John Stanturf, Scott Goodrick and Mel Warren (SRS-Oxford) spent most of September in Liberia, conducting a Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment for the USAID-Liberia mission. They spent the first week in Monrovia meeting with staff from various Liberian government agencies, staff of the AID mission, and non-governmental organizations. During week two they traveled southeast along the coast to the port city of Buchanan and north to the iron ore mining area of Nimba Province, close to the border with Sierra Leone and Guinea. They are concentrating on the present condition and utilization of key natural resources (forestry, agriculture, mining, and fisheries), identifying proposed development activities in these areas, and assessing how vulnerable they are to climate change and variability. A major challenge is that there are no consistent meteorological data for Liberia; very little has been collected since the civil wars began in the 1980s and most of what was collected prior to that was lost during the conflicts.

Gary Achtemeier attended the 3^rd Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference held at Spokane, Washington and gave oral and poster presentations. The oral presentation was “What Rabbit Rules tells us about the Esperanza Fire: Step 1: Fire Spread up Cabazon Mountain.” The paper described Rabbit Rules simulations of fire spread for variations in height of grass and presence of rockiness and gullies. The Esperanza Fire was a major event in Southern California in 2006. The poster was “Toward a Rule-Driven Wind Model for Mountainous Terrain.” Yong Liu also presented a poster at the conference entitled “Simulation and Evaluation of Smoke Plume Rise with Modified Daysmoke.” Achtemeier also gave a training session on Rabbit Rules to nine interested parties at the 3rd Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference. The purpose of the training session was to inform land managers of Rabbit Rules and encourage collaboration. Students from the US, Canada, Turkey, and Australia attended the workshop.

John Stanturf visited Dominic Blay and other staff of the Forest Research Institute of Ghana in Kumasi to finalize the work on the plot project to develop a community-based carbon monitoring methodology. They discussed collaborating on an application to START, the SysTem for Analysis, Research and Training for their 2011 START Grant Awards for Global Environmental Change Research in Africa. He also met with FORIG Director Victor Kwame Agyeman to discuss developing cooperation between the Forest Service and FORG under the Letter of Intent (LOI) signed earlier this year. The LOI provides for cooperation between the organizations on restoration, carbon, and fire research

President Harry Truman’s famous saying,“The buck stops here” applies to Project Leaders as well. Here John Stanturf is passing the sawbuck (inflation, remember?) to Scott Goodrick at a gathering in Athens to celebrate the succession. Scott Goodrick has taken over as Project Leader for the Center Forest Disturbance Science. John Stanturf returns to full-time research at CFDS, although he will serve as Acting Project Leader until January 1, 2011 while Scott completes his Executive Leadership training program. In a related move, Yongqiang Liu will assume responsibility as Team Leader for the Atmospheric Science Team in CFDS.

Congratulations to Joe O’Brien and the Fire Science Technical Support Team.at Clemson on receiving Director’s Awards. O'Brien received the Global Stewardship Award  for “leadership and sustained effort to advance the global mission of the Forest Service as a leader in fire ecology and management of tropical forests.” The Fire Science Technical Support Team received the Director’s Award for Research Technical Support. The team of Mitchell Smith, Gregg Chapman, Helen Mohr, and Ross Phillips was recognized for “sustained excellence and innovations in technical support of research in the fire ecology of the southern United States.”

Eddie Gambrell (far left) and Matt Reilly rejoined CFDS. Eddie is located at Clemson University and Matt in Athens. Both had worked for the unit previously and are assigned to the Fire Sciences Team. Current work is on the Linville Gorge project, supported by the Joint Fire Science Program grant.

Summer students working on the Linville Gorge project. From left, David Carter, Joe Hutton, Shawn Kelly.The Linville Gorge Wilderness area on the Pisgah National Forest has had lightning-caused fires in the same area several times, providing a natural experiment in post-fire recovery.

Georgette Yarboi-Quayson, USAID-West Africa Mission, visited the Athens lab from Accra, Ghana. Ms. Yarboi-Quayson was on her way to a climate change workshop held at Davis, California and offered by the International Programs of the Forest Service. Georgette is our liaison for the Community-Based Carbon Monitoring project in West Africa. We provided an overview of the project components (carbon monitoring methodology, community assessment, training and baseline measurements, and capacity assessment). She also visited with RWU-4952, Integrating Natural and Human Systems.(Georgette Yarboi-Quayson and Janet Revell in front of Athens lab)

The proceedings of the 14th Biennial Southern Silvicultural Research Conference are available on TreeSearch. It's a big file (over 20MB) and so far, you have to download the entire document. Soon there will be cd's available. The citation is "Stanturf, John A., ed. 2010. Proceedings of the 14th biennial southern silvicultural research conference. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS–121. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 614 p."