A newsletter of the School of Natural Resource Management & Ecology at Paul Smith’s College

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BRANCHING OUT 2012, Issue 1

Letter From the DeanIN THIS ISSUE:

NSF grant 2

Silvopasture experiment 3

Forestry Day at the VIC 4

Many of you have received this newsletter before. For many

others, this will be a first. There’s a good reason for that: Paul Smith’s College recently switched from three to two divisions. Academically, our programs remain the same; adminis-tratively, though, we’re bringing sev-eral disciplines under one umbrella.

The school of Natural Resource Management and Ecology now offers programs in fisheries and wildlife sciences, arboriculture and landscape management, forestry, biology and many other science-related degrees. Ultimately, the shift will benefit students by offering them the same

education with less fragmentation. And thanks to a generous grant

from the National Science Foundation – you can read more on page 2 – even more worthy students will have the opportunity to enroll in some of these science-related programs.

No matter which degree they choose, Paul Smith’s offers students plenty of rich opportunities, on and off campus. Interested in hunting or trapping? Now there’s a three-credit course for that. Like to travel? Take a trip to the Dominican Republic or Hawaii. Do you like timber sports? Our woodsmen’s school is thriving like never before. And that’s just a

taste of what’s going on these days. I really hope you enjoy reading about the rest of it. And, as ever, I would love to hear how you’re doing, as well.

Sincerely,

Jeff Waltonjwalton@paulsmiths.edu

School of Natural Resource Management & EcologyP.O. Box 265, Paul Smiths, NY 12970-0265

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PAIDUtica, NY

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Sportsman EducationHunting and trapping are

essential tools for wildlife

management and form the back-

bone of the North American model

of wildlife conservation. It’s natural,

then, that Paul Smith’s College offers a course on the subject.

Students enrolled in our for-credit Sportsman Education class, offered for the

first time this spring, received New York State certification in hunter education

(firearms), bowhunter education, trapper education, and waterfowl identifica-

tion, each a requirement to hold specific hunting and trapping licenses in North

America. The course is taught by Ben Tabor, a wildlife technician with the New York

State Department of Environmental Conservation, who trains New York sportsman

education instructors. The course covers the history and importance of hunting and

prepares wildlife professionals to understand its role in wildlife management.

NSF grant to aid science studentsPaul Smith’s College has won a $530,000 grant

from the National Science Foundation that

will help students pursue careers in science.

Students majoring in fisheries and wildlife

science or environmental science will be eligible

for scholarships that will be covered by the grant.

The grant is part of an NSF initiative to

increase the nation’s strength in science, technol-

ogy, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.

More than 400 colleges and universities applied

for the grant; Paul Smith’s was among

approximately 90 chosen to receive an award.

As many as 14 students at a time will benefit

from Paul Smith’s new Enhancing Ecological

Education Scholarship Program, or E3SP. The

grant will cover scholarships for five years,

beginning in fall 2012 and running through the

2016-2017 academic year.

“The Adirondacks are one of the best class-

rooms imaginable to give students the founda-

tion they need to pursue work in ecology and

the environment,” says Prof. Jorie Favreau,

director of E3SP. “Students in E3SP will work di-

rectly with faculty members on original research

and experience firsthand the thrill of discovery,

building the basis for lifelong careers in science.”

Student scholarship

Each year at the New York State Arborists

Conference, a scholarship is given to a

different arboricultural student to help pay for

college. This year, Paul Smith’s student Mark Bouquin received the $1,700 gift. Bouquin was

recognized in front of more than 200 arborists

in January while attending the conference with

Prof. Randall Swanson.

Draft Horse Club

The Draft Horse Club received $8,466 in

campus sustainability fund grants, partially

because it decided to start producing its own

food for horses by plowing and harvesting the

hay they eat in a nearby field. The grant money

also paid for new horse-drawn farming

equipment, which will be used to prepare

Gould’s Garden for plowing this year. Read uS onlineWould you rather receive Branching Out by email? Email bbennett@paulsmiths.edu

Dominican trip Paul Smith’s College launched its

ecotourism collaboration with a

college in the Dominican Republic

in January, when Profs. Joe dadey

and Brett Mcleod and 13 students

traveled to the Caribbean. Students

worked on four different projects with colleagues at

the National School of the Environment, located in the mountain town of

Jarabacoa. Together, they constructed three tenting platforms and designed a

resources inventory guide, an interpretive trail and brochure, and designed a plan

to improve community participation in local projects.

They relied on guides to teach them about the area’s existing ecotourism venues

and sampled a variety of accommodations, travel companies and adventure

activities. They also spent time at a high-mountain organic coffee plantation

to learn the ins and outs of direct trade in the coffee industry and tourism

development in the Dominican Republic.

In their down time, they played pickup baseball games with the Dominican

students, saw rare iguanas, visited caves that revealed ancient indigenous

pictographs and went rafting, canyoning, deep-sea fishing and snorkeling.

Woodsmen’s School thrivingThe Adirondack Woodsmen’s School will be featured in the Adirondack Life Annual Guide.

Now in its the third year, enrollment is

expected to reach nearly 50 students.

Several major manufacturers sponsor

the program, including Carhartt work

wear, Stihl power equipment and Red

Wing Shoes.

To see a video of Prof. Bob Brhel and the draft horse team being used

for horse logging as part of the

Woodsmen’s School, visit http://

youtu.be/Jg5QFLOot1A.

Sugaring seasonRecord-high temperatures

this spring took their toll on

maple syrup producers across the

Northeast, and the Paul Smith’s

Sugar Bush fared no better. Sap

runs best when days are cool and

nights dip below freezing – but

with the thermometer approaching

80 degrees some days in March, the

sugar bush’s season ended after

just 31/2 weeks. Hans Michielen,

the Sugar Bush manager, says he

would normally produce about 600

gallons in an average year. This year,

he got 375.

Prof leads trip, pens book review

Prof. Jorie Favreau brought students to

Hawaii in November 2011 for the national

meeting of The Wildlife Society. Students went

bird watching in a cloud forest, saw endangered

species that may go extinct in our lifetimes,

visited Volcanoes National Park, hiked through

a crater, saw the red glow of the lava at night,

competed in a quiz bowl, participated in a

professional-student mixer and attended talks.

Favreau also reviewed “Biology and Management

of White-Tailed Deer” in the Dec. 2011 issue of

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Librar-

ies. Favreau called the book, edited by David G.

Hewitt, essential for wildlife library collections

serving students of all levels as well as research-

ers, faculty, biologists and managers.

Students publish

Prof. David Patrick and several students

published a paper in the Herpetological

Review. The paper, on ecology of mink frogs

in the Adirondacks, will appear in the journal

later this year; Zac Bozic ’11, Alex Byrne, Jenna Daub, Alex LeChaminant and Josh Pierce were co-authors.

“The five undergraduate students who

worked on this paper were fully involved in

the research, design and implementation of

the field and laboratory methods,” Patrick

said. “Four of the five are current students.

It’s pretty rare for undergraduates to be

co-authors on peer-reviewed papers and

even rarer to get the papers accepted in a

time when they are applying for their first

jobs following graduation.”

Silvopastures

Prof. Joe Orefice was awarded a

$14,570 Sustainable Agriculture

Research and Education grant to

conduct a silvopasture experiment

at his farm in Riverview. Silvopas-

ture combines forests, cattle and

grazing fields in one location. The

systems have proven to be produc-

tive and profitable in other parts

of the country and world, but little

is known about the benefits and

tradeoffs of using them on farms

in the northeastern United States.

Orefice’s research will test the envi-

ronmental and economic impacts

of converting a northern hard-

woods stand into a silvopasture.

Tree doctorsWhen students in the arboriculture

course performed tree surgery tasks in

class this spring, they had some new tools

at their disposal thanks to a gift from

the Husqvarna/ArborMaster Collegiate

Training Program. Last year, Husqvarna

presented two 346 XP Pro chainsaws to

Daniel Groves, a technical instructor at

the college, during a two-day educator

workshop in North Carolina. The saws are

valued at $550 apiece.

First-growth forest in the Adirondacks Ever wonder what the Adirondacks looked like

hundreds of years ago?

Long-time Paul Smith’s College professor

Michael Kudish returned to campus in April to dis-

cuss the subject with a talk titled “Adirondack First

Growth Forests: How to Recognize and Map Them.”

“Many people are curious to see what

Adirondack forests looked like several hundred

years ago before the effects of Europeans on the

landscape,” Kudish told the crowd in the

auditorium of the Freer Science building. While

there are still many original forests, Kudish said no

one person knows where it all is and how much we

have. His lecture offered techniques for recognizing

and mapping first-growth forests, and estimates on

how much is out there.

To view the lecture, visit http://youtu.be/

5MCk-sWgdbU.

> Student Clinton Williams scales a tree near the Phelps Smith Administration Building.

. L-R: Steve Handfield, Kris Friers, Ben Haigh and Hannah Wahlstrom.

Pat Hendrick | Press-Republican

Quiz bowl The quiz team fielded by the Paul Smith’s

College Student Chapter of the Society of

American Foresters (SAF) bested the competition

in the annual Quiz Bowl challenge, held at the

New England chapter’s winter meeting in April.

It was the first time a team from Paul Smith’s

won the forestry-trivia challenge since 2008.

The team was led by Profs. Joe Orefice and

Matt Olson ’99 and faced off against competi-

tors from the University of New Hampshire, Green

Mountain College and UMass-Amherst, which

hosted the event. – Rand Snyder

Forestry DayForestry Day at the Paul

Smith’s College VIC in

October featured

competitions in axe

throwing, log chopping

and bow saw cutting. There

was also a six-person relay

featuring wood block

cutting with a bow saw,

wood splitting by hand

and sorting and stacking

firewood.