Forest Science Education in Research Universities

O’Hara, Kevin L.; Salwasser, Hal

doi:10.5849/jof.15-018

Cited by 10 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Nonetheless, we suggest that forestry programs think critically about designing educational connections to and within school forests. As noted by O'Hara and Salwasser [6] (p. 581):…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Furthermore, recent stories, such as plans to develop Virginia Tech's Stadium Woods into an indoor athletic training facility [4] and the University of Mississippi debate about leasing its school forest to logging companies to generate revenue [5], call into question whether school forests are viewed as valuable and relevant to broad communities. Additionally, an increasing number of forestry and forest science programs are facing reorganization within their home IHE and, subsequently, a loss of control over their budgets and resources [6]. These trends suggest that school forests may be at increasing risk of sale and development.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Woods around the Ivory Tower: A Systematic Review Examining the Value and Relevance of School Forests in the United States

et al. 2020

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Throughout the United States, many institutions of higher education own forested tracts, often called school forests, which they use for teaching, research, and demonstration purposes. These school forests provide a range of benefits to the communities in which they are located. However, because administration is often decoupled from research and teaching, those benefits might not always be evident to the individuals who make decisions about the management and use of school forests, which may undervalue their services and put these areas at risk for sale, development, or over-harvesting to generate revenue. To understand what messages are being conveyed about the value and relevance of school forests, we conducted a systematic literature review and qualitatively coded the resulting literature content using an ecosystem services framework. While school forests provide many important benefits to academic and local communities, we found that most of the existing literature omits discussions about cultural ecosystem services that people may receive from school forests. We discuss the implications of this omission and make recommendations for addressing it.

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“…Nonetheless, we suggest that forestry programs think critically about designing educational connections to and within school forests. As noted by O'Hara and Salwasser [6] (p. 581):…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Woods around the Ivory Tower: A Systematic Review Examining the Value and Relevance of School Forests in the United States

et al. 2020

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“…Supporting graduate education could be another way to promote the capacity, ability, and qualifications of the graduates. As O'Hara and Salwasser [53] demonstrate, research universities' perspective on forestry education focuses on a science-driven education that develops innovation and problem-solving skills. As a research university, IUC could improve both the research capacity and the quality of its graduates in terms of their contribution to the sector and competitiveness in forestry.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of Forest Engineering Students’ Attitudes towards Their Education and Future Jobs: Case Results from Turkey

Erol¹

2022

Sustainability

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Forestry is a complex multidimensional discipline that implies a broad job description and task variety for forest engineers. Thus, the scope of professional forestry education is expanding and diversifying. It is essential to determine the students’ attitudes towards their education and future jobs to develop focused solutions in forestry education. In this context, the present study aims to analyze the attitudes of forest engineering students towards their education and future jobs. This study evaluated and compared the students’ attitudes over a 10-year period through questionnaires administered to senior forest engineering students of the Faculty of Forestry at Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa (IUC). It was revealed that, during job selection, non-job factors (39.5%) were nearly as influential as job-related factors (53.7%). Moreover, students’ career plans were based mainly on working in public institutions (41.4%) and simply doing their job (78.1%). The results showed that students’ views on education have improved over time; however, they have doubts about their readiness to succeed in their careers (M = 3.41) and the adequacy of their knowledge and experience level (M = 2.95). Their attitudes on their future job were not wholly positive: They have doubts about finding a job (M = 2.90), having satisfactory working conditions (M = 3.38), and income (M = 3.57). The results of this study can support decision-making in forest education and human resources in forestry.

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“…The necessary monitoring is unfortunately expensive and reliable data come only from professionally established sample plots analyzed by competent biometricians. But no amount of growth-and-yield data can substitute for well-trained forestry personnel ( 6 ), which becomes increasingly challenging with the closure of so many university-based forestry programs ( 59 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustained timber yield claims, considerations, and tradeoffs for selectively logged forests

et al. 2022

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What is meant by sustainability depends on what is sustained and at what level. Sustainable forest management, for example, requires maintenance of a variety of values not the least of which is sustained timber yields (STYs). For the 1 Bha of the world's forests subjected to selective or partial logging, failures to maintain yields can be hidden by regulatory requirements and questionable auditing practices such as increasing the number of commercial species with each harvest, reducing the minimum size at which trees can be harvested, and accepting logs of lower quality. For assertions of STY to be credible, clarity is needed about all these issues, as well as about the associated ecological and economic tradeoffs. Lack of clarity about sustainability heightens risks of unsubstantiated claims and unseen losses. STY is possible but often requires cutting cycles that are longer and logging intensities that are lower than prescribed by law, as well as effective use of low-impact logging practices and application of silvicultural treatments to promote timber stock recovery. These departures from business-as-usual practices will lower profit margins but generally benefit biodiversity and ecosystem services. Significance Statement Commitments to sustainable forest management (SFM) deserve praise but also scrutiny. Here we examine the sustained timber yield (STY) component of SFM for the 25% of Earth's forest subjected to selective logging. Legitimacy of STY claims depend on whether, over time, the number of species included in yield calculations increases, minimum cutting diameters decrease, or lower quality logs are accepted. STY is possible without such dubious accounting practices if harvest intensities and collateral damage decrease, harvest intervals increase, and treatments are applied to promote recovery. These changes will reduce profits relative to those of timber mining, but climate-change mitigation funds should be available to cover some of the costs given the carbon and other benefits of responsible forest management.

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Forest Science Education in Research Universities

Cited by 10 publications

References 8 publications

The Woods around the Ivory Tower: A Systematic Review Examining the Value and Relevance of School Forests in the United States

The Woods around the Ivory Tower: A Systematic Review Examining the Value and Relevance of School Forests in the United States

Comparison of Forest Engineering Students’ Attitudes towards Their Education and Future Jobs: Case Results from Turkey

Sustained timber yield claims, considerations, and tradeoffs for selectively logged forests

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