Counting tree rings and studying fire
Nat Frazer, dean of the College of Natural Resources, donates $500 to the members of the American Society of Foresters (ASF), as well as the other clubs to help them go to conferences each year, and offers them more if they win.
“If they bring back a first place, they will get an additional $500; second place gets them $250 and a third place $100. So they take great pride in costing me money,” he said.
The forestry program at Utah State University has been called a model program for the country, according to a report done by the ASF accreditation team last year.
Johan Du Toit, department head of wildland resources, said the program was rated so highly because of the services the department offers to the students majoring in forestry, such as professional clubs and time with faculty.
“The students are often on first-name basis with their professors and other faculty,” he said. “They really get the opportunity to get to know them.” One of the reasons this is true, Du Toit said, is because the program is so small. There are 11 forestry majors at USU, despite it being one of the few accredited programs in the west. Students come from Utah, Arizona, Montana and other states, he said.
Donovan Birch, senior in forestry, said he thinks the reason there are so few forestry majors is because it is not a major students gravitate toward when they don’t know what they want to do.
“We know that we aren’t the traditional degree, and that’s because everyone in the program wants to be there,” he said. “That makes it a tight group.”
Birch said he has been involved in the forestry program since the time he came to Utah State. Within two weeks he had applied and received a job in the dendrochronology lab, studying tree-ring growth and researching with fellow students and professors.
“We count and measure tree rings to study climate, reconstruct river flow and look at forest growth,” he said.
Jake Keogh, junior in forestry, said he also works in the dendrochronology lab as a technician.
“What I do, a trained monkey could do,” he said. “But I’m learning, and I’m involved in the research.”
Keogh isn’t only involved with research, but he also is a member of the ASF student chapter on campus. He said the group goes to conferences and wins.
Birch said the ASF students also raise money to take students to convention.
“We cut and sell firewood in town and we have an annual Loggers’ Ball every March,” he said.
The forestry program has been created differently than other college programs, and Du Toit said it is to make the students more applicable in the job market.
“Since we have low enrollment, all the students in the department take the same core curriculum,” he said. “In their junior and senior years, they take a few specialized courses that they need for the particular major they have chosen.”
In order to get a job with the federal government, students in forestry must have a very tailored program, Du Toit said.
“If the classes they’ve taken don’t match up to the classes the government has said they need, they won’t even qualify for a job,” he said.
The forestry major doesn’t offer summer classes. Du Toit said him and his colleagues believe it is more important for students to have the opportunity to work with outside groups during the summer, to gain more experience, and therefore be able to work in their chosen field right after graduation.
Du Toit said the graduates from the forestry program rarely have trouble finding work once they have left the program because they are so well prepared.
“We manage to turn out a few high quality students that get snapped up quickly in the job market,” he said.
Birch said he really likes the approach, and that he feels ready to go into the working world when he graduates in December.
“I want to work with fire research and the science of fire when I graduate,” he said. “I’m also thinking I’ll look into grad school.”
Forestry majors take classes like biology and plant ecology and learn about fire and sustainable logging, but Frazer said the forestry majors are not tree-huggers.
“They are scientists who learn what it takes to provide for healthy forests, abundant wildlife and recreational resources, enhance water quantity and quality and manage all the other things that make Utah such a great place to live, work and play,” he said.
– april.ashland@aggiemail.usu.edu