Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries Seminar

Graduate Seminar in Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries

WFS 512, FOR 512, FWF 612

Spring Semester 2020

University of Tennessee-Knoxville

Facilitators: Dr. Matthew Gray (mgray11@utk.edu) and and Dr. Charlie Kwit (ckwit@utk.edu)

Seminar Assistants: Ed Yost, Kiley Davan, Adri Tompros, and Savannah Blackman

Phone: 974-2740 (MG), 974-9793 (CK)

Office: 247 Ellington PSB (MG), G51C McCord (CK)

Meeting Time and Place: Wed, 12:20 − 1:10 p.m., 160 Plant Biotechnology Building

Course Goal: To provide an opportunity for forestry, wildlife and fisheries graduate students to practice delivering professional presentations and to increase opportunities for graduate students and faculty to interact.

Expected Outcomes: Students will develop skills in constructing and delivering PowerPoint presentations and in answering questions related to their graduate research and natural resource principles, concepts and issues.

Course Credits: 1 credit

Academic Assessment:

Weights of Academic Assessments:

● Presentation 85%

● Attendance 15% (1.25% per seminar, 22 Jan – 15 Apr)

Course grade will be determined using the following scale:

Grade	Final Weighted Percent	Grade	Final Weighted Percent
A	90–100%	B	80–86%
B+	87–89%	C+	77–79%

Full Syllabus

Presentation Grading Sheet

Examples of Contemporary Natural Resource Topics

Presentation Schedule:

Date	Name (MS/PhD; Major)	Title
29 Jan	Jonah Piovia-Scott (Washington State Univ)	Temporal variation in the effects of predators and pathogens on ecological communities
19 Feb	1. Ed Yost (PhD)	Fire intensity, frequency, and season of burning affects red maple seedling survival in an experimental plantation.
26 Feb	1. Josh Alston (MS, WFS) 2. Max Street (MS, FOR)	Bears in Big South Fork: A Spatially Explicit Density Estimate of a Reintroduced Population. Changes in Forest Composition throughout the southeastern United States.
4 Mar	1. Shawna Mitchell (MS, WFS) 2. Abby Meeks (MS, WFS)	Microplastics in freshwater ecosystems. Hunter’s Perception of Risk and Hunting Intention in Response to Discovery of Chronic Wasting Disease in Western Tennessee.
11 Mar	1. Regis Nisengwe (PhD) 2. Ash Cable (PhD)	Applying Social Cognitive Model to Investigate Environmental Behaviors of Farmers in Rwanda. Roosting and Foraging Ecology of Female Tri-colored Bats in the Southeast
18 Mar	No Seminar -- Spring Break
25 Mar	1. Nidia Panti (MS, FOR) 2. Kiley Davan (MS, WFS)	Wood properties of Teak (Tectona grandis) from an immature unmanaged stand in Belize. An assessment of small game hunters' and trappers' motivations, satisfaction, and limitations.
1 Apr	1. Bret Elgersma (MS, WFS) 2. Mika Donahue (MS, WFS)	Small mammals response to intercropping White Oak (Quercus alba) and Pine (Pinus spp.). Industrial Application of Advanced Algorithms for Real-Time Data Fusion and Predictive Modeling in the Wood Composites Industry
8 Apr	1. Savannah Blackman (MS, WFS) 2. Adri Tompros (MS, WFS)	Can Farmers and Wildlife Coexist? Farmer Attitudes and Experiences with Wildlife in the Maya Golden Landscape, Belize Management strategies to reduce invasion potential of Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans.
15 Apr	1. Tim Kane (MS, FOR) 2. Josh Biggerstaff (MS, FOR)	Machine Learning Algorithms and Wildfire Prediction. The Effect of a Clearcutting Moratorium on Hardwood Regeneration.