FOREST ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION (BIO 294)

SPRING 2002

Dr. Drew Barton

MEETING TIME: Tuesday 9:30-2:00, Thursday 9:30-10:45

COMMUNICATIONS: Ricker 23, x7397, Barton@maine.edu,

Blackboard Website - http://www.courses.maine.edu

OFFICE HOURS: Monday 9-10, Class break on Tuesday, Thursday 11-12, and by appointment

REQUIRED READING: North Woods by Peter Marchand (1987)

(Downtown Bookstore) Reading the Forested Landscape by Tom Wessels (1997)

Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold (1949)

Hidden Forest by Jon Luoma (1999)

Assigned articles for many lectures (full reference given on Lecture outlines)

COURSE CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:

You will learn diverse content. “Forest Ecology and Conservation” is a course about the ecological principles that govern forests and the applications of those principles to the management and conservation of forests. These concepts and issues are at the core of the critical struggle to find a balance between using and preserving the diversity of the natural world. We will cover the fundamentals of forest ecology by examining first the ecology of tree individuals and populations (autecology) and then the ecology of entire forests (community and ecosystem ecology). We will then explicitly apply some of these concepts to forest management and biodiversity conservation. During the last part of the course, we will use what we have learned to explore aspects of the ecology, use, and preservation of forests in Maine. We will ponder some of the major forest controversies in Maine, issues with important national implications.

You will learn important skills. I also aim, through this course, to sharpen some of your important scientific skills. We will spend lots of time in the forest, where you will learn and practice important approaches to identification, measurement, experimentation, and the art of observing and “reading the forest.” You will also do a great deal of reading, writing, and presenting in this course. These assignments are designed to improve your skills at (1) critically analyzing and synthesizing information in the scientific literature, (2) developing independent and collaborative research projects, and (3) communicating in a scientific forum. In our information-rich society, these are life-long skills that should help you succeed.

COURSE GUIDELINES:

Use me and engage yourself. This course will be a collaboration among students and between students and me. You can expect me to (1) present the lectures, (2) set boundaries for your literature explorations, (3) guide your project development, (4) facilitate discussions, (5) help you with communication skills, and (6) evaluate your performance. Otherwise, my goal is to try to stay out of the way of your learning as much as possible. You should expect me to be accessible to you -- in person, by phone, and by e-mail. Don't hesitate to see me. Do not expect to be able to sit back passively and absorb knowledge that I feed to you. You must actively engage yourself in this course to learn and to perform well.

Attendance is crucial. Attendance in lectures, discussions, and labs is essential. Unexcused absences will be counted against your grade. Because of the nature of field and lab projects, they will be extremely difficult to make up. Extensions and make-ups will not be routinely available. In the event of a catastrophe (e.g., major illness, family emergency, accident, etc.), exceptions to this policy may be made if I am contacted and agree ahead of time. Please be on time for class.

Prepare for lab. Dress appropriately for field projects. Field trips are not my idea of outward bound, but you should be prepared for spending hours in cold, snowy conditions. Hat, big boots, warm socks, gloves, coat, and long underwear are de rïgueur in this course. Read assigned reading before field or lab projects. Bring a notebook and writing utensil.

The moral of the story. As always, unethical behavior – including cheating and plagiarism – will be dealt with harshly in accordance with the disciplinary regulations of the university. If you have any questions about what constitutes plagiarism, please come see me (rather than hand in questionable material).

“HOMEWORK” & HOW WILL YOU BE EVALUATED?

Reading will be unusual. Rather than use a textbook, you will read four popular books and 11 or 12 scientific articles.

Work will be diverse. You will be evaluated in the course in the following ways. There will be two Exams (100 points each), which will emphasize your understanding of concepts, your ability to interpret data, and your ability to think and synthesize. There is no Final Exam. You will also take a field Tree Identification Exam (40 points). With a partner, you will complete a Term Project on a forest ecology and conservation topic that contributes in a real way to the Farmington area or to UMF. You will give an oral presentation (30 points) and write a paper (80 points) on the project. With three partners, you will write a Technical Paper (60 points) based on our tree ring lab. By yourself, you will research one tree species of your choice and present a Species Report oral presentation (20 points) and short essay (30 points). Finally, you will write two Abstracts (15 points each), for which I will provide the scientific papers and you will write the abstracts. In one other non-graded assignment, you will work with three partners to crunch data from our Forest Community Lab and construct several tables that we will discuss in class.

BLACKBOARD: ONLINE “FOREST ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION”

Getting into Blackboard. We will use a web-based course management system called Blackboard. I think that you’ll like Blackboard. You will be able to download outlines of my lectures and course handouts, submit papers, check the syllabus and calendar for the course, participate in on-line discus, and check out web links that can help with the course material. Since it is web-based, you can get into and use Blackboard with any computer with internet access. You should check Blackboard every day or at least every other day in case I have sent an important message. Access “Forest Ecology and Conservation” on Blackboard at http://www.courses.maine.edu. You will be guided on what account ID and password to enter to gain access to the “Forest Ecology and Conservation” site.

Using Blackboard. Blackboard is fairly straightforward to navigate and use. When you log in, you will always be greeted by the Announcements page, which will provide you with any important messages for the course. This is what you want to check frequently. Click on Syllabus to see the course syllabus, which you are now reading. The Lecture folder contains outlines for each lecture, the Lab folder provides handouts for labs, the Assignments folder has – well – assignments for the course, and the Guides folder has documents that provide guidance on things such as statistics, graphing, research papers, etc. Unless you have a laptop that you will bring to all classes, it is very important for you to print out these items well before you need them. To do that, simply click on the item, which will open it up in MS Word or an MS Word reader in Internet Explorer; then print. The Student Tools section has the following very useful tools for the course: Digital Dropbox for submitting papers and getting back my comments; Tasks (optional) for you to keep a list of tasks for yourself for the course; and Groups (optional) for communicating with a group of students in the course.

Memorize this one Blackboard command. One essential command to remember: when you want to send an assignment to me via the Digital Dropbox, be sure to select the “Send” command rather than the “Add” command.

I’m really looking forward to diving into “Forest Ecology and Conservation” with you.

Let’s have some fun in the forest!

Equal educational opportunity is offered to students with special needs due to disability. Please notify the instructor if a reasonable accommodation is needed to meet course requirements.

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

Date	Topic	Reading	Assignment Due
	Ecology of Tree Species & Populations
T 1/22	Lecture 1: Introduction & Scientific Method Lab: Farmington Area Winter Tree Identification	Begin “North Woods”
Th 1/24	Discussion: Analysis of Williams et al. article
T 1/29	Lecture 2: Physical Ecological Factors Discussion: Analysis of Harrison et al 1971 Lab: Tree Ring Analysis Lab	Harrison et al. 1971
Th 1/31	Lecture 3: Plant Response to Moisture Gradients
T 2/5	Lecture 4: Plant Response to Temperature Gradients Lab: Tree Ring Analysis Lab Lecture 5: Plant Response to Soils	Complete “North Woods”
Th 2/7	Lecture 5: Plant Response to Soils (cont.) Discussion: Analysis of Pastor et al. 1982	Pastor et al. 1982	Abstract for Pastor et al. 1982
T 2/12	Lab: Tree Identification Exam Lecture 6: Plant Response to Disturbance (& “Intensive fire changes Madrean pine-oak forest to oak woodland” by Dr. Barton)	Romme & Despain 1989 Barton 1999
W 2/13			Tree Ring Report
Th 2/14	Lecture 7: Plant Response to Light	Canham 1985 Begin “Sand County Almanac”	Abstract for Canham 1985
T 2/19	Winter Break
Th 2/21	Winter Break
T 2/26	Lecture 8: Species in the Environmental Complex Review & Logistics: Exam I Review Lab: Timber Harvest (with Peter Tracy, Forester)
Th 2/28	Exam I
	Plant Communities & Ecosystems
T 3/5	Lecture 9: Plant Communities and Ecosystems Discussion: “Sand County Almanac” Logistics: Exam I, Species Reports, Projects	Complete “Sand County Almanac” Begin “Hidden Forest”
Th 3/7	Lecture 10: Forest Carbon & Nutrient Balance		Tree Ring Report Rewrite
T 3/12	Lecture 11: Plant Communities over Space Lab: Species Report Presentations		Species Report Presentations
Th 3/14	Lecture 12: Succession & Community Dynamics		Species Reports
T 3/19	Lecture 13: Plant Communities over Long Times Discussion: “Hidden Forest” Open	Complete “Hidden Forest” Begin “Reading the Forested Landscape”
Th 3/21	Lecture 14: Conservation of Biological Diversity	McShea and Rappole 2000
T 3/26	Lecture 15: Forest Silviculture & Management Review: Exam II Lab: Forest Communities of Farmington: Pico Ledge	Bergeron 2001
Th 3/28	Exam II
	Ecology & Conservation of Maine Forests
T 4/2	Lab: Forest Community Study: Pico Ledge Lecture 16: Maine Forest Ecology	Lorimer 1977
Th 4/4	Lecture 17: Maine Ecological-Human History	Foster and Motzkin 1998
T 4/9	Lab: Managing Woodlands (with Harry Dwyer, Consulting Forester)
Th 4/11	Discussion/Presentation: Forest Community Analysis		Forest Comm. Worksheet
T 4/16	Spring Break
Th 4/18	Spring Break
T 4/23	Lab: Reading the Farmington Landscape	Complete “Reading the Forested Landscape”
Th 4/25	Open
T 4/30	Lab: Field Trip to Mt. Blue’s Hedgehog Hill
Th 5/2	Lecture 18: Maine Forest Issues and Discussion	Seymour et al. 2002
T 5/7	Lab: Project Presentations
Th 5/9	Lecture 18: Maine Forest Issues and Discussion
M 5/13	Exam Week – No Final Exam		Final Projects

Please regard the dates for course topics as tentative. The instructor reserves the right to make reasonable changes in the schedule listed above.

TENTATIVE GRADING AND ASSIGNMENT SCHEDULE:

Your grade in this course will be based on your total percentage for lecture and lab combined. Grades will be based on the following percentages: A > 92, A- 90-91, B+ 87-89, B 83-86, B- 80-82, C+ 77-79, C 73-76, C- 70-72, D+ 67-69, D 63-66, D- 60-62, F <60

Assignment	Points	Due Date
Tree Species ID Exam	40	2/5
Abstracts (2 @ 15 pts each)	30	2/7 & 2/14
Tree Ring Group Lab Report	60	2/13 & 3/7
Lecture Exam I	100	2/28
Species Report
Oral Presentation	20	3/12
Written	30	3/14
Lecture Exam II	100	3/28
Group Independent Research Project
Oral Presentation	30	4/30
Written Report</