Courses
As a faculty member at UMaine, I instruct several courses in the forestry undergraduate curriculum, including Wildland Firefighter Preliminary Training (SFR 201), Forest Field Skills and Management (SFR 207), Silviculture lecture and laboratory (SFR 408/409) and Forest Landscape Management and Planning (SFR 477). I teach an advanced silviculture course alternating spring semesters (Advanced Precision Silviculture - SFR 603).
Photo credit: A. Sperling
SFR 201 - Wildland Firefighter Preliminary Training
Prepares students for wildland firefighter basic training needed for the Firefighter Red Card which is recognized nationally by the U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management and many state and local fire agencies.
SFR 207 - Forest Field Skills and Management
Field course designed to provide professional, hands-on training for all forest resource students in field safety, navigation, field measurement techniques, chainsaw operation, fire suppression training, lumber scaling and grading, and situational awareness in remote settings.
SFR 408/409 - Silviculture
It’s like gardening, but in the woods with trees. The goal of this course is to provide students a working knowledge of Silvi (forest)- culture (tend, guard, cultivate) -- the principles and practice of manipulating forest vegetation to achieve specific goals and objectives (e.g., timber production, wildlife habitat, C sequestration/storage) and ensure that forests remain sustainable in all ways expected by society. Our work will emphasize the theory and quantitative practice of silviculture as practiced in the northeastern U.S., yet the principles apply quite generally to meeting objectives of forest ownership almost anywhere.
SFR 477 - Forest Landscape Management and Planning
Forest managers face multiple, sometimes conflicting, objectives and must articulate, quantify, and monitor provision of desired products and services in an uncertain environment. This course is the integration of biophysical, cultural, and socioeconomic sciences for multiple use management to achieve desired products, services, and conditions of forested landscapes (1,000+ acres) through advanced quantitative methods.
SFR 603 - Advanced Precision Silviculture
Silviculturists and forest managers are increasingly asked to do more with less. This course is directed toward novel tending methods using open source data and processing tools, advancing detection technologies to generate high-precision silvicultural solutions.