Grad Student Spotlight: Korena Mafune

Korena Mafune, who earned her master’s last spring working with Professors Dan and Kristiina Vogt, has continued on at SEFS this year with her doctoral studies. Her project involves researching plant-fungal relationships in Washington’s temperate old-growth rain forests, with a specific focus on canopy soils and host tree fungal interactions. 

Richard D. Taber: 1920-2016

We were incredibly sad to learn that Professor Emeritus Richard “Dick” Taber, a long-time faculty member at SEFS, passed away on January 25, 2016, in Missoula, Mont. He was 95 years old. 

Director’s Message: Winter 2016

While I was biking into work this past Monday, the air was incredibly cool and crisp, and the sky was actually somewhat blue for a change. I remember thinking, “What a perfect way to start another work week in January.” Then, as I walked into Anderson Hall I heard the sound of someone playing piano up in the Forest Club Room. 

Alumni Spotlight: Avery Meeker

Shortly after graduating, recent SEFS alumnus Avery Meeker (’15, B.S.) spent the late summer and fall volunteering with the Raptor View Research Institute (RVRI), a nonprofit research and education organization based in Missoula, Mont. 

Grad Student Spotlight: Samantha Zwicker

by Karl Wirsing/SEFS
As the rest of Seattle hunkers down for the darkest days and months of the year, first-year doctoral student Samantha Zwicker has been gearing up for a far more tropical experience as she preps for her winter field season in the Peruvian Amazon. 

2016 McIntire-Stennis Research Grant Winners

This fall, the SEFS Research Committee awarded five Graduate Research Augmentation Grants through the McIntire-Stennis Cooperative Forestry Research program, totaling $72,209 in funding.
This special round of grants was designed to support graduate student research, with awards targeted for Spring 2016 or Summer 2016 (and with all funding to be spent in full by September 30, 2016). 

Patty Haller Art Exhibit: “Forest Sampling”

Later this winter and spring, from February 16 to March 30, the Elisabeth C. Miller Library will be hosting an art exhibit by Patty Haller, a Seattle oil painter with a studio in nearby Magnuson Park. 

SEFS Students Volunteer at “Meet the Mammals”

Last month, SEFS grad students Laurel Peelle and Jack DeLap volunteered in the annual “Meet the Mammals” event held at the Burke Museum on Saturday, November 14. It’s the only day of the year when the museum brings out hundreds of specimens from its extensive mammalogy collection for visitors to see and touch, and this year more than 1,100 people—a record high—joined the fun. 

New Staff Intro: Kurt Haunreiter

This fall, we were very pleased to welcome Kurt Haunreiter has the new manager of the Paper Science Center in Bloedel B-14! He arrived at the beginning of October, right when classes started, and he’s been scrambling to get the paper lab back in shape. 

The 43rd International Forestry Students’ Symposium

by Miku Lenentine,
SEFS Doctoral Student

What kind of conference lasts for two weeks, allows you to completely immerse yourself in another culture and way of viewing natural resource management, creates opportunities to meet more than 100 forestry students from more than 40 countries, and provides a chance to experience the world of forestry through an international youth perspective?