All posts by Melinda Olson

Co-sponsored by:

8:00 Building Blocks of Sound Inventory Design

1. What is a working forest inventory? The evolution over 30 years from strata averages and yield tables to individual stand structures within strata.
2. Why you should be cruising for inventory versus harvest. Your cruising objective is to capture silvicultural growth capacity and setup the ability to re-merchandize as markets change.

8:30 Sample Designs – Strata

1. Stratifying the whole forest – What are the right classifications and levels of strata?
2. Breaking the strata into unique stand polygons – Why we need unique stand identification.
3. Sampling stands within each strata for cruising – Getting the right distribution, intensity and frequency of sampling and working with riparian buffers and setasides.

10:00 BREAK

10:20 Sample Design – Plots

1. Distributing your plots across the entire stand – Why this makes a difference.
2. Including small tree frequencies to define density.
3. How large tree frequencies define silvicultural options and asset values.
4. Defining clumpiness with systematic spatial plot patterns to quantify the impact on yield capacity.
5. Determining the right plot frequency and distribution within each stand.

Noon LUNCH

1:00 Sample Design – Trees

1. Sampling all trees of all species and sizes within each stand makes a difference.
2. Applying a combination of prism-sweep and fixed area plot designs for sampling.

 A. Tally frequencies by species and size class, never by species alone.
 B. When and why to record tree condition and vigor class in cruise design.
 C. Methods for selecting large trees height samples – why this makes a difference.
 D. Estimating live crown length and percent defect in large trees.
 E. When and how to measure taper.
 F. When and why to measure age.

3. How to use a 1/20th acre fixed area circular plot for standing dead trees.
4. Sampling down woody material using a minimum 100-foot transect line.

2:00 BREAK

2:20 Cruise Compilation Methods

1. Compiling each stand cruise versus compiling by strata – within and between stands.
2. Height estimation methods – why tree heights vary with silviculture.

3:30 Expanding the Cruise to Un-sampled Stands

1. Assigning a stand structure to un-sampled stands from an average tree list generated from sampled stands – when and why these methods are important to understand and use.
2. Do’s and don’ts of cruise expansions – methods, timing, frequency and assumptions.

4:15 Year-end Updates and Reporting – Getting the Sequence and Components Right

1. Incorporating all new harvest units, deletions, acquisitions and boundary adjustments in a GIS stand polygon layer.
2. Updating the GIS road network and road class buffer widths.
3. Updating the GIS stream courses and riparian buffer widths.
4. Updating all administrative, silvicultural and operational costs.
5. Running reports for year-end harvest volume and value reports.
6. Growing stands for one year from the previous year for annual growth reporting.
7. Updating the inventory with all new cruises from all sampled stands within current year – identifying the actual impact of new information.
8. Producing forest-wide reports of new current standing forest inventory.

5:00 Adjourn

9:00 am Key Concepts of Forest Finance:

• Time value of money;
• Nominal vs. real rates;
• Cash flows: common mistakes and how to correct them.

10:00 Forest Economics:

• Faustmann and Bare Land Value (BLV)

10:30 Break

10:45 Financial Criteria:

• Ranking investment options
• Case study: maximizing returns from existing stands

12:15 pm Lunch

1:00 Marginal Analysis and Discount Rates

• When does forest management pay?
• Estimating risk in discount rates for timberland investments

2:30 Break

2:45 Developing and Applying Timber Forecasts

• Developing a macroeconomic view/framework and establishing relationships
• Identifying and applying timber price drivers
• Building scenarios: what happens when key drivers shift?

4:15 Adjourn

The course includes hard copies of all course materials and electronic copies of supplementary reference materials, Excel based examples and models for take-home application, plus the book: Forest Finance Simplified, 5th Edition.

All general sessions will be held in the 1899 Ballroom (Building 58 on the NAU Campus Map), directly south of the Drury Hotel and HCCC. Weather permitting, lunch will be served on the 1899 Patio.

Sunday June 17, 2018
Optional Field Tour (Ft Valley Experimental Forest and Grand Canyon Nat. Park)

• 7:00 am – 7:30 am Travel to Ft Valley Experimental Forest (depart from the curb between the Drury and HCCC at 7:00am)
• 7:30 am – 9:30 am Tour Ft Valley Experimental Forest and USFS/NAU Research Site(s)
• 9:30 am – 11:00 am Travel to Grand Canyon Nat. Park
• 11:00 am – 2:30 pm Tour South Rim of Grand Canyon Nat. Park and Grand Canyon Village
• 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm Return Travel to Flagstaff

5:00 pm – 8:00 pm Registration Desk Open (HCCC Lobby/Fireplace)
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm Ice Breaker Reception – appetizers and refreshments (Agassiz Meeting Room, HCCC)

Monday June 18, 2018
7:00 am – 8:30 am Buffet Breakfast (Foyer of 1899 Ballroom)
7:30 am – 8:30 am Registration Desk Open (HCCC Lobby/Fireplace)
8:30 am – 8:40 am Welcome – James Allen, Director, School of Forestry, No. Arizona University
Session 1 – Moderator: John Kershaw, Univ. of New Brunswick

• 8:40 am – 9:05 am  Reginald T. Fay; Principal, Mason Bruce & Girard, Inc.: ¿Donde esta Pachaco? – An Accuracy Assessment of a Species Cover Map to Support Due Diligence.
• 9:05 am – 9:30 am Jacob Strunk; Statistician, USDA Forest Service: FIA Inventory with Stereo DSMs
• 9:30 am – 9:55 am Yung-Han Hsu; MSc Student, Univ. of New Brunswick: Sampling to Correct LiDAR Assisted Forest Inventory

9:55 am – 10:35 am Break – Refreshments and Snacks
Session 2 – Moderator: Phil Radtke, Virginia Tech

• 10:35 am – 11:00 am Andrew Sánchez Meador; Assoc. Prof., No. Arizona Univ.: Using Remote Sensing and R to Reveal the Secrets of Powell Plateau, Grand Canyon Nat. Park
• 11:00 am – 11:50 am Zack Parisa/James Arney; President, SilviaTerra/President, For. Biometrics Res. Institute: On the Evolution of the Stand and Strata

11:50 am – 1:20 pm Buffet Lunch (1899 Patio)
Session 3 (Flash Talks and Open Mic) – Moderator: A. Sánchez Meador, No. Arizona Univ.

• 1:20 pm – 1:30 pm Dan Opalach; Biometrician, For. Biometrics Res. Institute: The Maximum Stand Density Index for Coast Redwood
• 1:30 pm – 1:40 pm Martin Ritchie; Research Forester, USDA Forest Service: The standview R-Package for Generating Density Management Diagrams
• 1:40 pm – 1:50 pm Sushil Nepal; Ph.D. Student, Univ. of British Columbia : Spatial Clustering to Depict Historical Stand Structure of Ponderosa Pine Stands in the Black Mountain Experimental Forest, California, USA
• 1:50 pm – 2:00 pm Jeff Ricklefs; Forest Inventory Lead, Washington State DNR: Using LiDAR to Evaluate the Effects of Edges on the Growth of Young Forests
• 2:00 pm – 2:10 pm Karin Kralicek; Ph.D. Student, Oregon State Univ.: On Differences in Double Sampling Estimators
• 2:10 pm – 2:20 pm Mark Kimsey; Res. Asst. Prof., Univ. of Idaho: InventoryEDU: Bringing Forest Inventory Technology into the Classroom
• 2:20 pm – 3:00 pm Open Mic – share your questions, comments, updates, ideas, etc.

3:00 pm – 3:30 pm Break – Refreshments and Snacks
Session 4 – Moderator: David Auty, No. Arizona Univ.

• 3:30 pm – 3:55 pm John A. Kershaw; Prof., Univ. of New Brunswick : The Use of Mixture Distributions for Describing Stand Structure using Terrestrial LiDAR
• 3:55 pm – 4:20 pm Ting-Ru, Yang; Ph.D. Student, Univ. of New Brunswick : Approaches to Estimating Diameter Distributions from Terrestrial and Airborne LiDAR via Copulas
• 4:20 pm – 4:45 pm Bogdan Strimbu; Asst. Prof., Oregon State Univ.: Modeling in the Age of Big-Data and AI: The Loss of Beauty

6:00 pm – 9:00 pm Dinner (Agassiz & Fremont Meeting Room HCCC)

•  6:00 pm Cash Bar opens prior to dinner
•  6:45 pm Dinner is served
•  8:50 pm Last call at the bar

Tuesday June 19, 2018
7:00 am – 8:30 am Buffet Breakfast (Foyer of the 1899 Ballroom)
Session 5 – Moderator: Bogdan Strimbu, Oregon State Univ.

• 8:30 am – 8:55 am John Paul McTague; Mgr. G&Y Research, Rayonier: Effect of Seasonality on the Conversion Ratio of Green Weight to Scribner Board Foot Volume in the Pacific Northwest
• 8:55 am – 9:20 am Mahadev Sharma; Research Scientist, Ontario For. Res. Institute: Modelling Site Productivity of Jack Pine and Black Spruce Natural Stands
• 9:20 am – 9:45 am Damon Vaughan; Ph.D. Student, No. Arizona Univ.: Effect of Stand Basal Area on ponderosa Pine Wood Quality: Findings from a Replicated Density Experiment at Taylor Woods
• 9:45 am – 10:10 am Wade Tinkham; Asst. Prof. Colorado State Univ.: Systematic Planting Trials for Assessing Growth and Resilience

10:10 am – 10:45 am Break – Refreshments and Snacks
Session 6 – Moderator: Peter Gould, Washington State DNR

• 10:45 am – 11:10 am Dehai Zhao; Sr. Research Scientist, Univ. of Georgia: Strategies for Developing Additive Biomass Equations
• 11:10 am -11:35 am Al Pancoast; MSc Student, Oregon State Univ.: Evaluation of Segmented Polynomial and Variable Exponent Taper Equations for Ponderosa Pine in Eastern Oregon and Eastern Washington

11:35 am – 12:00 pm Business Meeting
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm Buffet Lunch (1899 Patio)
1:00 pm Adjourn

Monday, July 16th

1:00 P.M Auburn University Forest Nursery Management Cooperative Meeting
1:00 Registration

6:00 – 8:00 Social (Sponsored by Harrell’s Fertilizer)

Tuesday, July 17th

6:00 A.M Breakfast Buffet
7:00 Registration
8:00 Welcome – Jim Karels, Director, Florida Forest Service
8:30 Recruiting for the Future – Shelby Pyatt, Rayonier
9:00 Developing and Supporting Quality Nursery Facilities and Staff – Diane Haase, National Reforestation, Nurseries and Genetic Resources Program, USDA Forest Service
9:30 Vendor Introductions
9:45 Break
10:00 Nursery Fertility Trials for the Next Generation of Researchers – David South, Auburn University, Emeritus
10:30 Biofumigation with Dominus®: Latest Results from Arkansas, Oregon and Washington – Anna Leon, Weyerhaeuser
11:00 Trends in Production of Hardwood Seedlings in the Northeast US (2008-2016) – Carrie Pike, National Reforestation, Nurseries and Genetic Resources Program, USDA Forest Service
11:30 Genetic Integrity of Longleaf and Shortleaf Pine Seed Orchards and Seed – Barbara Crane, USDA Forest Service
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Evaluation of Sowing Methods to Detect Sonderegger Pine Seedlings – Paul Jackson, Louisiana Tech University
1:30 Growing Containerized Southern Pines in a Biochar-amended Substrate – Kas Dumroese, National Reforestation, Nurseries and Genetic Resources Program, USDA Forest Service
2:00 Effect of Pisolithus tinctorius Nursery Treatment on Long-term Loblolly and Longleaf Survival and Growth in South Carolina Sand Hills – Michelle Cram, USDA Forest Service
2:30 Vendor Introductions
2:40 Break
3:00 Seedling Storage and Survival – Ryan Nadel, Auburn University
3:30 Using Seedling Root Length to Determine Seed Vigor of Longleaf Pine – Victor Vankus, USDA Forest Service
4:00 Fumigation update – John Washington, Triest Ag Group
4:30 Adjourn
6:00 Dinner and Entertainment at the Grand Hotel (Included with registration)

Wednesday, July 18th

6:00 A.M. Breakfast Buffet
7:00 Field Trip and visit to Rayonier bareroot nursery in Elberta, AL
   Visit to PRT Atmore container nursery in Atmore, AL
   Lunch provided
5:00 P.M. Return to Hotel, Dinner on Your Own

Thursday, July 19th

6:00 A.M. Breakfast Buffet
8:00 The Response of Loblolly Pine Families to Root-feeding Bark Beetle-vectored Fungi – Pratima Devkota, Michigan State University
8:30 Longleaf Accomplishments and Future Challenges – Tim Albritton, Natural Resources Conservation Service
9:00 Bringing Innovation to Reality – Jim Fischer, Fischell Machinery
9:30 Break
10:00 Precision Agriculture and GPS Guidance Systems – Russ Worsley, Sunsouth
10:30 Seeder Technology and Precision Agriculture – Steve Spooner, S&S Marketing
11:00 Panel Discussion: Future Technology Requirements of Forest Tree Nurseries
11:30 Business Meeting
Noon Adjourn

NOTE: To view a PDF of available presentations click on the blue underlined titles below.

Tuesday, July 24

• 7:45 – 8:30 am – Registration
• 8:30 am – Welcome – Jeremiah Pinto, USDA Forest Service, Moscow, ID
• Welcome & Elder Blessing – Ted Howard, Tribal Chairman, Shoshone-Paiute Tribes, Owyhee, NV
• 9:00 am – Round Robin Introductions
• 9:15 am – Salmon Reintroduction in the Duck Valley Reservation – Jinwon Seo, Shoshone-Paiute Tribes, Owyhee, NV
• 9:40 am – Monitoring and maintaining fisheries and wildlife habitat on the Duck Valley Reservation – Chris Cleveland, Jamie Smith, Shoshone-Paiute Tribes, Owyhee, NV
• 10:00 am – Break
• 10:20 am – Hoop houses, grants, and food sovereignty for the Shoshone-Paiute, Reggie Premo and Rhiannon Nino(presenting), University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, Duck Valley Native Programs Specialist, Owyhee, NV
• 10:45 am – Plants for people: bringing traditional ecological knowledge to restoration – Jeremy Ojua, Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, Grand Ronde, OR
• 11:10 am – Community and agency native plant needs on the Navajo nation – Jesse Mike, Navajo Natural Heritage Program, Flagstaff, AZ
• 11:35 am – Recruitment of Seed-Associated Microbes in Ethnobotancial Plant Species as a Result of Soil Degradation – Desirae Kissell, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
• 11:50 am – Monitoring vegetation recovery following the 2015 Soda wildfire and rehabilitation treatments – Kyle Calf Looking, Matt Fisk, Cara Applestein, and Matt Germino, US Geological Survey, Boise, ID
• 12:10 pm – Lunch (included with registration)
• 1:30 – 5:30 pm – Tours (near Boise, ID):
  • Table Rock Restoration Project – Martha Brabec, City of Boise
  • US Forest Service Lucky Peak Nursery – Sara Wilson, USDA Forest Service

Wednesday, July 25

• 8:00 am – The western monarch: how efforts to save this endangered butterfly are helping all types of pollinators – Thomas D Landis, Native Plant Nursery Consulting, Medford, OR
• 8:30 am – Considering native bees in nursery, restoration, and traditional ecological management practices – Brian Dykstra, Native Bee Society, Willow Creek, CA
• 9:00 am – Pollinator restoration programs, plant identification, and traditional ecological knowledge – Andrew Gourd, Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, Wyandotte, OK
• 9:30 am – Forest Service National Botany Program – William Carromero, USDA Forest Service, Washington, DC
• 9:45 am – Compiling ethnobotany of southwest CA – William Pink – Agua Caliente Tribe of Cupeño Indians, Temecula, CA
• 10:15 am – Break
• 10:45 am – An update on propagation and mitigation efforts: Greenhouse irrigation control and determining which species can be planted in cheatgrass – Steven Link(presenting), Gail Redberg, Janice Jones, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Pendleton, OR
• 11:15 am – Alternatives to traditional pesticides and fertilizers in native plant nurseries – Joel Fields , Wilbur Ellis, Spokane, WA
• 12:00 pm – 9:00 pm – Box lunch and tours (Owyhee, NV):
  • Pit stop (tentative: Bruneau Canyon Overlook or Bruneau Sand Dunes State Park)
  • Shoshone-Paiute greenhouses (Owyhee, NV)
  • Traditional Dinner (included with registration); (Owyhee, NV)

Thursday, July 26

• 8:00 am – Climate change & the Seed Selection Tool – Holly Prendeville, USDA NW Climate Hub, Corvallis, OR
• 8:30 am – Drought and Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, & Snow network (CoCoRaHS) – Holly Prendeville
• 9:00 am – Adaptive genetics and climate – Bryce Richardson, USDA Forest Service, Moscow, ID
• 10:15 am – Break
• 10:35 am – Restoration successional trajectories, seed zones, and seed production – Francis Kilkenny, USDA Forest Service, Boise, ID
• 11:20 am – Nursery practices to mitigate drought – Jeremiah Pinto, USDA Forest Service, Moscow, ID
• 11:40 am – Candidate Conservation Agreements with Assurances demo project – Jeff Everett, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Portland, OR
• 12:00 pm – Adjourn

Summit Objectives

The objectives of the 2018 Great Plains Grassland Summit are to have participants learn more about and contribute science needs, ideas, and plans for managing, conserving and restoring grasslands at landscape scales and across boundaries in the Great Plains. Managers, researchers, and practitioners from all regions of the Great Plains and beyond are encouraged to attend.

Invited plenary experts will establish the context for the Summit by identifying challenges and opportunities focused around six themes:

• Working Lands
• Native Species and Biodiversity
• Invasive Species
• Wildland and Prescribed Fire
• Energy Development
• Climate, Weather and Water

Subsequent thematic breakout sessions will allow workshop participants to contribute ideas, issues, needs and steps towards an action plan to conserve, manage and restore Great Plains grasslands. A poster session will allow participants to contribute information on their own projects. A Summit report will be produced, based in large measure on feedback received during the breakout sessions, and additional synthesis papers will be published.
Great Plains Grassland Summit Steering Committee Members 

Summit Presentations

Click here to view the Summit Agenda, Speaker Biosketches, and Speaker Abstracts.

Summit Posters

Poster PDFs will be posted as they become available. Posters are listed alphabetically by lead author.

• Abegglen, Jeff – Grassland Restoration –The Importance of Partnerships and Momentum, Nebraska National Forests and Grasslands –Sandhills Units
• Alba, Christina – Increasing the value of plant collections for understanding grassland biodiversity in Colorado
• Baldwin, Heather Q. – Annual Brome Adaptive Management Project: Development of an adaptive resource management framework for National Parks within the Northern Great Plains
• Bauman, Pete – Alternative Methods for Determining Land Use History in South Dakota and Minnesota
• Bower, Andy – Know your zone: geo-query of provisional seed zones
• Brennan, Jameson – Impact of fire and heavy winter grazing on livestock use patterns
• Bruno, Jasmine E. – A systematic review of North American rangeland social science
• Dewes, Candida F. – Downscaled Projections of Extremes in Evaporative Demand
• Driscoll, Katelyn – After Fire: Toolkit for the Southwest
• Duchardt, Courtney – Disturbance drives avian communities on a grassland – sagebrush ecotone
• Dueker, Brittany – The Effects on the Management of Private Rangelands and Grasslands through Cost-Share Programs
• Dwyer, Angela – Private Lands Stewardship: Implications for Avian Conservation in the West
• Fogarty, Dillon T – Juniper Invasion Alters Grassland Ecosystem Services in the Great Plains
• Ford, Paulette – The Rangeland Vegetation Simulator: A system for quantifying production, succession, disturbance and fuels in non-forest environments
• Haefele, Michelle – Economic Value of Ecosystem Services Supported by Dryland and Grassland Environments
• Hobbins, Mike – Evaporative Demand Drought Index (EDDI)
• O’Malley, Robin – The North Central Climate Science Center: Delivering actionable science to help fish, wildlife, water, land, and people adapt to a changing climate
• Owen, Rachel K. – Playa Ecosystem Vulnerability in Future Climates: Taking Science to Stakeholders in the Great Plains
• Parker, Ryan – Trophic Ecology Warrants Multi-Species Management in a Grassland Setting: Modeling Swift Fox-Burrowing Owl-Mountain Plover Interactions on Black-Tailed Prairie Dog Colonies
• Reeves, Matt – Rangelands at Risk: A Geographic Analysis of Sustainability Indicators
• Schrader-Patton, Charlie – Rangeland phenology assessment using PhenoMap
• Sebastian, Derek – Seed Bank Depletion: The Key to Long-Term Invasive Winter Annual Grass Control
• Seedorf, Rachel – Comparing Natural Area Herbicides for Residual Weed Control and Native Species Tolerance
• Sketch, Mary – Understanding social factors to foster participation and post-program management behavior in the Conservation Reserve Program
• Symstad, Amy – Developing and Integrating Science for Decision Support Tools to Inform Bison and Ecosystem Management at Badlands National Park
• Wood, Clay W. – Needles in a Haystack: Identifying Thresholds in Annual Grass-Dominated Rangelands
• Yocum, Heather M. – Stakeholder engagement and application for the Evaporative Demand Drought Index (EDDI)
• Zhai, Xiajie – The creation of “Ecosystem Core” hypothesis to explain ecosystem evolution

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

8:00 Continental breakfast
8:30 Welcome and Introductions
8:40 Monitoring and Maintaining Seedling Quality to Optimize Outplanting Performance – Diane Haase, Western Nursery Specialist, USDA Forest Service, Portland, OR
9:15 Using Side x Side Trials to Evaluate Outplanted Nursery Stock – Robbie Lefebvre, Oregon Department of Forestry, Salem, OR
9:50 Forest Regeneration and Density Management Issues Associated with Droughty, Glacial-Origin Soils in Western Washington – Tim Harrington, USDA Forest Service, PNW Research Station, Olympia, WA
10:25 Break
10:50 Assisted Migration Planting Efforts for Pinus ponderosa on a Post-Fire Environment in Northern New Mexico – Owen Burney, New Mexico State University, Mora, NM
11:25 Remote Monitoring of Outplanting Sites Using Cameras and Environmental Sensors to Identify Planting Windows – Ed Messerlie, USDA Forest Service, National Technology and Development Program, Missoula, MT
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Nursery Soil Fumigation and Outplant Performance – Nabil Khadduri, Washington Department of Natural Resources Webster Nursery, Olympia, WA
1:35 Two Years Post-Wildfire Reforestation with Ponderosa Pine and Mycorrhizae: Did it Work? – Florian Deisenhofer, Hancock Forest Management, Vancouver, WA
2:10 Responses of PNW Conifer Plantations to Chemical Vegetation Management Treatments – Maxwell Wightman, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
2:45 Break
3:10 Contracting, Communication, and Pricing Trends for Forest Seedlings – John Trobaugh, Washington DNR Webster Nursery, Olympia, WA
3:45 Where Does Backpack Spraying Fit Into Your Vegetation Management Program? The Costs, Benefits, Efficacy, and Practicality Comparisons between Aerial Spraying and Ground Herbicide Applications – Bruce Alber, Wilbur-Ellis Company, Wilsonville, OR
4:20 Adjourn
6:00 Evening Social at McMenamins (included with registration)

Thursday, October 12, 2017

Optional Field Trip
As of Oct. 4, 2017 the Optional Field Trip registration is at capacity and CLOSED to further registrations.
8:00 – 4:00 Field tour with stops hosted by Oregon State University, Oregon Department of Forestry, and Starker Forests. Stops will focus on established field trials for evaluation of short- and long-term nursery and site-prep effects on seedling growth and survival. See top right-hand column for field tour schedule.