Spring 2012 - UWSP

Spring 2012Inside this issue Firecrew in Florida Ring receives TAPPI award Timbersports team makesit two in a row Stephens Fellowshipsawarded Donation benefitsTreehaven Paper formula created BOW in Belize Kreinz MemorialScholarship Student Spotlight Alumni Updateswww.uwsp.edu/cnrfacebook.com/UWSPCNRAlumnus strives to save endangered speciesTravis Livieri (BSWildlife and Biology ’93,MS Natural Resources’07) never imaginedan internship workingwith vegetation wouldlaunch him into a nationalconservation effort tosave an animal oncethought extinct. Theinternship, during hissenior year, involvedworking on prairierestoration primarily withvegetation. He continuedthis type of work atTravis Livieri prepares to release a black-footed ferret into the wilda position in KentuckyPicture Courtesy of Travis Livieriafter graduation, but in1995 a new and exciting challenge came his way. Livieri accepted a position asbiological technician restoring the endangered black-footed ferret populationsin the Conata Basin/Badlands of South Dakota. Black-footed ferrets, the onlynative North American ferret, were once found on prairie dog colonies in greatnumbers. The ferrets only eat prairie dogs and use their burrows for shelter.The depletion of their food source and frequent outbreaks of plague pushedthem nearly to extinction. Eighteen black-footed ferrets, the last in the wild,were captured in 1987 and incorporated into a captive breeding program. TheConata Basin/Badlands is the perfect site for a restoration effort.From 1995 to 2001, Travis worked for several agencies in South Dakotacontinuing his work on researching and restoring the black-footed ferrets butsoon found a need for creative partners in endangered species restoration. Tohelp him move forward with his cause, Livieri founded Prairie Wildlife Research(PWR) in 2001. PWR’s mission is to research and conserve wildlife species ofthe prairie and their associated habitats. With the help of groups like PWR thecurrent estimated wild population of black-footed ferrets is at approximately500 adults. They are still listed as endangered across North America and thegoal of recovery is to completely remove them from the list. To accomplish thisfeat there will need to be at least 3000 adults in the wild. PWR continues theirwork leading and organizing annual monitoring surveys in Conata Basin, SouthDakota, one of the largest and most important recovery sites to date. They alsoprovide assistance to other recovery sites across the U.S., Mexico, and Canada.Over the years Travis’ work has put him in the middle of a romance novelscandal, offered him a chance to meet Jane Goodall, and be featured in an awardwinning documentary. (Continued on page 11)

CNR News 2012CNR News 2012Timbersports Team makes it two in a rowFrom the Dean’s Desk .by Christine ThomasThe Timbersports team had an incredible showingat the 60th Midwestern Forestry Conclave andSTIHL Timbersports event held April 13–14 at theTreehaven field station. The team of 27 studentsscored first place with 101.5 points. It was thesecond consecutive year that the Pointers won thecompetition and the first time UW-Stevens Pointhosted the event.I never had a chance to be a soccer mom,but I know I could have been a good one.I got a chance to try out those skills thispast year when we hosted the the STIHL TIMBERSPORTS Series Midwest Collegiateand Professional Qualifier Competitions at ourTreehaven Field Station in April. It turned outto be quite a weekend.Camera in hand and sporting a UWSP fleece(purple), I headed out onto the field to cheeron the team. The competitions were exciting.Since there were always at least two thingsgoing on, I spent a lot of time running acrossthe field to see “my kids” in as many events asDean Thomas and Alumni at the Timbersports eventPicture courtesy of the Alumni Associationpossible. At each event, some kind student wouldexplain the rules to me, so I could tell how we weredoing (my first conclave). I may not have been displaying particularly “deanly” behavior as I clapped and whoopedat the great efforts made by all the teams.The victory was really just the icing on the cake. We won the conclave and appreciate what a great accomplishmentthat was. I really enjoyed a seeing a wonderful effort on the part of faculty, staff, Treehaven, donors, friends,neighbors, alums, sponsor, students, and coaches come together. It was an amazing community effort. It had thefeel of a family reunion with the student competitors at the center. It was just what you would expect from the CNRfamily. I am lucky to be associated with this wonderful group of people. That whooping and clapping you hear isme telling the world how proud I am of all of you.Paper Science faculty member receives TAPPI awardThe Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry(TAPPI) Journal editorial board recently honored Gerry Ringwith the 2011 Best Research Paper Award.Second place went to Southern Illinois UniversityCarbondale with 61.5 points and the University ofMissouri took third place with 24.5 points.The Conclave hosted students from Iowa StateUniversity, Michigan State University, MichiganTech, Purdue University, Southern IllinoisUniversity, Three Rivers Community College,University of Minnesota, and the University ofMissouri. Events included crosscut sawing, woodchopping, axe throwing, and log rolling on anTimbersports team members with their first place trophyL-shape land course. Success in academic events such asPicture Courtesy of John Heusinkveldtree and wood identification and inventory techniquesare also components of a conclave win. The events are individual and team based.Three UWSP students competed at Saturday afternoon’s STIHL TIMBERSPORTS Series U.S. and CollegiateChampionships. Allison Johnson and Larissa Swanson were part of the very first STIHL TIMBERSPORTS women’s event and placed second in the crosscut challenge. Ben Hansen competed in the men’s competition andwon all four of the events, the standing block chop, underhand chop, single buck, and stock saw. He advanced to thenational competition that was held at the Great Smokey Mountain Lumberjack Feud in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. June 1-3.Footage from select events has already aired on the Outdoor Channel and will air on ESPNU on Friday, July 6, at7:30 p.m. EDT. Pictures of the event are at Facebook.com/UWSPCNRFirecrew members gain hot tips on prescribed burns in FloridaBeach plans for spring break? Not for the UW-StevensPoint Firecrew. Eight firecrew members spent theirspring break in Florida learning different methodsof starting prescribed burns, including the use of ahelicopter to set a fire from the air.The board selected "The hyperbolic theory of light scattering,tensile strength, and density in paper" by Ring as TAPPIJournal's Best Research Paper for 2011. The paper appearedin the November 2011 issue and was one of six nominatedfor the award. Editorial board members assessed the researchbased on innovation, creativity, scientific merit, and clear andconcise presentation of ideas.Shelby Worel, a junior majoring in forestry recreation,stated “In Wisconsin, we usually use bulldozers duringprescribed burns, here we got to see an aerial ignitionusing helicopters and napalm. It was really exciting!”Ring was honored at the Awards Gala Dinner on April 25during PaperCon 2012, held April 22-25 in New Orleans, La.(from left) Larry Montague, TAPPI President and CEO, Gerry Ring, and NormanMarsolan, Chair, TAPPI BODPicture Courtesy of Gerry Ring2Firecrew members in FloridaPicture courtesy of Steve MillerThe students, participating as district volunteers,worked alongside the St. Johns River WaterManagement District land managers to conduct fourprescribed burns on district lands which included a3,000-acre burn at the Seminole Ranch ConservationArea.3

CNR News 2012CNR News 2012Miazga donation to benefit programs at TreehavenInaugural Stephens Fellowships awarded to wildlife studentsTwo undergraduate students are the first recipients of the newly created Doug Stephens Wildlife ResearchFellowship. Tessa Hasbrouck, a sophomore from Petersburg, Alaska, majoring in Wildlife Ecology-Research andManagement, and Danielle Berger, a senior from Marshfield with a double major in Wildlife Ecology-Research andManagement, and Biology, earned the awards through a competitive selection process.The goal of the Stephens Fellowship is to encourage research relatedto game species, with topics ranging from wildlife diseases, habitat,population dynamics, genetics, ecology, predator/prey relationships,policy, or hunting heritage. Proposals submitted for the fellowship arejudged on the appropriateness of stated goals, research methodology,the quality of the science proposed, and the likelihood of successfulachievement of those goals, including publication and the qualifications ofthe faculty/student team.Hasbrouck was awarded a 6,000 fellowship, which will support her workon a research project titled “Radio-telemetry Study of Bobcats in CentralWisconsin.” Her faculty mentor is Eric Anderson, professor of wildlife.Hasbrouck’s work is the undergraduate research component of a largerWisconsin Department of Natural Resources project that is estimatingthe bobcat population size in Central Wisconsin. The research will helpto address a priority issue among state wildlife managers, as bobcatdistribution in Wisconsin is poorly known and the population size hasnever been empirically estimated.Berger received a 3,000fellowship award and willwork with faculty mentorTessa HasbrouckJason Riddle, assistantprofessor of wildlife. Berger, who holds a 4.0 grade point average,will work on a project titled, “Northern Bobwhite Nest Site Selectionon Managed Agricultural Lands.” Bobwhite populations haveexperienced serious declines in many parts of the United States, andit is hoped that effective research may change this troubling trend.Berger will conduct a statistical analysis of data collected by graduateresearchers in North Carolina, providing information that will helpmanagers determine whether or not distance from woody vegetationaffects nesting success of these popular birds.The Doug Stephens Research Fellowship was established in 2012through a newly created endowment within Foundation thatgenerates spendable interest earnings to fund the awards. Theendowment was made possible largely by support from the family ofDoug Stephens of Peoria, Illinois. Stephens was a 1991 UW-StevensPoint graduate in Wildlife Management who died unexpectedly ofunknown causes at the age of 22 while working on black bear researchin northern Wisconsin, cutting short his dream of pursuing master’sand doctoral degrees in wildlife.Jim and Jean Miazga, longtime residents ofRhinelander, donated 10,000 to enhance outdoorlearning opportunities at Treehaven. The Miazga’smade the gift to support the assistant director’swork at Treehaven. The position, currently held byJohn Heusinkveld, is responsible for developing,coordinating and teaching many of the programsconducted at Treehaven to benefit school children,college students and the general public.Jim Miazga owned and operated Oneida Salesand Service, a Rhinelander-based beer distributioncompany. Miazga took over the business from hisfather and expanded it to cover most of northernWisconsin. In 2010 he sold the firm and retiredfrom the beverage industry. His wife, Jean, retiredrecently from a 30-year teaching career in the ThreeLakes School District, mostly with fourth graders atSugar Camp Elementary School.According to Corky McReynolds, Treehaven director, the Miazgas are well-known and respected in the northwoodsas neighbors and supporters of the community and the School District of Rhinelander. Jim has served on theTreehaven Board of Advisors since 2005 and is a member of the Development Committee. An avid outdoorsman,hunter and fisherman, he enjoys hiking at Treehaven and, after most Board meetings, he marches off on his own

Jim Miazga owned and operated Oneida Sales and Service, a Rhinelander-based beer distribution company. Miazga took over the business from his father and expanded it to cover most of northern Wisconsin. In 2010 he sold the firm and retired from the beverage industry. His wife, Jean, ret