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Adirondack Forest Ecology and Management
(FOR513 or EFB513) - 2 to 3 credits

 

Instructors:

Dr. Christopher Nowak: Faculty of Forest & Natural Resources Mangement, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, NY 13210
Phone: (315) 470-6575; e-mail: canowak@esf.edu

William F. Porter: Faculty of Environmental and Forest Biology, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, NY 13210
Phone: (315) 470-6798; e-mail: wfporter@esf.edu

Description of Course

Field-based, issues-oriented course that introduces and explores forest ecosystem management in the Adirondacks, as developed and framed by ecology and policy. Intensive study of key forest organisms, communities, and landscapes. Contemporary research on central Adirondack forests is featured based on work at the Huntington Wildlife Forest. Emphasis is on experiential learning via a series of trips to, and laboratories in, the forest.

PLANNED SCHEDULE:

Sunday– Introductions and course settings

3:00-5:00 PM (AEC Conference Room)

• Welcomes and introductions: people, places and course
• Ecosystem science and management as frameworks for learning and conservation 
• Word, pictures, and reality  

Dinner at 6:00 pm

7:30-9:00 PM (AEC Conference Room)

•  The Adirondack Park – The Great “Experiment” in conservation

Monday – Critical organisms: deer, sugar maple, beech, birch, hemlock, and pine

Breakfast at 6:45 a.m. (bag lunch)

8:00-10:00 AM (AEC Conference Room)

• Forest history and origin, robustness and resiliency
• Life history, strategies and other ways of classifying and understanding organisms

9:00 AM-12:00 NOON (Huntington Wildlife Forest - HWF)

• Land use history and life history combined  

1:00-2:00 PM (AEC Conference Room)

• Deer as an issue

2:00-5:00 PM (HWF)

• Deer impacts on the forest

Dinner at 6:00 pm

7:30-9:00 PM (AEC Conference Room)

• Deer research and management 

Tuesday – Species and forest health

Breakfast at 6:45 a.m.(bag lunch)

8:00-9:00 AM (AEC Conference Room)

• Decline disease syndromes
• What is forest health?

9:00 AM-12:00 NOON (HWF)

• Beech importance and dynamics

1:00-2:00 PM (AEC Conference Room)

• Holocoenotic environment—a concept and way to organize plant community complexity 

2:00-5:00 PM (HWF)

• Forest ecology—from spruce-fir flats to spruce-fir tops, with mixed hardwood and conifer forests inbetween 

Dinner at 6:00 pm

7:30-9:00 PM (AEC Conference Room)

• Historic and contemporary timber harvesting and silvicultural practices in the Adirondacks 

Wednesday – Working at both stand- and landscape-scales

Breakfast at 6:45 a.m. (bag lunch)

8:00-9:00 AM (AEC Conference Room)

• Silviculture and sustainable forest management

9:00 AM-12:00 NOON (HWF)

• Silvicultural interventions  

1:00-2:00 PM (AEC Conference Room)

• Wilderness management and planning in the Adirondacks

2:00-5:00 PM (nearby HWF)

• Experiencing Adirondack wildness and wilderness

Dinner at 6:00 pm 

7:30-9:00 PM (AEC Conference Room)

• Forest land utilization, the specter of parcelization, and forest industry in the Adirondacks   

Thursday– The working forest—a balancing act among ecological, social and economic considerations

Breakfast at 6:45 a.m. (bag lunch) 

8:00-9:00 AM (AEC Conference Room)

• White pine and Ward Lumber  

9:00 AM-12:00 NOON (northeastern Adirondacks, Ausable River corridor, Ward Lumber)

• Commodity wood production and manufacturing

1:00-5:00 PM (Ward Lumber)

• Sawmill (operating) site visit

Dinner at 6:00 pm

7:30-9:00 PM (AEC Conference Room)

• Wildlife and biodiversity research

Friday –The global common and the Northern Forest

Breakfast at 6:45 a.m.(bag lunch)

8:00-9:00 a.m. (AEC Conference Room)

• Forest development: from catastrophe to old-growth 

9:00 AM-12:00 NOON (HWF)

• Biodiversity values as demonstrated via a chronosequence of stands, featuring old-growth

1:00-2:00 PM (AEC Conference Room)

• The Adirondacks as a global common  

2:00-5:00 PM (HWF)

• Acidic deposition, global warming, mercury and other common issues

Dinner at 6:00 pm

7:30-9:00 PM (AEC Conference Room)

• Ecosystem integrity and landscape ecology  

Saturday – Tomorrow’s Adirondack landscape

Breakfast at 6:45 a.m. (bag lunch)

8:00-9:00 AM (AEC Conference Room)

• The Adirondacks: Past, Present and Future

9:00 AM-2:00 PM (Goodnow Mountain)

• Guided hike

 2:00-3:00 PM (AEC Conference Room)

• Summary and expansion
• Reality, pictures, and words

 3:00 PM (AEC Conference Room)

• COURSE END