron, Elizabeth Boschma, Richard Caners, Sophan Chhin, Er-

ica Close, Francesco Cortini, Ashley Craig, Ian Curran, Andria Dawson, Evan Esch, Cosmin Filipescu, Sheelah Griffith, Kazi Hossain, Alison Lennie, Jaime Lypowy, Chris MacQuarrie, Eckehart Marenholtz, Jonathan Martin-DeMoor, Matthew Pyper, Valentin Reyes-Hernandez, Hongan Yan, Fang Ye.

Paper Presentations: • Colin Bergeron, John Spence, Jan Volney. Fire history, insect outbreaks and tree rings in north western

Alberta

• Richard Caners, René Belland, Ellen Macdonald - Regulation of bryophyte diaspore bank composition in mixedwood boreal forests

• Sophan Chhin, Shongming Huang, Ted Hogg, Vic Lieffers - Impact of competition and elevational gra-dients on the dendroclimatic response of lodgepole pine in Alberta, Canada

• Erica Close, Scott Chang, Ellen Macdonald, Brett G Purdy - Growth and Nutritional Status of Aspen and White Spruce on Naturally Saline Sites in the Boreal Forest

• Phil Comeau - Dynamics of aspen and Calamagrostis competition and its implications to mixedwood man-agement

• Cosmin Filipescu, Phil Comeau - Competitive interactions between aspen and white spruce vary with site and age in boreal mixedwoods

• Sheelah Griffith, Phil Comeau, Ellen Macdonald - Response of understory vegetation to pre-commercial thinning in boreal mixedwood forests

• Kazi Hossain - Cropland Agroforestry –A Sustainable Agricultural System Practiced by farmers of Bangla-desh

• Joshua Jacobs, John Spence, David Langor - Decaying wood: the rise and fall of beetle empires

• Vic Lieffers, Glen Armstrong, Ken Stadt, Eckehart Marenholtz - If we meet provincial regeneration standards, will we sustain the composition and structure of boreal mixedwood forest?

• Chris MacQuarrie, David Langor, John Spence - Alien species in the last frontier: Invasion history, ovi-position behaviour, and mortality factors of Ambermarked birch leafminer.

• Kenneth J Stadt, Mike Bokalo, Stephen Titus and Phil Comeau - The Mixedwood Growth Model: mod-eling species interactions in the mixedwood boreal.

Poster Displays: • Sophan Chhin, Geoff Wang - Climatic response of white spruce seedlings in a forest-prairie ecotone of

southwestern Manitoba, Canada

• Francesco Cortini, Phil Comeau – Effects of red alder and paper birch competition on growth of young conifers in southern British Columbia.

• Ashley Craig, Ellen Macdonald - Effects of varying intensities of green tree retention harvesting on under-story plant communities in the boreal mixedwood.

Comeau with Peter Attiwill

North American Forest Ecology Workshop Vancouver June 18-20, 2007

Around the World with Renewable Resources


and teaching seminars were given at both universities as part of the Faculty mission to broaden academic exchange with those universities. In late May, he went back to Inner Mongolia to give an invited presen-tation at the 4th International Symposium on Modern Ecology.

As part of Scott’s sabbatical leave, he spent July and August in China and had the opportunity to visit the Institutes of Soil Science (Nanjing), Geography and Botany (Beijing), and Soil and Water Conservation (Yangling), and the Research Station for Grassland Ecosystems (Inner Mongolia), all part of the Chinese Academy of Science. Scott also visited Nanjing For-estry University and College of Resources and the En-vironment, Zhejinag University (along with Dr. Charlie Arshad). He spent most of the two months working with Prof. Jie Chang in the College of Life Science at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou.

Dr. Grant was invited as an ex-ternal re-

viewer for a grant selection committee for the Autono-mous Province of Trento in Italy. The Committee met in July 2007 in northern Italy to make funding deci-sions for large network grant proposals to study cli-mate change impacts on terrestrial ecosystems.

This gave Robert a chance to do some hiking in the south Tirolean Alps and enjoy the stunning mountain scenery. Southern Europe was in the middle of a heat wave (the North Atlantic Oscillation is in a positive phase), so he found that reading and research was best done in the alpine beer gardens.

NAFEW (cont’d from Page 9)

In March, Scott was one of the three committee mem-bers selected by Agriculture Institute of Canada to travel to the University of Saskatchewan to evaluate the degree programs offered by the College of Agricul-ture and Bioresources.

In early May, Dr. Chang was part of the team sent by AFHE to visit the Inner Mongolia Agricultural Uni-versity and North-west Agriculture and Forestry Uni-versity. Research

Dr. Grant has joined the Science Steering Committee of an IPY project “Climate Impacts on Canadian Arctic Tundra”, which met in Vancouver in May ‘07. This pro-ject has about 50 PI’ s with research sites all over the arctic studying changes in vegetation and ecosystem productivity.

Robert continues his work on the Executive Science Com-mittee of the Canada Carbon Project studying climate and disturbance effects on Cana-dian forests. The AGM will be held in Calgary in March ‘08.

Scott Chang ……...

• Ian Curran, Vic Lieffers, Ellen Macdonald - Natural regeneration of white spruce following mast years

• Andria Dawson, Ken Stadt- Retrospective For-est Mortality Sampling and Modeling

• Evan Esch, Joshua Jacobs, John Spence - Es-timating ground beetle (Coleoptera: Carabidae) population densities from pitfall trap samples

• Alison Lennie, Simon Landhausser, Vic Lief-fers - Aspen regeneration in response to shelter-wood harvest systems, proximity to residual as-pen trees and vehicular traffic.

• Jaime Lypowy, Ellen Macdonald - The effect of forest fire on understory composition and struc-ture: a comparison of pre- and post-fire vegeta-tion in boreal forests

World (cont’d)

Ellen Macdonald with colleagues at NAFEW

Robert Grant……...

• Jonathan Martin-DeMoor, Vic Lieffers, Ellen Macdonald - Do we always need to plant to re-generate white spruce in boreal mixedwood for-ests?

• Eckehart Marenholtz, Vic Lieffers, Uldis Silins - Using evaporimeters to measure atmospheric moisture stress in spruce understory protection harvests

More information is available at the workshop website: http://www.nafew2007.org/index.html

http://www.nafew2007.org/index.html�


Lee Foote…….

Lee Foote, who is currently on sabbatical, has taken some time from his motorcycle travels to various work venues to report on his spring and summer months’ productivity.

• presented a plenary on "Advocacy and Sci-ence" to the Alberta Chapter of the Wildlife Society meetings in Medicine Hat, AB. Kath-ryn Martell and Lee Foote presented a poster

on Beaver impacts at the Management of aquatic landscapes in for-ested systems, March 2007, Winnipeg, MB.

• travelled with previ-ous PDF Jon Hornung to Halifax, NS to present their oil sands carbon ac-cumulation research at the Aquatic Toxicity Work-shop on October 1-3, 2007.

On February 14, 2007 Phil Comeau attended the Coastal Silviculture Committee Workshop in Victoria. Phil gave a talk entitled: "There goes the neighbour-hood: Thoughts on mixedwood management in coastal forests."

Phil Comeau, Susan Humphries, Cosmin Filipescu, Sheelah Griffith, Francesco Cortini, Valentin Reyes-Hernandez, Kazi Hossain and Hongan Yan attended the Coastal Silviculture Committee Summer Workshop, in Courtenay, B.C. June 21 and 22, 2007. At the workshop, Phil and Francesco presented infor-mation on effects of red alder density on mixed stand development at a research site that Phil established in 1992.

…….Phil Comeau

• Dr. Doug Clark, a re-cent graduate from Wilfrid Laurier Univer-sity is a SSHRC- sponsored PDF in Lee Foote's Lab. Doug is working with Lee and Dr. Milton Freeman on Arctic Net issues concerning policy sur-rounding the United S t a t e s g o v e r n -ment listing of Polar Bears as an endan-gered species. Doug is operating out of Whitehorse, YK.

• held an IUCN-sponsored workshop on sustainable use of wildlife at the Society for Conservation Bi-ology meetings in Port Elizabeth, South Africa on 30 June 2007. It was attended by 71 people and hosted 7 speakers. His daughter Eva travelled with Lee throughout South Africa for several weeks.

World (cont’d)



John Spence, Colin Bergeron, Josh Jacobs and Evan Esch, participated in the 13th European Carabidologists Meeting held in the historic city of Blavoevgrad, Bulgaria 20 - 24 August 2008.

The conference keynote speaker, Professor Emeritus George Ball of the Faculty’s former Department of Ento-mology accompanied them on the trip. They were especially delighted to have a reunion with Dr. Matti Koivula a recent postdoctoral fellow in the Spence lab, who is now a Pro-fessor of Ecology at the Uni-versity of Jyväskyla in Finland.

The meeting featured wide-ranging contributions from more than 150 ground-beetle experts from all over the world addressing the general theme of the meetings: ‘Back to the

roots or back to the future? Towards a new synthesis among taxonomic, ecological and biogeographical ap-proaches in carabidology”.

John, Colin and Josh all gave formal talks about the re-sponses of carabids to forest cover-type and forest manage-ment activities drawn from the EMEND experiment located NW of Peace River, and Evan spoke about how carabids re-spond to food limitation and density based on work done at the department’s George Lake Field Site.

They report that the weather was hot, people were ex-tremely hospitable, the food was unusual and highly palat-able, the drink was cheap but tasty and the meeting was highly stimulating.

John Spence…... ....Bruce Dancik

In late August, Bruce Dancik was the guest

of CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific & In-dustrial Research Organization)

Publishing in Melbourne, where he met with the Board of Stan-dards for their annual meeting and gave a presentation on “Editorial Model at the NRC Re-search Press”.

While in Australia, he also visited the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney and the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, where he presented seminars, “-43ºC at 53ºN: The challenges and joys of a northern botanic garden”, and led a dis-cussion on publishing in scientific journals and impact factors.

He wished he could have stayed longer, but had to return to at-tend meetings of the Editorial Board of the CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) in Ottawa, where he made a pres-entation on the role of the Om-budsman at the Journal, and the Canadian Forestry Accreditation Board in Rocky Harbour, New-foundland, where he represents the CIF.

Jari Niemelä, Spence, George Ball

Matti, Evan, Colin, Josh, John

In mid-July David Chanasyk visited the Potato Research Centre of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Frederic-ton, New Brunswick to discuss potato fertilization regimes and how they might impact water qual-ity on Prince Edward Island.

Nutrient management plans target maximum production but increased fertilization of-ten increases potto tuber size, highly desired by the potato processing plants. This can lead to environ-mental concerns through leaching of nu-trients to groundwater.

……..David Chanasyk

Ellen Macdonald travelled to Fair-banks, Alaska May 30 – June 2, 2007 for the 6th International Conference on Distur-bance Dynamics in

Boreal Forests, where she presented a talk entitled: "Comparison of edge influ-ence on vegetation structure and compo-sition at fire-, clear-cut, and partial-cut edges in the mixedwood boreal forest."

Ellen MacDonald…….


Graduate Awards

Congratulations to all students who received the fol-lowing awards and scholarships:

Department awards:

• Richard Caners, John & Patricia Schlosser Envi-ronment Scholarship and Herbert and Jeannette Hall Graduate Scholarship in Forestry

• Jaime Pinzon, Wm H McCardell Memorial Schol-arship in Forest Science

• Sarah Pattison, Dr. Ian GW Corns Memorial Graduate Scholarship

• Kazi Hossain, Desmond I Crossley Memorial Scholarship

• Suzanne Card, WorleyParsons Komex Int’l Ltd Graduate Scholarship in Soil Science

• Jane Wolken, Max MacLaggan Scholarship • Jocelyn Howery, Al Brennan Memorial Graduate

Scholarship in Forestry

West Fraser Timber Graduate Scholarship:

• Damian Cirelli • Jared LeBoldus • Hongan Yan

NSERC scholarships:

• Suzanne Abele, NSERC-IPS (CanFor) • Derek Keeping, NSERC-CGSM (renewal) • Dominique Deshaies, NSERC-CGSM • Matthew Pyper, NSERC-IPS (CanFor) renewal • Jared LeBoldus, NSERC-IPS (Al Pac) renewal • Dean Mackenzie NSERC IPS (Syncrude), retro-

active to May 2007

Provost Doctoral Entrance Award:

• Damian Cirelli • Kangho Jung • Zheng Shi

CONACYT scholarships:

• Irma Diaz renewal • Pablo Pina • Valentin Reyes-Hernandez renewal • Anayansi Cohen renewal

Graduate Student News

New Students Please welcome new graduate students admitted for Fall term: Guillaume Blanchet, PhD, Dr. He

Damian Cirelli, PhD, Dr. Tyree

Shari Clare, MSc, Dr. Foote

Paul Clyburn, MSc, Dr. Hudson

Francesco Cortini, returning for PhD, Dr. Hamann

Dominique Deshaies, MSc, Dr. Lieffers / Dr. Landhausser

David Galvez, MSc, Dr. Tyree

Jocelyn Howery, MSc, Dr. Silins

Mallory Jackson, MSc, Dr. Naeth

(Mr) Kangho Jung, PhD, Dr. Chang

(Mr )Yang Lin, MSc, Dr. Chang

Pablo Pina, PhD, Dr. Silins

Kevin Renkema, MSc, Dr. Lieffers

David Roberts, MSc, Dr. Hamann

Brenda Shaughnessy, MSc, Dr. Naeth

(Mr) Zheng Shi, PhD, Dr. Chang

Simon Slater, MSc, Dr. Spence

Michael Wagner, MSc, Dr. Silins

Charlene Wood, MSc, Dr. Spence

(Ms) Linjun Yao, PhD, Dr. He

China Scholarship

• Linjun Yao

2007 ACA Biodiversity grant awardees:

Suzanne Abele, MSc, Macdonald/Spence, “Gastropod diversity on boreal mixedwood forest after partial harvest”

Irma Diaz, PhD, Quideau, “Harvesting & cli-mate change effects on forest floor meso-fauna in mixedwood forest”

Andrea McGregor, PhD, Foote, “Foraging efficacy and replacement of piscivorous predators in AB’s aquatic food webs”

Jaime Pinzon, PhD, Spence, “Epigeaic, un-derstory and canopy spiders in mixedwood forest after harvest”

Matthew Pyper, MSc, Spence, “Biodiversity conser-vation in fragmented landscapes”

Congratulations on successful defenses: Francesco Cortini, MSc and Cosmin Tansanu, MSc


Andrea McGregor attended 3 conferences this summer.

• Presented a poster at the International Association for Great Lakes Research conference in State College, Pennsylvania in May

• Presented a poster at the World Conference for Ecological Mod-elling In Cape Cod, Massachusets in June

• Presented at the joint conference of the Ecological Society of America/Society for Ecological Restoration conference in San Jose, California in August

Graduate Student News (cont’d)

Fall Convocation List (tentative)

Barkway, Michelle MSc Forest Harvesting Effects on Ben-thic Macroinvertebrate Abundance in the Boreal Foothills of Alberta

J Spence

Bresnahan, Connie PhD John Muir in Canada B Dancik/N Krogman Close, Erica MSc Growth and Nutritional Status of

Aspen and White Spruce on Natu-rally Saline Sites in the Boreal Forest

E Macdonald/B Purdy

Cortini, Francesco MSc Competition effects on growth of five conifer species in southwest-ern BC and northern Alberta

P Comeau

Krawchuk, Meg PhD Biophysical regulation of wildfire in the mixedwood boreal forest in the context of climate change and forest management

F Schmiegelow/S Cumming

Mundell, Theresa MSc Influences of season of harvest, machine traffic and competition on root suckering of trembling as-pen

VJ Lieffers/

S Landhaeusser

Tansanu, Cosmin MSc Evaluating predictive performance of 3 growth models calibrated for use in SK

P Comeau/M Bokalo

Silent Auction Social Fundraiser

Friday, October 19th 760 GSB

Donations of auction items accepted

Contact Christie Nohos 492-4413

Johnny Montenegro, Robert Grant’s Grad student, has returned to Costa Rica where he is writing up his thesis while working as an agrono-mist with the CR govt.

Goodbye—


Leslie has been employed with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Prairie Farm Re-habilitation Ad-ministration (AAFC-PFRA) since 2001 in various positions and locations in Calgary, AB; Hanna, AB; and Swift Current, SK. Currently, she

works as a Land Resource Specialist within the Soil Resource Division, working on applied research pro-jects that are related to soil such as the environ-mental effects of winter grazing systems of cattle and the management of nutrients originating from cattle manure.

Leslie seized the opportunity to do an MSc at the University of Alberta when she heard about a pro-ject that was looking at gaps in knowledge in nutri-ent cycling in riparian areas with agricultural land-scape. AAFC was one of the partners involved and she wanted to be a part of it. The opportunity and support from AAFC was there to pursue an MSc and she took an Education Leave and moved to Edmon-ton in January 2005.

Her MSc project is studying net N mineralization, net P mineralization and denitrification on different

land uses and landscape positions within ripar-ian-agricultural ecosystem on a site just south of Edmonton along Whitemud Creek. She has completed 2 field seasons and is currently writ-ing her thesis.

Leslie has won awards during her time with us, including Best Poster Award at the 2006 Cana-dian Society of Soil Science Meeting, an Alberta Learning Graduate Student Scholarships for 2006-2007 and the 2006 WorleyParsons Komex Graduate Scholarship in Soil Science.

As her Education Leave ended on March 31, 2007, she has returned to work full-time for AAFC-PFRA in Swift Current, SK. Working full-time, writing a thesis and until recently, plan-ning a wedding from 3 provinces away, it has been very hectic! Leslie is confident that her ex-perience with our MSc program will further her career in soil science and it is something that she will never forget!

Meet MSc Student ……. Leslie Yasul

Leslie Yasul & Michael Parry

Married: September 8, 2007 in Campbell River, BC. Leslie and Michael honey-mooned in Hawaii.

Wedding Announcements Richard Caners was married to Lisa Matthias on May 19, 2007, at the Benmiller Inn in the town of Goderich, Ontario. The cere-mony took place outdoors on a beautiful spring day on the bank of the Maitland River. Richard is a PhD student in the Depart-ment of Renewable Resources and Lisa is a Species At Risk Bi-ologist with the Fish and Wildlife Division of Alberta Sustainable Resource Development.





Aurea Siemens grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where she completed her BSc degree in biology at the University of Winnipeg. It was during her undergraduate studies that Aurea developed an interest in forest ecology and tree stress physiology. In 1999, she came to the University of Al-berta to begin her MSc degree in forest biology and manage-ment.

During her MSc degree, which was completed in 2001, Aurea examined the effects of water deficit stress on root water relations in trembling aspen seedlings. Aurea wanted to continue her studies of root water relations and root physi-ology of aspen, so she stayed

Meet Ph D StudentMeet Ph D StudentMeet Ph D Student——— Aurea SiemensAurea SiemensAurea Siemens

at the University of Alberta, and is currently in the process of finishing her PhD.

For her doctoral research, she turned to the study of ectomy-corrhizal fungi and how they may assist their tree hosts in dealing with the effects with environmental stresses. As part of her research, she exam-ined how mycorrhizal fungi af-fect the growth and root water relations of trembling aspen and balsam poplar. She also examined how ectomycorrhizal fungi may help aspen cope with

changes in soil pH and inor-ganic nitrogen fertilization, and

would be interested in continuing her research on mycorrhizal-tree interactions after her PhD is complete.

Throughout her grad studies, Aurea has been actively involved in organizing and assisting with science outreach education and activities in Edmonton Public Schools classrooms through the FGSR outreach program, and through the graduate student-organized “Let’s Talk Science Partnership Program” at the Uni-versity of Alberta. Currently, she is a “Planting Science” online mentor for high school plant sci-ence projects. Aurea has also previously served as a GSA de-partment representative, and has been a member of several ad-ministrative academic commit-tees at this university. In her spare time, Aurea enjoys hiking and sports.

Fall 2007 Convocation Ceremonies— Mark your Calendars!!!!

Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry & Home Economics –

Wed, November 21 3 p.m.

Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research —

Thurs, November 22 3 p.m.

Congratulations to the 2007 Spring

RENEWABLE RESOURCES convocants

82 ENCS grads 18 Forestry grads


Excellence in the discovery,

dissemination and application of

knowledge about natural and managed

ecosystems

We’re on the Web!

http://www.rr.ualberta.ca

This newsletter is published quarterly & distributed to staff and students

within the Department of Renewable Resources.

For copies and/or contributions, please contact the Editor, Rochelle Jackson at

[email protected]; phone 492-3554.

Submissions for the next issue of Landmark should be sent in by

January 15, 2008

Department of Renewable Resources University of Alberta

751 General Services Building Edmonton, AB T6G 2H1

Renewable Resources Social Events

Renewable Resources Family Holiday Party - Sunday, December 9th , 2007

Held on campus this year

Watch for ticket sales in November

Halloween Potluck Noon

Wednesday, Oct 31

Sign up at GSB front desk

Fall 2007 Landmark Newsletter

Documents

Transcript of Fall 2007 Landmark Newsletter