In November, the College of the Environment announced the recipients of this year’s Collaborative Research in Earth System Science and Technology (CRESST) Type 1 and Type 2 awards, recognizing outstanding projects that advance innovative, interdisciplinary approaches to understanding our planet and environmental challenges. 

After a highly competitive review process, eight proposals from across the College were selected for Type 1 funding and two of those proposals came from SEFS faculty members David Butman and Brian Harvey. These projects reflect the depth and diversity of environmental research within our community and exemplify the College’s commitment to research that promotes discovery and addresses emergent and ongoing environmental issues locally and globally. 

Two SEFS research scientists, Suzanne Peyer and John Hermanson were selected for CRESST Type 2 funding to continue research on an arbor-centric framework for identifying species and their geographic origin to counter illegal logging. 

CRESST TYPE 1 Awards

From the Atmosphere to the Sea – Is Enhanced Mineral Weathering (EMR) a viable and durable carbon drawdown solution: Quantifying carbon leakage in the river system. David Butman, Jack R. Corkery and George Corkery Jr. Endowed Professor in Forest Sciences, Environmental and Forest Sciences, with colleagues from Oceanography as well as Civil and Environmental Engineering. Butman will conduct this research alongside Rebecca B. Neumann of UW’s Civil and Environmental Engineering unit, Tyler Kukla of the Ecoclimate Lab and Shuang Zhang from the UW School of Oceanography. Read the team’s conceptual framework and hypothesis on Riverine photosynthesis influences the carbon sequestration potential of enhanced rock weathering.

Forests, fire, and carbon from the soil to the atmosphere: Integrating a network of field measurements with multi-scale earth system modeling. Brian Harvey, Jack R. Corkery and George Corkery Jr. Endowed Professor in Forest Sciences, Environmental and Forest Sciences, with colleagues from Atmospheric and Climate Science and Environmental and Forest Sciences. Harvey will conduct this research alongside a recent PhD graduate Jenna Morris. Learn more and Harvey and Morris’ work.

CRESST Type 2 Awards

In addition to David Butman and Brian Harvey, SEFS Research Scientists Suzanne Peyer and John Hermanson received CRESST Type 2 Funding that will support current research around illegal logging. Peyer and Hermanson lost initial funding for this research with the dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). 

Peyer and Hermanson’s team, which includes current PhD student Hemalatha Velappan, recent QERM graduate Sarah Pollack, and colleague Dr. Indroneil Ganguly, among others, are working to better understand how illegal logging leads to biodiversity loss and climate change using tools like remote sensing and species distribution modeling. Most immediately, their research is helping to develop responses to illegal logging and transport that are “commensurate with the scale and the complexity of the challenge” to stay ahead of timber poachers. 

In an effort to develop a response, the team has focused its energy on timber species and harvest country in accordance with the US Lacey Act which prohibits, without proper documentation, any tree species from entering the US if that species is protected or regulated in its country of origin. 

Velappan is employing machine-learning models to determine if we can accurately identify timber species remotely. This technology will help us better determine and predict the tree species being harvested legally and illegally across the globe. Pollack’s research focused on developing Swietenia spp. (American mahogany) distribution models (think USDA hardiness zones) that indicate the suitability for these species to grow in the declared harvest country. When timber enters the US the species and the country of harvest must be attested via a Lacey Act declaration form. Pollack’s research assists competent authorities globally to flag implausible species-country pairs. Pollack’s predictions of implausibility have proved perfect to date. Upon investigation, the declared species was not the species determined to be in the shipment but a lookalike whose harvest was prohibited from the source country. 

Dr. Hermanson’s research is developing technology he calls ArborTron. This identification instrument looks at the cross-section that reveals the vessels, rays, parenchyma, and other structures of timber to determine its exact species. The cross-section of timber species is like a human fingerprint – no two are the same. This instrumentation allows for rapid identification of timber and can assist in how quickly US customs can respond to illegal logging and transport. 

We know that illegal logging and the over harvest of timber affects wildlife, biodiversity at large and our climate. This research is helping us answer some of the most prominent questions about the illegal harvest of timber.