College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Department of Forestry

Spring 2023

The Hanover Forest Science Seminar Series will be virtual and in-person (225 Natural Resources Building) for the Spring 2023 semester. All presentations will be delivered via Zoom and the passcode for all is forestry. Speakers will be available for questions immediately following their presentations.

View Past Hanover Presentations

FEBRUARY 7

Amy Clark Eagle

“FSC Certification: Challenges and Opportunities in a Changing World”

Join Presentation

FEBRUARY 21

Pete Bettinger

"Ensuring sustainability and modifying traditional forest planning to acknowledge climate change: Challenges for the future"

ONLINE ONLY

Join Presentation

FEBRUARY 28

Lauren Cooper & Kylie Clay

“MSU Forest Carbon and Climate Program: Bridging research, engagement, and education for Michigan and beyond”

Join Presentation

MARCH 14

Stephen Handler

"Climate change and Michigan forests: impacts, adaptation, and new resources"

Join Presentation

APRIL 25

Neelam C. Poudyal

“Social feasibility of reforestation for carbon offset benefits on private open lands”

Join Presentation

Past Presentations:

2021-2022

• Dominik Seidel, "Structure-function Relationships in Trees and Forests: New Insights from Fractal Analysis"
• Sam Cook, "Linking Future Forests Students to Greener Jobs"
• Prakash Nepal, "Impacts on Global Forests and Wood Product Markets of Increased Mass Timber Use in Buildings"
• Shivan GC, "Logging Sector in the Lake States of Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin: Status, Issues and Economic Potential"
• Catherine Fahey, "The Role of Soil Fungi in the Response of Forests to Global Change”
• Luke McCormack, “Belowground strategies of trees and their links to whole-tree and ecosystem processes”
• Soledad Peresin, "Adding value to agri-forest biomass: An overview of nanocellulose and surface science research at Auburn University”
• David Macfarlane, "Linking forest conservation and climate change mitigation to sustainable livelihoods in the Yucatán of Mexico”
• Jeff Prestemon, "Housing starts and residential construction harvested wood products projections by SSP, 2020-2070”
• Peggi Clouston, “New England Species Mass Timber and other Emerging Bio-Based Building Technologies”

2020-2021

• Kyung-Hwan Han, “What Makes a Tree a Tree: Molecular Understanding of Tree Growth”
• Jesse Abrams, "Systems Thinking for Understanding U.S. National Forest Governance Dynamics"
• Scott Stark, "Forest-atmosphere interactions in a climate crisis: Amazon forest canopy’s resilience and global impacts"
• Valeriy Ivanov and Tyeen Taylor, "Cascade Hydromics in Amazonian Headwater Systems"
• Sarah Hines, "USDA Forest Service Urban Field Stations: Improving Lives in Cities and Beyond"
• Salli Dymond, "Water partitioning between trees, soils, and streams following forest disturbance"
• Anthony D'Amato, "Silviculture for Adaptation in North Temperate Forest Systems"
• Ritwhick Ghosh, "Governing Biodiversity Offsetting: What can Case Studies Teach Us?”
• Emily Huff, “The Different Management Perspectives of Forest Owners, Forest Users, and Forest Stewards”
• Asia Dowtin, “Water, Nutrient, and Knowledge Transport in Urban Forests”
• Mojgan Nejad, “Lignin-Based Bioproducts: Using the Underutilized Portion of Biomass in High-Value Products”
• Courtney Siegert, “A Tale of Tree Bark: How Morphology and Structure Influence Hydrology”
• Greg Latta, “Projecting US forest carbon accounts for policy evaluation: a market-based approach”
• Sam Cook, “Linking Future Forests Students to Greener Jobs”
• Katherine Wood, “Tree Seedling Functional Traits Mediate Survival Responses to Light Availability and Plant-Soil Feedback”

Fall 2019

• Clarice Esch, "Evaluating Acacia Koa as a Restoration Tool" and Catherine Henry, "Regeneration Dynamics in Managed Northern Hardwood Forests:
• Monique Sakalidis, "Perspectives on Forest Pathology:
• Runsheng Yin, "China’s Long March in Restoring Degraded Terrestrial Ecosystems: Policy, Practice and Performance"
• Kyla Dahlin, "Does understanding ecological diversity improve forecasts of the Earth system?"
• Judith Kamoto, "Forest Management in Malawi from Conventional to Participatory: Implications and Future Prospects"
• Bahar Aliakbarian, "From Food and Agriculture Waste to Incremental Revenue: A Sustainable Platform"
• Gerald Jondreau, "Anishinaabewaking – The Importance of Teaching Anishinaabek History, Treaties, and Perspectives in Natural Resource Programs"
• Nyeema Harris, "Spatial Variation in the Mesoniche: Dynamism Within Michigan’s Carnivore Community"
• Richard Kobe, "Mass timber in the new STEM Teaching and Learning Facility"

2018-2019

• Scott Stark, "Phylloenvironments and Canopy Ecology: Transforming Perspectives on the Global Links Between Forests and the Atmosphere" 
• George Berghorn, "Contributions of the Science of Domicology to the Circular Economy of Wood and the Built Environment"
• Emily Huff, "Stories from the field: Measuring social dynamics in urban and rural forestry context"
• Mojgan Nejad, "Sustainable Bioproducts Derived from Lignin"
• Wil Santiago, "Equal Employment Opportunity in the Federal Sector"
• Andy Finley, "Modeling and Computational Considerations for Large Spatiotemporal Data Sets"
• Paul Bolstad, "Understory influences on overstory forest structure: shrubs, size, and canopy shape?"
• Ramani Narayan, "Using biobased carbon (renewable) content and biodegradability - compostability to design and synthesize “greener” products" 
• Gary Roloff, "Wildlife responses to structural retention in timber harvest units"
• John Ralph, "Lignin Manipulation in Plants: ‘Designing’ biomass lignins for the biorefinery"      
• Jeremy Luterbacher, "Staying one step ahead: fighting unfavorable kinetics during the chemical upgrading of biomass"
• Annie Cooper Smith, "Connecting pattern and process through the use of remote sensing in forest ecology"
• Michael Dockry, "Tribal forestry: leading 21st century forest management through innovation, partnership, and culture"
• Gang Shao, "Towards high throughput assessment of canopy dynamics in Amazon forests: exploring the challenges and opportunities for multi-temporal multi-site lidar remote sensing analysis"
• Zakiya Leggett, "Intensive Forest Management Effects on Soil Sustainability in the Southeastern US"
• Christel Kern, "Short- and Long-term effects of Prescribed Fire in Northern Dry Forest Ecosystems"
• Steven Lawry, "Restoring Forests, Restoring Communities"
• Thomas Easley (Forest Paths speaker), "Relationships, History, Hip Hop and Forestry: Integrating Diversity and Inclusion in Environmental Sciences"
• Jerry Franklin, "Managing Forests to Sustain Ecosystems: The Alternative to the False Dichotomy of Plantations or Preserves

2016-2017

• Cecil Konijnendijk, "An urban forestry approach to developing livable and reslient cities"
• Larry Leefers, "Mechanistic modeling of the role of forests and related econoic activities in Michigan's economy"
• David Novak, "Seeing the urban forest for the trees"
• Erin Schliep, "Process driven density-dependent diamter distribution models for forest biomass production"
• Ashley Kelser, "The interplay between biotic and abiotic controls over litter decomposition processes"
• Barry Gardiner, "Wind impacts on tree growth, mechanics, and damage"
• Rachelle Gould, "Cultural ecosystem services: how do you mesasure that especially when 'that' may be dynamic?"
• Quentin Read, "Individual variation in organismal traits: predicting patterns in space and time from local to global scales"
• Phoebe Zarnetske, "Understanding and predicting how ecological communities respond to climate change"
• Emily Huff, "Forestry and human health in urban environments"
• Scott Stark, "Towards remotely sensed forest dynamics to understand forest change and its consequences for the atmosphere"
• Nina Lany, "Species interactions, climate change, and the distribution and abundance of forest pests"
• Mojgan Nejad, "Lignin Biorefinery"
• Bernardo Maestrini, "Wildfire produced charcoal and the carbon cycle"
• Monique Sakalidis, "A next gen approach to combating tree diseases"
• Nash Turley, "Predictors of plant diversity in pine forests of South Carolina"

 2015-2016

• John Banks, "Forest management for bolstering wildlife species assemblages: conservation challenges in an East African forest reserve"
• Fernana Santos, "Tracing the fate of slowly-cycling C pools in temperate forest soils"
• Alon Tal, "All the trees of the forest: the extraordinary story of Israel's woodlands"
• Bron Taylor, "Spirituality after Darwin: 'dark green' nature religion and the future of religion and nature"
• Dengsheng Lu, "The roles of textural images in improving land-cover classification in the Brazilian Amazon"
• Warren Heilman, "Local air quality during low-intensity prescribed fires in forested environments: observations and predictions"
• Nina Lany, "Spring tree phenology, caterpillar abundance, and the timing of breeding by a migratory songbird in a northern hardwoods forest"
• Jiquan Chen, "Harmonizing people and nature"
• John Vucetich, "Laws of nature, historical contingency, and the wolves and moose on Isle Royale"
• Yvette Dickinson, "Groupy-clumpy restoration of a frequent-fire conifer ecosystem on Colorado’s Front Range"
• Stephanie Grand, "Soil carbon dynamics in short-rotation woody plantations of the northern Lake States"

2014-2015

• Erika Marin-Spiotta, "Challenges predicting successional trajectories during post-agricultural reforestation in the tropics"
• Runsheng Yin, "Linking devolved tenures with forest conditions in the context of climate change mitigation"
• Inga Parker La Puma, "Landscape disturbance in the modern forest: modeling the role of human influences on forest ecosystems"
• Ines Ibanez, "The role of biotic interactions in tree range expansion"
• Aaron Weiskittel, "Projecting the potential influence of climate change on forests: the uncertainty of modeling the unknown"
• Emily Scott, "How carbon sticks to soils and how carbon cycling processes stick in students’ minds"
• Emilio Moran, "Deforestation and environmental changes in the Amazon Basin"
• Christopher Woodall, "Foresters counting atoms: the forest carbon inventory of the United States"
• Stephen Gasteyer, "Measuring the social significance of forests: social indicators of forests and bioenergy"
• Matt Carroll, "15 years of fieldwork on wildland fire in the wildland-urban interface: does it add up to anything?"
• Marla Emery, "Consuming the city: urban forests as components of the urban food system"