This Week in RNR
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LSU Coronavirus Updates and Information
- -- 30 March 2020, Monday: Course scheduling for Fall semester, Summer Intersession, and Wintersession begins, 5:00 p.m.
- -- 13 April 2020, Monday: Final date for dropping courses, 4:30 p.m., deadline
- -- 13 April 2020, Monday: Final date for resigning from the University, 4:30 p.m., deadline
- -- 13 April 2020, Monday: Final date to request rescheduling a final examination when three examinations are scheduled in 24 hour
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ACADEMIC CALANDER
SRNR Alum Receives NOAA
Administrator’s Award
Ken Riley, SRNR (SFWF) graduate (MS, 2002) was recently named as a recipient of the 2019 Administrator's Award from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The award is the agency's highest honor and is granted by the Under-Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere who serves concurrently as the Administrator of NOAA.
Ken was recognized with three others for “foresight, ingenuity, and hard work developing OceanReports, a web-based geospatial application for analyzing US ocean neighborhoods”.
This is the “first of its kind smart web application that revolutionizes the way ocean data is accessed, analyzed, and visualized for the entire US Exclusive Economic Zone”, and offers powerful new planning process tools for siting, permitting, and environmental review.
Tiger Chapter Ducks Unlimited repeats as university National Champion!
Above-Upper: TCDU National Champions! Members of Tiger Chapter Ducks Unlimited celebrate with the National Championship trophy for 2018.
Above-Lower: TCDU National Champions! Members of Tiger Chapter Ducks Unlimited celebrate with the National Championship trophy for 2018.
At the Third Term National Leadership Conference last August in Memphis, Tiger Chapter Ducks Unlimited repeated as All American Chapter and National Champion, 1st of 112 university chapters across the United States for 2018. Tiger Chapter previously won this award in 2017, and is working hard for a trifecta in 2019. Co-chairs of Tiger Chapter were Kay Avery, Senior in Wildlife Ecology, and Gunther Spore, Senior in Finance. Advisors are Drs. Luke Laborde and Kevin Ringelman.
Dr. Laborde Goes "Above and Beyond"
In January, the NAADA presented the Individual Achievement Awardees from the #NAADA19 conference. First up is this year’s recipient of the Above and Beyond Partner Award – Dr. Luke Laborde, an instructor in the School of Renewable Natural Resources at LSU.
This award is presented to a faculty and/or staff member who has given freely of their time, working outside the realm of their official responsibilities, to further the goals of their institution’s alumni, communications, development or student services programs, and has demonstrated leadership and organizational skills to inspire others to further the success of these programs and the institution. Congratulations, Luke, on this very well deserved award!
The National Agricultural Alumni and Development Association (NAADA) is dedicated to the professional advancement of the individual members and in turn, the institutions they serve. NAADA is comprised of 44 of the nation’s colleges of agriculture and related sciences as well as individuals who are volunteers not only to NAADA, but also to member institutions.
RNR Alumnus Inducted into
LSU Hall of Distinction
Dale Hall, MS Fisheries '75, was honored by the LSU Alumni Association as 2019 Alumnus of the Year, and inducted into the LSU Hall of Distinction. Pictured with Dale at the Lod Cook event are Cliff Vannoy, CEO, LSU Alumni Association, and Beverly Shea, President of the LSU Alumni Association. Rori Smith, background, served as Emcee for the event.
Dale had a 31 year career with the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, serving the last four as Director, nominated by President George W. Bush. As CEO of Ducks Unlimited, Dale envisioned and completed a $2 billion capital campaign for wetlands conservation, the largest of its kind in the history of natural resource conservation by a non-governmental entity. In 2018, Dale was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the LSU School of Renewable Natural Resources. He is currently retired with wife Sarah, a native of Bunkie, in Collierville, TN.
RNR Students in Mexico: RNR 4062/7029 -
Applied Estuarine Ecology of the Yucatan
The LSU School of Renewable Natural Resources, in partnership with Academic Programs Abroad, offered RNR 4062 & 7029 – Applied Estuarine Ecology of the Yucatan – during fall semester 2019.
The class of 1 graduate and 7 upperclassmen RNR students were lead by Drs. Kevin Ringelman, Andy Nyman, and Luke Laborde and traveled to Celestun, Mexico January 3-11, 2020.
Highlights of the trip included sightings of American Flamingos (Phoenicopterus ruber) and 122 additional species of birds, visits to mangrove swamps and mangrove restoration projects, and a visit to the Mayan ruins at Uxmal. The group was hosted by Ducks Unlimited de Mexico (DUMAC) at the John E. Walker Natural Resources and Training Center at Celestun.
A presentation summarizing the trip [downloand PDF], a list of species (primarily birds) that we were able to identify [downloand PDF], and our actual daily schedule for our 7 days in the field [downloand PDF].
Alumni News:
Harvey family honored as 2020 Feliciana Outstanding Forest Landowner
RNR Alumnus Joe Harvey (center right) and family were awarded 2020 Outstanding Forest Landowner by the Feliciana Forestry Association. Pictured (L to R) are Mark Hurst (BSF ‘86; consulting forester on the property), Cherie Harvey (Joe’s wife), Maddie Harvey (daughter), Ann Harvey (mother), Sissy Harvey (sister), and Joe (BSF 2002). Mike Thomas (r; BSF ’89), presented the award for the Association.
The family of RNR alumnus Joe Harvey (BSF 2002) was honored by the Feliciana Forestry Association with the 2020 Outstanding Forest Landowner award. The 850 acre family property, located in West Feliciana parish, was originally purchased by Joe’s great-grandfather and expanded by his grandfather. About 700 acres of it is in pine timberland. Recently, they planted 3 acres of pecans and plan to expand it to 10 acres. Consulting forester Mark Hurst (BSF ’86) helps the family maintain the land with proper thinnings, harvests and prescribed burns. The award was presented at the annual meeting of the Feliciana Forestry Association on January 23, 2020, in St. Francisville, with 160 attendees.
Double LSU Grad Sails to Antarctica to Combat Climate Change with Increased Female Leadership in Science
Coastal wetlands field ecologist Rachel Villani of Baton Rouge, Louisiana will be one of 80 women from across the globe with a background in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, math, and medicine) to sail to the ends of the Earth in 2020 as part of the international program "Homeward Bound."
“The name ‘Homeward Bound’ has to do with the planet being our home and us trying to keep it that way,” Villani explains. “It’s simple. We have to do everything we can. If not, our climate will change to the point where we cannot exist anymore.”
Rachel has a Bachelor of Science in Wildlife and Fisheries and a Master of Science in Wildlife Ecology, both from the School of Renewable Natural Resources. For the past 10 years, she’s worked on a project called CRMS (pronounced krims), the Coastwide Reference Monitoring System, with 390 permanent monitoring sites across the Louisiana coast.
[Homeward Bound] aims to connect women scientists both locally and internationally to enhance their opportunity to take up leadership roles globally. To protect the birds and Louisiana’s wetlands, Villani would like to take on a leadership role soon.
For more information on Rachel's participation in this program and how you could be involved, see this article from the LSU Office of Research & Economic Development
Advances in Sustainable Stand Mangement
Professor Thomas J. Dean contributed a chapter to a recently published book entitled, Achieving Sustainable Management of Boreal and Temperature Forests. The chapter titled, “Advances in stand management and regeneration” is available in PDF from the Dr. Dean.
From the Introduction: “ … the chapter focuses on advance in stand management and regeneration. Multiaged forests are thought to have the redundant structure to withstand changing disturbance regimes expected with future climate scenarios. The chapter describes methods for deciding how to control stand density multiaged silviculture at the stand level and the individual tree level, as well as providing an analysis of current density management principles. It also examines stand regeneration and the resilience and recovery of multiaged forests.”
The complete table of contnets for "Achieving sustainable management of boreal and temperate forests" is available HERE
RNR Student Researching Tiger Genetics
LEFT: Alessandra Bresnan, LSU graduate student in the College of Agriculture School of Renewable Natural Resources, is studying conservation genetics of tigers. Her research is funded by LSU through its role with the Tigers United University Consortium. Photo provided by Bresnan
(01/08/20) Baton Rouge, La. — Ask any LSU football fan what makes up a tiger and answers might include passion, determination and hard work. But one LSU student is conducting research on what truly makes up a tiger.
Alessandra Bresnan, a graduate student in the College of Agriculture School of Renewable Natural Resources, is studying conservation genetics of captive and wild tigers with the hopes of bringing awareness to their plight.
Bresnan’s research is funded by LSU through its role with the Tigers United University Consortium, which also includes Auburn University, Clemson University and the University of Missouri, all of which have tiger mascots. The universities have joined forces and are committed to saving wild tigers worldwide.
With LSU facing Clemson in the College Football National Championship, both universities are raising money for tigers — LSU with the Tiger Conservation Fund.
“Since the start of the last century, the world has lost 97 percent of its tigers,” Bresnan said.
More tigers live in captivity than in the wild, with fewer than 3,900 tigers in the wild. While the exact number of captive tigers in the U.S. is unknown, it is estimated at 5,000 to 10,000. Bresnan said only a small population of the captive tigers is managed through species survival plans in accredited zoos.
“The species survival plans aim to preserve tigers’ natural genetic variability and sub-species groupings,” she said.
Inbreeding of tigers in captivity and cross breeding tigers with other species such as lions have caused a host of genetic and health issues in captive populations, Bresnan said. Many inbred tigers are born with deformities, vision problems and other health concerns.
Bresnan is just starting her research, but she plans to conduct a genetic analysis of U.S. tigers, including generic tigers or tigers of unknown or hybridized subspecies as well as purebred species found in accredited zoos.
In her study, she also will collect and examine samples from museum specimens.
“These have been collected from the wild over the past century, to serve as a proxy for wild tigers, allowing us to identify genetic changes in wild tigers of the past to the captive tigers of today,” Bresnan said.
By incorporating genetic information, Bresnan said she can investigate two important aspects of captive tigers in the U.S. — “Relatedness and assessment of adaptation to captivity in tigers managed in zoos and highlighting the detrimental impacts of commercialized breeding of unmanaged tigers.”
Bresnan has already done preliminary work with the tigers housed at the Baton Rouge Zoo, looking at which samples taken from the tigers, including blood, fur, cheek swab and scat, yielded the most DNA material.
The doctoral student works in the lab of Sabrina Taylor, the Weaver Brothers Distinguished Professor in the School of Renewable Natural Resources. Taylor’s research interest includes population-level genetic variation in threatened species and species of management concern, and historical genetic variation using museum DNA.
Bresnan said the matchup against the tigers on the football field is great time to show the need for research such as hers at universities in the consortium.
Money raised through LSU’s Tiger Conservation Fund advances science for the preservation of wild tigers in tiger range countries, creates a fellowship program for undergraduate, graduate and veterinary students interested in conducting research on tiger management and conservation, and prepares LSU students for careers in wildlife management, conservation and ecosystem health.
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