Here in Michigan, we are anticipating true spring with bated breath as we experience a much milder winter than we are accustomed to. Despite the irregular weather, we have been busy working on projects - new and old - and welcoming new people into the Huff Lab. Our Farms Branching Out Agroforestry Project kicked off in Chatham, MI with our first Peer-to-peer Agroforestry Exchange at the MSU Upper Peninsula Research and Extension Center on February 9th. Led by Anna Ellis, Forestry and Natural Resources Extension Educator, and Emily Huff, Associate Professor at MSU, the event was attended by a mix of farmers, foresters, and agricultural professionals. If you are interested in participating in future events, or to host an Agroforestry Exchange on your farm, contact Project Manager, Amanda Curton, at [email protected]. Learn more about our Agroforestry Project at https://www.canr.msu.edu/agroforestry/about. In support of the Wildlife Crisis Strategy, we brought two new projects into the lab through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and in partnership with the US Forest Service. We will be synthesizing information related to the social acceptability of wildfire and the benefits and assessing the impacts and benefits of fire on wood. Read more about these projects in our Projects tab, here: https://hufflab.weebly.com/projects.html. Learn more about the Wildfire Crisis Strategy on our partner’s site: https://www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/wildfire-crisis.
Though we are no longer being funded by Project GREEEN, the Great Lakes Biochar Network continues to be a resource for all things biochar in the Great Lakes region. In February, we also welcomed Brandon Smith of Allied Soil Health and Ashwood Biochar, who gave a webinar on the topic of 10 Questions to Ask When Applying Biochar. The recording of this informational webinar is on our YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/umnmFHQ5vpA?si=_7q_wzdKknUH48Cz. We sighed a breath of relief as we completed our Firewood Heating and Treatment Technologies project. Find the article and related videos here: https://www.canr.msu.edu/resources/firewood-heating-and-treatment-technologies. New to our lab are three Research Assistants, Karleigh Duffield, Eric Heidelberg, and Jake Desautel. We congratulate Katherine Nocks on her graduation and the best of luck on her new journey in Colorado.
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Since our last post in December 2020, the Huff Lab has been busy with projects, publications, and new people. You can find a full list of publications on our Research page and a full list of lab members on our People page. We wrapped our Forest Fuels collaboration with Northern Michigan University with a Wood Energy Workshop in Marquette, Michigan on August 18th. Those who joined us participated in lively conversation surrounding the topic of the future of wood-based energy in Michigan and had the opportunity to tour the wood boiler at the Ripley Heating Plant on the NMU campus. We will continue to post updates and resources on the Wood Energy Extension page as we pursue some initiatives that came from this workshop, find here: www.canr.msu.edu/wood_energy/. Our Firewood Safety and Outreach project produced a few articles and a video that can be enjoyed here: https://www.canr.msu.edu/firewood-education-and-outreach/index. A publication on our research is to come! We continue to support the Michigan DNR Firewood Working Group and remind all visitors and Michigan residents to either buy your wood locally or buy heat-treated/kiln-dried wood to avoid spreading invasive pests that damage our beautiful forests.
The Big Tree/Forest Legacy project with ReLeaf Michigan (read more about them and enter their Big Tree Contest for the 2023-2024 year here: https://www.releafmichigan.org/big-tree-hunt.html) has concluded, with a guide and video for those who might wish to use these state-wide contests as a tool for engaging the public with trees/forests and as a fun intergenerational activity for families. Check out our Past Projects here: https://hufflab.weebly.com/research.html to watch this video. The Family Forest Owner Theory project: A study to understand to what extent are studies of Family Forest Owner behavior invoking social science theory. We will present this research at the national Society of American Foresters conference in Sacramento, CA October 26th 2023. We also continue to support the Great Lakes Biochar Network (find them here: https://www.canr.msu.edu/biochar/) and on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. We continue to work on: Kluane Lake planning project: a study to look at co-production of research needs in the Yukon Territories. Partners: Northern Arizona University, University of Waterloo, Arctic Institute of North America, Champagne and Aishik First Nations, Kluane First Nations, The Resilience Institute Landowner Wellbeing project: a project that seeks to understand if forest ownership is associated with greater levels of subjective well-being. We hope to better understand that by asking Michigan and Wisconsin forest landowners to self-report their satisfaction by survey for a few weeks. Partners: U.S. Forest Service Mongolia Survey project: a study to conduct basic socio-economic research on the herders of “Khurkh and Khuiten River Valley Nature Reserve” located in Bayan-Adraga, Batshireet, Umnudelger and Binder soums of Khentii aimag to identify environmental issues and possible measures to be taken in the future. Partners: Wildlife Science and Conservation Center of Mongolia and U.S. Forest Service We are excited to announce that this past summer, the Huff Lab, along with researchers from Ohio and Wisconsin, were awarded additional funding for our Agroforestry project titled, Farms Branching Out. We are excited to connect with farms in all three of these states to support the implementation of agroforestry. If you are a farmer in one of these states and you are interested in agroforestry, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. Read the MSU press release here: https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/farms-branching-out-expanding-opportunities-for-agroforestry-markets-connections-and-conservation. Partners: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Ohio State University, Central State University, USFS National Agroforestry Center, and USFS Northern and Southern Research Stations. This does not include the dozens of partners who are serving on our Agroforestry Advancement Board! We welcomed Amanda Curton as our lab manager in Fall of 2022. We are also excited to welcome two graduate students in the Fall of 2023, Parker Hopkins and Hailey Becker. Read more about them and their interests here: https://hufflab.weebly.com/people.html. I think everyone can agree 2020 was a challenging year. However, it was not without it's bright spots. The positive highlights for 2020 include the birth of Emily's first son, George Huff and Emily's appointment as co-Editor in Chief of Society & Natural Resources. Work continues on a new NSF grant (awarded in 2019) looking at historic attitudes towards wood-based energy. Emily was also elected president of the Michigan Forest Association. Let's hope for a fresh start in 2021 and continued progress in forestry research!
A recent paper, "Public perceptions of county, state, and national forest management in Wisconsin, USA" is now available for free, thanks to Forest Policy and Economics. Check it out here.
Abstract: Attitudes toward public forest management actions can be sources of conflict among and between public stakeholders and managers. Understanding these forest stakeholders can help managers engage in planning processes more effectively. Residents of fifteen counties in Wisconsin were surveyed in summer 2013 to understand how management attitudes impacted respondents' acceptance of management at three levels of publicly managed forest: county, state, and national. Results from regression models reveal that similar attitudes consistently impacted stakeholders' acceptance of fire, timber, wildlife, and recreation management for county and state forests, but only the timber and wildlife management models were significant for the national forest. Forest managers can use these results to understand public perceptions of forest management, identify opportunities for outreach to stakeholders, and for alternative or complementary methods of public involvement in planning. There is increasing social pressure on forest managers that arises from public perceptions and can directly influence U.S. forest policy. Policymakers and managers can use this attitudinal information as one method of public involvement and to develop additional engagement tools. Rick Harper, extension faculty at University of Massachusetts Amherst has successfully published an article investigating the characteristics of volunteer urban forest tree committees in Massachusetts. I was invited as a collaborator to help with qualitative data analysis and writing. The article is freely available here for a limited time.
Ph.D. student Lauren Cooper wrote an article linking emissions from the airline industry, climate change, and opportunities for forestry. Read the full article here.
Before coming to MSU, I helped coordinate a study to examine changing forest structure over time in the wildlands and woodlands of Weston, Massachusetts, a suburban town outside Boston. The first baseline data from that study is now published in Small-scale Forestry in an interesting paper looking at the model of community forestry in Weston. It is a unique management context with educational programming, citizen science efforts, and of course scientific long-term monitoring.
The ability of forests to sequester and store carbon is dependent on the management behaviors of millions of federal, state, local, and private forest landowners and natural resources professionals. However, these forest owners and managers face a daunting task trying to understand how to choose appropriate forest management practices that would help adapt to or even help mitigate climate change. Michigan State University Forestry Department (MSU Forestry) will work in partnership with the USDA Forest Service’s Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science (NIACS) and the USDA Northern Forest Climate Hub (USDA Hub) to develop a robust an e-learning program with content focused on forest carbon management.The proposed project will develop and implement an innovative program with e-content and non-formal learning experiences on forest carbon management. The intended audience for this effort is natural resource professionals and extension agents. This approach will reach many in rural areas who would otherwise be difficult to reach with in-person educational approaches. Project outputs include an e-course on Forest Carbon Management (eligible for continuing education credits), and an e-learning module refined for a broad audience. Success will be evaluated via a pre- and post-test survey of course trainees. We expect that this project will increase natural resource professionals' understanding of forest carbon management and that forest landowners will have access to advice and information about carbon benefits and markets for their woodland management activities.
Dr. Huff, in collaboration with USDA Forest Service colleagues Michelle Johnson, Lara Roman, Lindsay Campbell, Nancy Sonti, and Clara Pregitzer was awarded a contract to write a literature review on Resilience in Urban Forestry from the International Society of Arboriculture. This literature review on how urban forests contribute to resilient cities and what comprises a resilient urban forest will identifying key gaps in knowledge, and priorities for future research. Furthermore, this literature review will identify current published quantitative and qualitative measures of resiliency, and how practitioners might measure and manage towards increased resiliency. Resiliency is commonly identified as a goal for city greenspace and this review will be relevant to the scientific community and provide clarity of the current state of knowledge for practitioners. What is resiliency? Resiliency is the ability for a system to tolerate and recover from disturbances. In the face of more extreme weather events, increased temperatures, and rising sea levels, many cities recognize the need to increase their overall resilience; urban forests are seen as one crucial component.
The Human Dimensions of Forestry Lab at Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI) is accepting applications for an MS and a PhD assistantship position to start August 2017. Applicants should be self-motivated and also capable of working as part of a team. The ideal applicant will have experience and interest in qualitative and quantitative social science, as well an interest in modeling. Additional skills for the PhD position include statistical analysis, technical writing, and basic GIS.
The projects associated with these positions are flexible, but will likely focus on 1) The effect of urban forests, green space, and agriculture on public health outcomes; 2) The role of risk and psychological distance in decision making and natural resource management; and 3) The use of ecological momentary assessments to understand environmental behavior. The graduate student can and will develop a project and associated research questions tailored to their interests and intended career path. These positions will be based in the Department of Forestry. The positions will be supported with a stipend, and paid tuition/benefits. There are additional fellowship opportunities for graduate students at Michigan State University, so please apply to the University’s graduate school by December 1, 2016 to be competitive for these fellowships. To apply for the assistantship, please submit (1) a cover letter explaining your interest in the position, your qualifications, and any specific research areas you hope to pursue at Michigan State, and (2) a CV. Please be sure to include your GPA (undergraduate and graduate), GRE scores (if completed), and contact information for references somewhere within your CV/Resume. Documents should be submitted via email to Dr. Emily Huff at [email protected] as a single PDF file with the subject heading “Graduate Assistantship Application.” Applications must be received by November 1, 2016 to receive full consideration. MSU is an equal opportunity employer and the Department of Forestry is committed to promoting diversity in research. |
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