Congratulations Sam!
http://www.dasnr.okstate.edu/Members/trisha.gedon-40okstate.edu/society-for-range-management-recognizes-dasnr-faculty-member
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Wx on the Great Plains during "spring break"
.. MAJOR WINTER STORM BEGINNING THIS MORNING...
A LATE SEASON ARCTIC AIR MASS WILL CONTINUE TO DROP TEMPERATURES THIS MORNING... WHILE A POWERFUL LATE-WINTER STORM BEARS DOWN ON THE SOUTHERN PLAINS. THE STORM WAS STILL CENTERED BACK IN NEW MEXICO EARLY THIS MORNING... BUT SNOW WAS INCREASING TO ITS EAST FROM THE HIGH PLAINS OF WEST TEXAS INTO WESTERN AND NORTHERN OKLAHOMA. SNOW WILL BECOME MORE WIDESPREAD THIS MORNING OVER MUCH OF THE SOUTHERN PLAINS... AND STRONG NORTH WINDS WILL CREATE BLOWING AND DRIFTING.
THE MAIN IMPACTS OF THIS STORM WILL BE HEAVY FALLING SNOW AND BLOWING SNOW THAT WILL REDUCE VISIBILITY. ACCUMULATIONS WILL AVERAGE 4 TO 8 INCHES OVER A LARGE PART OF NORTHERN... CENTRAL... AND EASTERN OKLAHOMA... WHILE LOCAL AMOUNTS CLOSE TO 12 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE IN PARTS OF NORTHERN AND EASTERN OKLAHOMA NORTHEAST OF OKLAHOMA CITY. NORTH WINDS WILL REMAIN STRONG THROUGHOUT THE SOUTHERN PLAINS... WITH SPEEDS AVERAGING 25 TO 35 MPH... AND GUSTS AROUND 45 MPH. THE SNOW WILL BE SOMEWHAT WET INITIALLY... WITH TEMPERATURES JUST A FEW DEGREES BELOW FREEZING AT THE GROUND... BUT NEAR BLIZZARD CONDITIONS ARE LIKELY IN THE AREAS THAT RECEIVE THE MOST SNOW. LIGHT TO MODERATE SNOW WILL CONTINUE INTO SUNDAY... ESPECIALLY FROM CENTRAL OKLAHOMA EASTWARD. TRAVEL WILL BECOME VERY DIFFICULT OR IMPOSSIBLE IN MANY AREAS THIS WEEKEND. THIS IS A POTENTIALLY LIFE THREATENING WINTER STORM.
A LATE SEASON ARCTIC AIR MASS WILL CONTINUE TO DROP TEMPERATURES THIS MORNING... WHILE A POWERFUL LATE-WINTER STORM BEARS DOWN ON THE SOUTHERN PLAINS. THE STORM WAS STILL CENTERED BACK IN NEW MEXICO EARLY THIS MORNING... BUT SNOW WAS INCREASING TO ITS EAST FROM THE HIGH PLAINS OF WEST TEXAS INTO WESTERN AND NORTHERN OKLAHOMA. SNOW WILL BECOME MORE WIDESPREAD THIS MORNING OVER MUCH OF THE SOUTHERN PLAINS... AND STRONG NORTH WINDS WILL CREATE BLOWING AND DRIFTING.
THE MAIN IMPACTS OF THIS STORM WILL BE HEAVY FALLING SNOW AND BLOWING SNOW THAT WILL REDUCE VISIBILITY. ACCUMULATIONS WILL AVERAGE 4 TO 8 INCHES OVER A LARGE PART OF NORTHERN... CENTRAL... AND EASTERN OKLAHOMA... WHILE LOCAL AMOUNTS CLOSE TO 12 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE IN PARTS OF NORTHERN AND EASTERN OKLAHOMA NORTHEAST OF OKLAHOMA CITY. NORTH WINDS WILL REMAIN STRONG THROUGHOUT THE SOUTHERN PLAINS... WITH SPEEDS AVERAGING 25 TO 35 MPH... AND GUSTS AROUND 45 MPH. THE SNOW WILL BE SOMEWHAT WET INITIALLY... WITH TEMPERATURES JUST A FEW DEGREES BELOW FREEZING AT THE GROUND... BUT NEAR BLIZZARD CONDITIONS ARE LIKELY IN THE AREAS THAT RECEIVE THE MOST SNOW. LIGHT TO MODERATE SNOW WILL CONTINUE INTO SUNDAY... ESPECIALLY FROM CENTRAL OKLAHOMA EASTWARD. TRAVEL WILL BECOME VERY DIFFICULT OR IMPOSSIBLE IN MANY AREAS THIS WEEKEND. THIS IS A POTENTIALLY LIFE THREATENING WINTER STORM.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Baptized by fire and grazing into the Society of Range Management
Likely close to a hundred display booths were around at the tradeshow portion of the meetings. This particular display caught my eye and reminded me of the Horn and the "clean energy and power" in Western Canada.
Dr. Richard Mack - famous weed scientist.
I learned a lot about cheatgrass and smooth bromes monstrous impacts on the land. I then wondered why we are planting them both in British Columbia and why we haven't taken them off our agronomic lists and added them to our top FRPA invasive species lists? 
The plenary session at the joint meeting of the Society for Range Management and the Weed Science Society of America. Over 2,100 people were in attendance for this 5 day+ international conference and symposium.
My first sight of Denver from the ground.
Possibly one of the most fascinating things to me on the trip to Denver was to see Yucca plants growing out on rangeland and private land. I have never seen them like that before and didn't actually think they grew like that, especially in this climate.
Colorado!
Antelope on our drive to Denver Colorado for the Society for Range Management and Weed Science Society of America international conference. February 2010.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
2 months in America
2 months today. Wow. Both fast and very slow at the same time! Hard to believe that on January 4th I had my 2 backpacks with me and was leaving the Island at 4:15am, heading to the airport with the sun at my back and then making my way down to Oklahoma for my holidays. I can definitely say this is not like any other holiday I have ever been on in my life before! What a ride it is! What a lot of paperwork and signatures on things!
Every season when we would come out of winter training and start to head into the shorter distance races, I would have a challenge adjusting to the higher stroke rates and the fast firing of my alactic and lactic anaerobic systems. It used to be the same after sprint season when we moved into head races with their heavy loads and lactic acid soaked muscle demands. I think that being here at school is like a combination of both types of training. Rapid quick firing for homework, exams, tests and presentations that are immediate but long term memory for reading papers, synthesizing and thinking more than I've ever thought about science before. It is all fantastic and much like rowing, a very intense addiction that I have come to realize. Just like when I was rowing and couldn't get enough calories into me, I can't stop surrounding myself with the amazing science, papers, texts, books and discussions that are all giving me the opportunity to truly become a scientist.
2 months in America. I try not to miss Canada too much but it does happen. Really, the longest I've been away but at the same time, I am so busy and pre-occupied with school and how I can apply what I am learning back home that it is not as hard as it could be. Although, it's trappers rendezvous up in Nellie this week and I'm missing my logging sports partner and all the great festivities that are happening in the great white north. Living conditions here are challenging but doable.
2 months in America. Never thought that I would say that line! As I was between classes today I had the opportunity to enjoy a short amount of sunshine and there were 2 things that came to me. One being what my good friend Mike Keefer, ethnobotanist in the East Kootenays, said to me last spring "knowledge is power" and the other being sacrifice. The best things in life always come at a price.
I have recently had the opportunity to experience first hand the differences between the Canadian and American health care systems. It is a different concept to pay out of pocket to see a medical practitioner, but I am very thankful for the kindness I have received and for the assistance in further recovery from my knock on my head last year. I am thankful for the knowledge and care of the doctor here on campus. I also very thankful for the good people in my lab and that very wonderful grad students who are sharing this journey and who I hope will come up to the Boreal one day.
These good folks include new friends who also work under Sam. Stephen Winter (http://nrem.okstate.edu/grads/winter.html) would be one of those good folks who has helped me out massively. Brady Allred is also on that list of amazing new friends. Both Brady and Steve are working on their PhDs in the pyric herbivory world. Wesley Sprinkle, another gradutate student, is the closest connection I have with Canada as his mum is from Fort McLeod, Alberta, close to the Big Coulee Ranch and Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump where I first lived. Ray Moranz is another grad student who is doing very interesting work on butterflies and is someone who has an equal amount of passion to me I believe (http://nrem.okstate.edu/grads/moranz.html)! Emily Hiatt and Ilana Bloom-Cornelius are my 2 good buddies and are graduate students working with Sam as well on the fire-grazing interaction. Ryan Limb is a research specialist working in our crew as well.
Check out http://nrem.okstate.edu/facultyandstaff.html. Valerie Cook and Mitch Greer make up the remainder of our lab and are by far 2 of the funniest and funnest Americans I have ever met! I would say that these good folks are joined by Andy Crosby (http://nrem.okstate.edu/grads/crosby.htm), Tracy and Stewart Wilson, Curtis Lilly, and John Polo as really great classmates and wonderful people to be around.
Since I'm on a role with naming names, in case you are interested in seeing who my professors are, here is their role call:
Sam - Special Topics in Range Management - http://nrem.okstate.edu/faculty/Fuhlendorf.html
Rod Will - Production Ecology in Forested Ecosystems - http://nrem.okstate.edu/faculty/will.html
Mark Gregory - Database and GIS - http://nrem.okstate.edu/faculty/gregory.html
Mike Smith - Statistics - http://www.okstate.edu/ag/asnr/hortla/faculty/fruits.htm
And because he let me into his fire class - John Weir http://nrem.okstate.edu/faculty/Weir.html.
All in all, this is a really great group to work with and I'm just proud to be part of the team!
The books that are staring at me staring at them:
1. Range Management - Holechek et al
2. Fire and Plants - Bond and van Wilgen
3. Ecological Implications of Livestock Herbivory in the West - Vavra, Laycock and Pieper - Society of Range Management
4. Getting to know ArcGis desktop - second edition
5. Grass: In search of human habitat - Joe Truett, 2010
pp 170 - 173
"Dr. Sam Fuhlendorf, range professor at Oklahoma State University, spreads odd notions about ranching in a part of the country where unconventional ideas get the same critical scrutiny as a cow wearing an altered brand ... Hailing from my home state and like me a product of Texas A&M, Sam looked and talked like one of the boys. But he turned out to be a maverick. One of the most egregious sins committed by Sam came to my attention in an article he published with colleague David Engle in 2001 in the journal BioScience. Packed with terms and concepts seldom tossed about in cowboy culture, it challenged what livestock growers had been doing out on the range for most of a century. Fuhlendorf and Engle titeld the article "Restoring Heterogeneity on Rangelands: Ecosystem Management Based on Evolutionary Grazing Patterns." The introduction gave the theme: "We propose a paradigm that enhances heterogeneity instead of homogeneity to promote biological diversity and wildlife habitat on rangelands grazed by livestock."... we should encourage spatial heterogeneity. The key is to manage for variety in plant species, plant structure, and grazing pressures within pastures. Forget climax. Think patchwork. EMBRACE DISTURBANCE... Burning, for instance, attracts grazing for several years afterward. Periodic patch burning sets in motion a self-perpetuating and shifting mosaic ... Bob Hamilton practices on the ground what Fuhlendorf preaches in the university classroom and at rangeland conferences. Bob manages the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in northeastern Oklahoma. The preserve, owned by the Nature Conservancy, runs bison instead of cattle..."
6. Foundations of Ecology: Classic papers with commentaries
7. Physiology of Woody Plants, 2nd Edition - Kozlowski and Pallardy
9. Plant Ecology - Clements and Weaver
Plus new arrivals today from Amazon.com (which I have an addiction to):
1. Landscape Ecology in Theory and Practice: Pattern and Process by Monica Turner, Robert Gardner and Robert O'Neil
2. Foundation Papers in Landscape Ecology by John Wiens, Michael Moss, Monica Turner and David Mlandenoff
3. The Masterworks of Charles M. Russell: A Retrospective of Paintings and Sculpture
Onwards and upwards.
Every season when we would come out of winter training and start to head into the shorter distance races, I would have a challenge adjusting to the higher stroke rates and the fast firing of my alactic and lactic anaerobic systems. It used to be the same after sprint season when we moved into head races with their heavy loads and lactic acid soaked muscle demands. I think that being here at school is like a combination of both types of training. Rapid quick firing for homework, exams, tests and presentations that are immediate but long term memory for reading papers, synthesizing and thinking more than I've ever thought about science before. It is all fantastic and much like rowing, a very intense addiction that I have come to realize. Just like when I was rowing and couldn't get enough calories into me, I can't stop surrounding myself with the amazing science, papers, texts, books and discussions that are all giving me the opportunity to truly become a scientist.
2 months in America. I try not to miss Canada too much but it does happen. Really, the longest I've been away but at the same time, I am so busy and pre-occupied with school and how I can apply what I am learning back home that it is not as hard as it could be. Although, it's trappers rendezvous up in Nellie this week and I'm missing my logging sports partner and all the great festivities that are happening in the great white north. Living conditions here are challenging but doable.
2 months in America. Never thought that I would say that line! As I was between classes today I had the opportunity to enjoy a short amount of sunshine and there were 2 things that came to me. One being what my good friend Mike Keefer, ethnobotanist in the East Kootenays, said to me last spring "knowledge is power" and the other being sacrifice. The best things in life always come at a price.
I have recently had the opportunity to experience first hand the differences between the Canadian and American health care systems. It is a different concept to pay out of pocket to see a medical practitioner, but I am very thankful for the kindness I have received and for the assistance in further recovery from my knock on my head last year. I am thankful for the knowledge and care of the doctor here on campus. I also very thankful for the good people in my lab and that very wonderful grad students who are sharing this journey and who I hope will come up to the Boreal one day.
These good folks include new friends who also work under Sam. Stephen Winter (http://nrem.okstate.edu/grads/winter.html) would be one of those good folks who has helped me out massively. Brady Allred is also on that list of amazing new friends. Both Brady and Steve are working on their PhDs in the pyric herbivory world. Wesley Sprinkle, another gradutate student, is the closest connection I have with Canada as his mum is from Fort McLeod, Alberta, close to the Big Coulee Ranch and Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump where I first lived. Ray Moranz is another grad student who is doing very interesting work on butterflies and is someone who has an equal amount of passion to me I believe (http://nrem.okstate.edu/grads/moranz.html)! Emily Hiatt and Ilana Bloom-Cornelius are my 2 good buddies and are graduate students working with Sam as well on the fire-grazing interaction. Ryan Limb is a research specialist working in our crew as well.
Check out http://nrem.okstate.edu/facultyandstaff.html. Valerie Cook and Mitch Greer make up the remainder of our lab and are by far 2 of the funniest and funnest Americans I have ever met! I would say that these good folks are joined by Andy Crosby (http://nrem.okstate.edu/grads/crosby.htm), Tracy and Stewart Wilson, Curtis Lilly, and John Polo as really great classmates and wonderful people to be around.
Since I'm on a role with naming names, in case you are interested in seeing who my professors are, here is their role call:
Sam - Special Topics in Range Management - http://nrem.okstate.edu/faculty/Fuhlendorf.html
Rod Will - Production Ecology in Forested Ecosystems - http://nrem.okstate.edu/faculty/will.html
Mark Gregory - Database and GIS - http://nrem.okstate.edu/faculty/gregory.html
Mike Smith - Statistics - http://www.okstate.edu/ag/asnr/hortla/faculty/fruits.htm
And because he let me into his fire class - John Weir http://nrem.okstate.edu/faculty/Weir.html.
All in all, this is a really great group to work with and I'm just proud to be part of the team!
The books that are staring at me staring at them:
1. Range Management - Holechek et al
2. Fire and Plants - Bond and van Wilgen
3. Ecological Implications of Livestock Herbivory in the West - Vavra, Laycock and Pieper - Society of Range Management
4. Getting to know ArcGis desktop - second edition
5. Grass: In search of human habitat - Joe Truett, 2010
pp 170 - 173
"Dr. Sam Fuhlendorf, range professor at Oklahoma State University, spreads odd notions about ranching in a part of the country where unconventional ideas get the same critical scrutiny as a cow wearing an altered brand ... Hailing from my home state and like me a product of Texas A&M, Sam looked and talked like one of the boys. But he turned out to be a maverick. One of the most egregious sins committed by Sam came to my attention in an article he published with colleague David Engle in 2001 in the journal BioScience. Packed with terms and concepts seldom tossed about in cowboy culture, it challenged what livestock growers had been doing out on the range for most of a century. Fuhlendorf and Engle titeld the article "Restoring Heterogeneity on Rangelands: Ecosystem Management Based on Evolutionary Grazing Patterns." The introduction gave the theme: "We propose a paradigm that enhances heterogeneity instead of homogeneity to promote biological diversity and wildlife habitat on rangelands grazed by livestock."... we should encourage spatial heterogeneity. The key is to manage for variety in plant species, plant structure, and grazing pressures within pastures. Forget climax. Think patchwork. EMBRACE DISTURBANCE... Burning, for instance, attracts grazing for several years afterward. Periodic patch burning sets in motion a self-perpetuating and shifting mosaic ... Bob Hamilton practices on the ground what Fuhlendorf preaches in the university classroom and at rangeland conferences. Bob manages the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in northeastern Oklahoma. The preserve, owned by the Nature Conservancy, runs bison instead of cattle..."
6. Foundations of Ecology: Classic papers with commentaries
7. Physiology of Woody Plants, 2nd Edition - Kozlowski and Pallardy
9. Plant Ecology - Clements and Weaver
Plus new arrivals today from Amazon.com (which I have an addiction to):
1. Landscape Ecology in Theory and Practice: Pattern and Process by Monica Turner, Robert Gardner and Robert O'Neil
2. Foundation Papers in Landscape Ecology by John Wiens, Michael Moss, Monica Turner and David Mlandenoff
3. The Masterworks of Charles M. Russell: A Retrospective of Paintings and Sculpture
Onwards and upwards.
Monday, March 1, 2010
The kindness that carries me through
Last night I took some time away from my books to watch the hockey game. I saw the last period of the awesome women's gold medal game and was so proud to watch our men fighting with their fingernails out to win the gold last night. It reminded me of how proud I am to be Canadian, to wear the maple leaf and to say that I will stand on guard for thee. Robert Service "I'll fight and you can bet it's no shame fight, it's hell but I've been there before, and it's better than this by a damn site, so me for the Yukon (Canada and Fort Nelson) once more." It's the longest I've ever been away from home, if I consider the country of Canada to be my home. I've lived in the east, grew up in the west and now find my heart the happiest in our great north. It'll be 2 months since I've been away from the maple leaf and it has gone by real fast, just like everyone says. It's been a month since I wrote up on this website, but to be honest, I've had only a few moments to catch my breath.
Today, I caught my breath quickly when I found myself back at the doc's office, dealing with a sore ear and head. I do not know how these resilient folks down here manage with the rapid change in weather and temperature. One day it's seriously +15C and the next it's back down to about -5C. Regardless, or irregardless depending on which word you take to be in the english language, I can say that I miss home but that I continue to learn and reflect and think about many good things here - I do not wish it away even though challenges are plenty.
I had the great opportunity to go to the Charles M Russell exhibit at the Gilchrease Museum on friday with Emily Hiatt, Ilana Bloom-Cornelius and Steve Winter (all fellow graduate students) along with our fearless leader Sam. Charlie Russell is a hero to me and it was a very impressive exhibit that they had of his work. There were also some very beautiful paintings of Native Americans and First Nations as well as moccasins and artifacts that we were allowed to see. The big country and the beautiful people in the paintings made me long for Canada. We live in such an incredible place and land and we are so blessed with the lives that we lead. I am leading a discussion on 2 papers tomorrow morning in my production ecology of forested ecoystems. Brad Hawkes from the Canadian Forest Service was kind enough to start filling me up with papers on carbon sequestration, fire, the boreal and climate change. We need to be talking about this more and questioning what role we think the boreal has in carbon budgets - sink or source or both at varying stages of forest and rangeland development? I put together a slideshow of some pictures over the past 4 years at work. I love my job.
Nobody does it alone and I surely am not here alone. What I'd like to say to those of you who are reading these words is thank you. From my good colleagues back in the Forest Service, or rather as I prefer to call it - the Ministry of Range - who are going through massive amounts of change at relatively high speeds, to my family and friends around the province and the country and my relatives from overseas, your words and encouragement, your kindness and thoughtfullness, your cheering from afar and your good thoughts over the miles, they are all what I find myself drawing on at this time. Having just received a package of my bills and mail from Fort Nellie from my mum, I also received some very lovely cards. Although at times, or perhaps everyday, I have asked myself what I am doing here and why am I here, I keep coming back with the same reasoning - to become an excellent scientist and to be able to bring back this knowledge to the north and the circumpolar boreal and to ensure that we use it to manage the land and the natural resource to the best of our possible ability while contributing to and respecting traditional ways of life. Thank you to all of you. Your kindness and support is carrying me through.
Today, I caught my breath quickly when I found myself back at the doc's office, dealing with a sore ear and head. I do not know how these resilient folks down here manage with the rapid change in weather and temperature. One day it's seriously +15C and the next it's back down to about -5C. Regardless, or irregardless depending on which word you take to be in the english language, I can say that I miss home but that I continue to learn and reflect and think about many good things here - I do not wish it away even though challenges are plenty.
I had the great opportunity to go to the Charles M Russell exhibit at the Gilchrease Museum on friday with Emily Hiatt, Ilana Bloom-Cornelius and Steve Winter (all fellow graduate students) along with our fearless leader Sam. Charlie Russell is a hero to me and it was a very impressive exhibit that they had of his work. There were also some very beautiful paintings of Native Americans and First Nations as well as moccasins and artifacts that we were allowed to see. The big country and the beautiful people in the paintings made me long for Canada. We live in such an incredible place and land and we are so blessed with the lives that we lead. I am leading a discussion on 2 papers tomorrow morning in my production ecology of forested ecoystems. Brad Hawkes from the Canadian Forest Service was kind enough to start filling me up with papers on carbon sequestration, fire, the boreal and climate change. We need to be talking about this more and questioning what role we think the boreal has in carbon budgets - sink or source or both at varying stages of forest and rangeland development? I put together a slideshow of some pictures over the past 4 years at work. I love my job.
Nobody does it alone and I surely am not here alone. What I'd like to say to those of you who are reading these words is thank you. From my good colleagues back in the Forest Service, or rather as I prefer to call it - the Ministry of Range - who are going through massive amounts of change at relatively high speeds, to my family and friends around the province and the country and my relatives from overseas, your words and encouragement, your kindness and thoughtfullness, your cheering from afar and your good thoughts over the miles, they are all what I find myself drawing on at this time. Having just received a package of my bills and mail from Fort Nellie from my mum, I also received some very lovely cards. Although at times, or perhaps everyday, I have asked myself what I am doing here and why am I here, I keep coming back with the same reasoning - to become an excellent scientist and to be able to bring back this knowledge to the north and the circumpolar boreal and to ensure that we use it to manage the land and the natural resource to the best of our possible ability while contributing to and respecting traditional ways of life. Thank you to all of you. Your kindness and support is carrying me through.
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