Our partners at the University of Kentucky welcome aboard Chad Niman to their Forestry Extension Team as Primary Forest Industry Extension Associate.
The first three webinars from the Climate Learning Network are now available streaming online free of charge on the newly created climate variability portal site, climatewebinars.net.
The team from Tennessee won first place out of the 14 state teams that participated in the 2015 National 4-H Forestry Invitational, held at West Virginia University Jackson’s Mill State 4-H Camp and Conference Center near Weston, West Virginia from Sunday, July 26 to Thursday, July 30. In addition to Tennessee, other teams and individuals from our Southeastern were well-represented among states that received honors.
The Growing Pines in Changing Times Workshop, held in Tifton, GA on April 21st, 2015, had multiple goals centered around providing essential information about ways to reduce risks and increase profits for pine plantations under uncertain future conditions and to equip them with the latest developments in science and technology. About 80 foresters, forest landowners, and managers attended. Top researchers from the region delivered lectures on topics such as climate science, seedling selections, risk management, and insect and disease control. The event was organized by Southern Region Extension Forestry (SREF) in partnership with the Georgia Forestry Commission, University of Georgia, International Forest Company, University of Florida and the PINEMAP project.
Out of the 17 organizations in the Southern region to submit proposals for the USDA's Wood Innovations Funding Opportunity, SREF's Partners LSU, Clemson, and North Carolina State University were 3 among the 6 organizations whose proposals were successful. Their projects will receive funding from the $31 million set aside for the Wood Innovations grant by the USDA and its partner institutions to explore innovative ways to use wood in construction and energy production.
Every year, Southern Regional Extension Forestry invites representatives from our principal partners, the Extension programs at the 13 Southern land-grant universities, and natural resource organizations from across the Southeastern United States to our headquarters in Athens, Georgia in order to share information on SREF's programs and products, work together on regional issues, and provide an opportunity for Extension professionals and associates in the South to network, recognize shared goals, and coordinate their outreach and education strategies. Usually, engagement, fellowship, and productivity remain high throughout the two day event, and this year was no exception.
SREF is working with the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy to develop a fire management plan for the Southeastern United States. We recently got together with Mike Zupko, chair of the Southeastern Strategy Committee and Southern Governors Association Representative, to chat about the NCWFMS, its goals, its relationship to landowners and forestry professionals in the Southeast, and its collaborations with Southern Regional Extension Forestry. The NCWFMS is designed to develop, and implement fire and land management strategies in the United States. The national management strategy is further divided into three regional action plans: the Southeast, the Northeast, and the West.
We are excited to announce that the National Shortleaf Pine Initiative (SPI) has appointed Mike Black, the forestry coordinator of the National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative, as its director! A dynamic and collaborative new project launched in the spring of 2013, the Shortleaf Pine Initiative was formed as a response to the decline of the shortleaf pine forests and associated habitats that once covered a vast swath of land from eastern Texas to Florida and up the eastern seaboard to New Jersey. The group is coordinated through the Department of Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries within the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture and funded by the U.S. Forest Service.
Driven by the need to revamp a staple publication in modern forestry, William Hubbard, the Southern Extension Regional Forester, worked with UGA Extension and the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Office of Information Technology to update and develop an interactive application for both Android-based tablets and smartphones and Mac products such as iPads and iPhones to complement the Service Forester's Handbook, the premier print guidebook for working foresters.
We have in our keeping a legacy of abundant, beautiful and healthy natural communities, many of which were shaped by fire. Plant your garden to support this biologically rich region, let native habitats inspire your landscape, and design with Firewise Principles in mind.
