April 2001, Volume 2, Issue 1

During the fall semester the Forest Science Division relocated its administrative offices to Rooms 201, 203, and 205 on the second floor of Mulford Hall. The move came as part of a reorganization to provide much needed space for the growing Forestry Center and to accommodate the space needs of newly appointed Cooperative Extension Specialists. The Division will be utilizing the west wall of the second floor landing, which is adjacent to room 201, as a display space for Forest Science. Student award plaques, photographs of the faculty, staff, and stu-dents, current events bulletin board, current employment opportunities in forestry, and general information on the Forestry and Resource Management majors will be posted here. The new display will help to identify the new location of the Forest Science Division administrative offices and should serve as an effective way of communicating information about the Division to faculty, staff, and students.

This year's Forestry Summer Camp will be from June 3 to July 28. The earlier starting date will give new students more time after the end of camp to find housing in Berkeley before starting the fall semester. It will also provide a longer break so that students can work for a few weeks before school starts. The Summer Camp curriculum includes Forest Ecology (ESPM 101A), Forest Inventory (ESPM 101B), Silviculture (ESPM 101C), Forest Operations (ESPM 101D), and Forest Management (ESPM 101E). Seven-teen faculty members from the Forest Science, Ecosystem Sciences, Insect Biology, and Re-source Institutions, Policy, and Management Divisions of the Department of Environmen-tal Science, Policy, and Management (ESPM) will participate in teaching at Camp this summer. Camp continues to be a highlight of the undergraduate program in the College of Natural Resources. The opportunity for students to live and learn in the forest, the bonding between the students, and the opportunity to work with and get to know the faculty make camp a special experience.

The faculty of the Forest Science Division is currently involved in a number of research programs focused on issues relating to forest management in California. Kevin O'Hara has projects underway at Jackson Demonstration State Forest concerning various aspects of thinning and pruning of coast redwood. He is also conducting studies of the silviculture of mixed-species, mixed-age class forests at Blodgett and on USFS and Sierra Pacific Lumber Company land in the Sierra Nevada. Scott Stevens is initiating a fire surrogate study at Blodgett, which is part of a nationwide study to compare prescribed burning with mechanical treatments, and mechanical treatments plus burning, to reduce fuel loading in forests throughout the U.S. He will also be initiating a similar study with Joe McBride in chaparral on BLM lands in northwestern California. Richard Dodd has a number of projects under way to investigate the taxonomic and evolutionary relationships of oak and cypress in California. He is also engaged in a study of genetic variation of redwood at Jackson Demonstration State Forest. I am continuing my research on the ecology of riparian zones within conifer forests in California. The Sierra Nevada portion of this research is focused on the role of fire and other disturbance factors in the maintenance of hardwood species in riparian zones. The coast forest portion of the research concerns the dynamics of large woody debris in riparian zones of the redwood forest. This work is located at Soquell Demonstration State forest and is being done in cooperation with Matt Kondolf of the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning.