Collaborating Coast to Coast: New Directions in Natural Resources Research
By Sue McMurray
A $400,000 grant from the National Science Foundation will help College of Natural Resources forestry researchers and other collaborators solve industry-wide problems beyond the scope of what one institution’s scientific resources can provide.
The University of Idaho will use the grant and industry matching funds to establish a research site in the Center for Advanced Forest Systems (CAFS). CAFS links forest industry partners with top university-based forestry research programs in the U.S., whose broad, collaborative research helps solve forest industry-wide problems. By joining CAFS, the university will increase information sharing, extend partner support and optimize research in the areas of silviculture, biometrics, bioenergy, site resource availability, forest genetics, as well as geospatial analysis of forest productivity.
“Joining CAFS puts the university in an elite class of forestry research institutions where we are collaborating on a wider range of forest management questions,” said Mark Coleman, lead investigator on the CAFS grant and director of the University of Idaho Intermountain Forest Tree Nutrition Cooperative. “Now we are looking at entire forest management systems as opposed to focusing on single questions, like genetics or nutrition. Studying the interaction is important, because one aspect affects all others.”
A variety of forest industry problems await Coleman and his fellow researchers beyond the tree improvement and nutrition work presently underway in CNR. As one example, insect pests are invading seed orchards in the Intermountain West and decreasing the yield of genetically improved conifer seeds needed for reforestation and ecosystem restoration efforts. The most destructive are the fir coneworm, the western conifer seed bug and the ponderosa pine cone beetle. Developing effective management techniques that reduce or eliminate the need for aerially applied insecticides is just one area of innovation the university could bring to CAFS. Steve Cook, associate professor, and Marc L. Rust, director of the Inland Empire Tree Cooperative, are developing ways to control several insect pests in seed orchards.
Another area involves identifying endophytes (fungi) known to protect seedlings from native and invasive diseases. University of Idaho scientists George Newcombe, Anthony Davis and Coleman plan to collaborate with Richard Meilan, Purdue faculty member, and Brian Stanton, Greenwood Resources research geneticist, on two endophyte projects. The first would establish field trials with western conifers in Idaho to determine the effects of endophytes on growth and resistance to diseases and insects. A second project would improve the assays by which endophytes are selected for tree improvement. Endophytes selected with the new assays would be deployed in field trials in the Clatskanie Valley in Oregon.
“Selection assays for endophytes with positive effects on their hosts have never been developed,” said Newcombe. “Although technology transfer to industry has occurred in Canada, endophytes are currently ignored by forest-products companies in the United States.”
Additional key benefits of the University’s involvement in CAFS include geospatial predictions of productivity in response to climate change. A proposed project led by university faculty Paul Gessler, Coleman, Paul McDaniel, Alistair Smith, Mark Kimsey, and Tom Fox, Virginia Tech, would develop geospatial datasets to evaluate the potential impact of projected climate change scenarios on forest productivity and species type distributions across the Inland Northwest. Their results should provide the basis for making improved forest conservation and management recommendations.
“Joining CAFS allows the forestry faculty to continue to expand research opportunities from coast to coast,” said Coleman. “We must improve the productivity of our landbase and maintain it into the future to be able to meet society’s increasing demands.”
A $400,000 grant from the National Science Foundation will help College of Natural Resources forestry researchers and other collaborators solve industry-wide problems beyond the scope of what one institution’s scientific resources can provide.
The University of Idaho will use the grant and industry matching funds to establish a research site in the Center for Advanced Forest Systems (CAFS). CAFS links forest industry partners with top university-based forestry research programs in the U.S., whose broad, collaborative research helps solve forest industry-wide problems. By joining CAFS, the university will increase information sharing, extend partner support and optimize research in the areas of silviculture, biometrics, bioenergy, site resource availability, forest genetics, as well as geospatial analysis of forest productivity.
“Joining CAFS puts the university in an elite class of forestry research institutions where we are collaborating on a wider range of forest management questions,” said Mark Coleman, lead investigator on the CAFS grant and director of the University of Idaho Intermountain Forest Tree Nutrition Cooperative. “Now we are looking at entire forest management systems as opposed to focusing on single questions, like genetics or nutrition. Studying the interaction is important, because one aspect affects all others.”
A variety of forest industry problems await Coleman and his fellow researchers beyond the tree improvement and nutrition work presently underway in CNR. As one example, insect pests are invading seed orchards in the Intermountain West and decreasing the yield of genetically improved conifer seeds needed for reforestation and ecosystem restoration efforts. The most destructive are the fir coneworm, the western conifer seed bug and the ponderosa pine cone beetle. Developing effective management techniques that reduce or eliminate the need for aerially applied insecticides is just one area of innovation the university could bring to CAFS. Steve Cook, associate professor, and Marc L. Rust, director of the Inland Empire Tree Cooperative, are developing ways to control several insect pests in seed orchards.
Another area involves identifying endophytes (fungi) known to protect seedlings from native and invasive diseases. University of Idaho scientists George Newcombe, Anthony Davis and Coleman plan to collaborate with Richard Meilan, Purdue faculty member, and Brian Stanton, Greenwood Resources research geneticist, on two endophyte projects. The first would establish field trials with western conifers in Idaho to determine the effects of endophytes on growth and resistance to diseases and insects. A second project would improve the assays by which endophytes are selected for tree improvement. Endophytes selected with the new assays would be deployed in field trials in the Clatskanie Valley in Oregon.
“Selection assays for endophytes with positive effects on their hosts have never been developed,” said Newcombe. “Although technology transfer to industry has occurred in Canada, endophytes are currently ignored by forest-products companies in the United States.”
Additional key benefits of the University’s involvement in CAFS include geospatial predictions of productivity in response to climate change. A proposed project led by university faculty Paul Gessler, Coleman, Paul McDaniel, Alistair Smith, Mark Kimsey, and Tom Fox, Virginia Tech, would develop geospatial datasets to evaluate the potential impact of projected climate change scenarios on forest productivity and species type distributions across the Inland Northwest. Their results should provide the basis for making improved forest conservation and management recommendations.
“Joining CAFS allows the forestry faculty to continue to expand research opportunities from coast to coast,” said Coleman. “We must improve the productivity of our landbase and maintain it into the future to be able to meet society’s increasing demands.”
