FOREST INFORMATION UPDATE
6 MARCH 2000

Forest Information Update (FIU) is a free weekly email newsletter sent to people interested in the inventorying and monitoring of natural resources.  FIU is produced by Forest Information Services (http://home.att.net/~gklund/) and is supported by organizations, agencies and individuals working in the natural resources field. Back issues of FIU may be found at http://www.foresters.org/fiu/index.htm. Currently FIU is sent to about 4000 email addresses world-wide. Many of these recipients forward FIU to their own mailing lists. To subscribe or sponsor, contact me at gklund@worldnet.att.net. Thanks Gyde


FIU SPONSORS - This issue of FIU is sponsored in part through the generous support of: Thank you all for your contiuned support!


INPUT - This week's input comes from Russ Brown, Alexander Buck, Mike Nolan, David Pilz, Brad Pokorny, Laura Russo, Carl Thompson, Lynne Tittman, Jeannette van Rijsoort, and Jenny Wong.  Thank you all for sharing your information!

HOME AGAIN - Well, I am back after some two wonderful weeks in Costa Rica - beautiful country, beautiful people.  I spent one week helping out the IUFRO Multipurpose Resource Inventory Workshop held at CATIE (see MRI below) and the reminder of the time with in-laws. Came back to some 350+ email messages - mostly from people still wanting me to grow hair, loss weight and become rich using the internet (no luck in any so far!!!).


HAVE YOU HEARD?  GENERAL

PROCEEDINGS AVAILABLE  - Data Collection and Analysis for Sustainable Forest Management in ACP  Countries - Linking National and International Efforts - Proceedings of two 1998 African workshops are available on line at  http://www.fao.org/montes/fon/fons/outlook/africa/acp/acp-proc.htm

RAINFOREST WORKSHOPS FOR STUDENTS/EDUCATORS - Our organization offers Rainforest Workshops for Educators/Students in Belize, Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama, Ecuador, Peru, southeast Alaska and Australia at the present. These workshops will be held at various dates June through August 2000.  New programs for 2001 include....."Primates of Costa Rica" and "Rainforests, Volcanoes and Coral Reefs of Hawaii". WORKSHOPS are field oriented and focus on natural history, rainforest and marine ecology, conservation, land management, medicinal uses of native plants, local cultures, archaeology and geology. Instruction features local Biologists and naturalist Guides. Detailed information is available upon request from Mike Nolan, Director, Rainforest and Reef, 29 Prospect NE Suite #8, Grand Rapids, MI 49503 USA. Phone/Fax: +1-616-776-5928.  Toll Free: +1-877-967-7467. E-mail: rainforest@mail.org  or mnolan01@sprynet.com

SEMINAR ANNOUNCEMENT - The 16th International Seminar of Forest and Natural Resource Administration and Management is being held from 20 August to 8 September 2000 in the USA. The seminar is an intensive, interactive training program designed for senior natural resource management professionals who desire to improve their managerial capabilities and administrative skills. In a 20 day study tour it presents a broad spectrum of natural resource management techniques and institutional arrangements so that participants may selectively gather ideas which can assist in the management of their lands. The seminar focuses on strategies and methods to develop, manage, and conserve natural resources for the sustained delivery of goods and services to meet the full range of human needs. Invited participants are selected to reflect the widest possible geographic distribution and diversity of experience. Particular emphasis is placed on developing nations, yet each year the seminar welcomes several representatives from more developed countries. In previous years, over 350 managers from over 100 nations have attended. Please visit http://www.fs.fed.us/global/isfam/welcome.htm for more information.

COMMON GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL VOCABULARY BEING DEVELOPED (From the IFL list). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) are collaborating to develop a multilingual global environmental thesaurus in an effort to break down the linguistic barriers to environmental information exchange. Italy's research council, the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), will be associated with the project.  A plan for this global thesaurus is expected by Sept. 2000.  The dividends would include streamlining environmental information systems, Internet web sites, databases and other electronic  resources.  Such a thesaurus would be highly beneficial in information searches, content cataloging and information systems design and is expected to be invaluable to librarians, researchers, database developers, translators, policy developers and the public. Included in the new thesaurus would be terms from the EPA Terminology Reference System, the EEA Generalized Multilingual Environmental Thesaurus (GEMET) and the UNEP EnVoc thesauri, and additional thesauri from other systems around the world.  It would be accessible on the Internet, CDs and in print.  The existing terminology systems are in 12 languages and the expectation is to have the global thesaurus in many more languages. The current terminology systems are available at three Internet sites: http://www.epa.gov/trs, http://www.mu.niedersachsen.de/CDs/etc-cds_neu/software/html#GEMET  and http://p5uni.ii.pw.edu.pl/infterra/

MRI - The international short course on designing multipurpose resource inventories (MRI) was held at CATIE in Turrialba, Costa Rica, 21-25 Feb. 2000.  The course was sponsored by CATIE, IUFRO 4.02, USDA Forest Service and Forest Information Services. The objective was to provide participants with enough experience and background material so that the participants could design an MRI back in their own country. We had a small but very high caliber roster of 8 "students" - mostly professional foresters working in Brazil, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Guyana, and Panama. Instructors included folks from CATIE, USDA Forest Service, NASA and yours truly. In addition to providing an overview of MRIs, we got into discussions of inventory problems in the above countries as well as in Honduras and Nicaragua. Problems included access to existing information, funding of inventories, sample designs, inventories of inaccessible areas.

If you are interested in hosting or attending a similar short course, please contact me. My thanks to Miguel Caballero-Deloya, Marta Elena Núñez and the rest of  the staff at CATIE for their warm hospitality and outstanding support. -- Gyde


 HELP!

ECOLOGICAL STUDIES OF NTFPs. - Jeannette van Rijsoort writes "The Forest Conservation and  Community Development Project is a Sino-Dutch funded project in Yunnan, China. We work in the mountainous forest areas where up to 25 different nationalities are living. Non-timber forest products are a very important part of people's daily subsistence, and also generate part of their income. The products range from medicinal plants, vegetables and bamboo shoots to pine resin, honey and insects. On the basis of a first rapid assessment, the project is now aiming to implement a more profound socio-economic and market study. This will probably result in a selection of NTFPs which are most important for subsistence, and NTFPs which could be interesting to be developed to generate income. With these NTFPs we subsequently intend to do an ecological study on the basis of which management regimes can be defined for (groups of) NTFPs. This study should not be a long-term growth analysis kind of study, but an
assessment of the vulnerability of different NTFPs to exploitation, based on the demand, parts of the plants used, and the life form of the species (fast growing, slow growing). My question is whether you have information or experience on an ecological study of this kind on NTFPs."  Please send ideas, experience or literature references to: Jeannette van Rijsoort, FCCDP, Simao Forestry Department, Zhen xing Lu 48, 665000 Simao City, Yunnan, China. Email: rijsoort@public.km.yn.cn

PAPER WEIGHT - Feng Hua Liu writes, "I am a MSc. student in the Department of Agricultural and Food Economics of Reading University, UK.  I have some difficulties in collecting references for my dissertation.  My topic is "Environmental Impact Evaluation of 600,000 Tons of Paper Pulp Factory and 230,000 Hectares Eucalyptus Plantation in China". The references I need are as follows: 1) Pollution sources of pulp factory; 2) Development of pollution control techniques; 3) Number and capacity of large scale pulp factories, their distribution and environmental problems around the world; 4) Environmental impact by Eucalyptus Plantation; 5) Examples of successful management of Eucalyptus Plantation; 6) Monitoring of the pollution by pulp factory and plantation." If you can help Fenghua, please contact her directly at Department of Agricultural and Food Economics, The University of Reading, 4 Earley Gate, Whiteknight Road, RG6 6BG, UK. Email: F.H.Liu@reading.ac.uk

PROFESSOR POSITIONS (2) at Faculty of Forestry, ,Course in ”International Forest Ecosystem Management” Fachhochshule, Eberswald, University of Applied Sciences.
1.  C 3 Professor of Forest Inventory and Planning  (half-time position, initially limited to five years) This professorship mainly covers the subjects Forest Ecosystem Inventory, Remote Sensing, GIS, Forest Survey and Computer Modelling.
2.  C 3  Professor of Social/Multipurpose Forestry (half-time position, initially limited to five years) This professorship mainly covers the subjects Socio-economics and Land-Use Manage-ment, International Forest Policy, Project Management, as well as Communication and Public Relations.
Required qualifications for both positions: Applicants should hold a degree in Forestry or in a related discipline, as well as a Ph.D., preferably in one of the two above-mentioned fields. They should have several years of research, teaching and practical experience in an international context, conforming with the subjects outlined under points 1 or 2. As classes will be taught in English, an excellent command of the English language is a prerequisite. Applicants who do not speak German, should acquire a working knowledge of the language within two years. Teaching activities may be concentrated in one semester per annum. Suitable applicants may also apply for both vacancies, which could be combined into one full-time position. At the end of the five-year-period, the positions could become permanent. Further requirements for appointment are specified in § 38 of the Brandenburgisches Hoch-schulgesetz (University Act of the State of Brandenburg), which can be obtained from the Fachhochschule Eberswalde. At least five years of practical experience, of which at least three years should be outside the university environment, are required. Disabled persons with qualifications of the same standard will be treated preferentially. Applications from women candidates are especially desired. Depending on qualifications, age and family status, the gross salary for the half-time position amounts to approximately 42,000 – 56,000 DM (about 21,000 – 28,000 EURO/US$). Applications supported by the usual documentation should be submitted by 17 April, 2000 to:  Fachhochschule Eberswalde, Dekan, Fachbereich Forstwirtschaft,  Alfred-Möller-Str. 1, 16225 Eberswalde, GERMANY. Tel.: +49-3334-65465, Fax: +49-3334-65428

LANDSCAPE ECOLOGIST WANTED - Compliance Services International (CSI), a regulatory and environmental consulting firm, has an immediate opening for a Landscape Ecologist / GIS Project Manager in its Center for Spatial Analysis, Tacoma, Washington, USA.  Interested candidates can view the announcement at CSI's web-site: www.complianceservices.com


HAVE YOU READ?  PUBLICATIONS

Obtain from your local library or from the sources provided. For listing of publications from previous FIUs see http://home.att.net/~gklund/invpub.html .

Anon. n.d. Malawi Environmental Monitoring Programme -  Final Report -  Area Sampling Frame Pilot Activity in Malawi. http://ag.arizona.edu/OALS/malawi/Reports/ARIZFIN_252.html

Anon. 1999. Tables de Cubage des Arbes et des Peuplements Forestiers.128 p. Les Presses Agronomiques de Gembloux, Passage des Déportés, 2, B-5030 Gembloux, Belgium. Tel/Fax: +32-81-62.22.42. Email: pressesagro@fsagx.ac.be.

Apan, A.A. 1999. GIS Applications in Tropical Forestry. 132 p. Contact: Dr. Apan, Faculty of Engineering and Surveying, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Qld 4350, Queensland, Australia. Tel: +1-61-7-4631-1386. Fax: +1-61-7-4631-2526. Email: apana@usq.edu.au.

Babij, V., Trpin, D. ; Vres, B. 1999: Approaches to mapping the flora of Slovenia and the connection with mapping the flora of Europe. Acta Bot. Fennica 162: 79–84.

Barthlott, W., Biedinger, N., Braun, G., Feig, F., Kier, G ; Mutke, J. 1999: Terminological and methodological aspects of the mapping and analysis of the global biodiversity. Acta Bot. Fennica 162: 103–110.

Bate, L.J. et al. 1999. Estimating snag and large tree densities and distributions on a landscape for wildlife.  Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-425. 76 p. USDA Forest Service, PNW Research Station, PO Box 3890, Portland, OR 97208 USA.

Bondesson, L.; Stahl, G.; Holm, S. 1998. Standard errors of area estimates obtained by traversing and GPS. Forest Science 44(3):405-413.

Burgan, R. et al. 1999. Ground sample data for the conterminous US land cover characteristics database. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-41. 13 p. USDA Forest Service, RM Research Station, 240 West Prospect Rd., Fort Collins, CO 80526 USA.

City of Boulder. 1998. Forest inventory handbook. City of Boulder Open Space Department and City of Boulder Mountain Parks Division, Parks and Recreation Department. City of Boulder Open Space Department at P.O. Box 791, Boulder, CO 80306 USA. Tel.+1-303-441-3440.

Dihoru, G. 1999: Mapping the plants of Romania. Acta Bot. Fennica 162: 85–90.

Federal Highway Administration.  2000.  Roadside Use of Native Plants, a handbook that Provides state by state references in the use of native plants and how they can be used to benefit highway projects by saving time and money. The handbook is 665 pages and includes vegetation maps as well as lists of native trees, shrubs, vines, grasses and other plants particular to each state. In addition, the handbook lists environmental, academic, scientific and other  organizations in each state. Requests for copies should be sent to Fred Bank, Federal Highway Administration, HEPN-30, Room 3240, 400 7th Street S.W., Washington, D.C. 20590 USA or email Bonnie.Harper-Lore@fhwa.dot.gov . Visit the DOT Public Affairs Web Site at: http://www.dot.gov/briefing.htm

FAO. 2000. The non-wood forest products of Central Africa: current research issues and prospects for conservation and development. Proceedings of the `International Expert Meeting on Non-Wood Forest Products in Central Africa', held at "The Limbe Botanic Garden", Cameroon. 10-15 May 1998 Available on line at:  http://www.fao.org/forestry/FOP/FOPW/NWFP/carpe-e.stm The French version of the proceedings is expected to be ready soon, both printed and online.

Kurtto, A. ; Lampinen, R. 1999: Atlas of the distribution of vascular plants in Finland - a digital view of the national floristic database. Acta Bot. Fennica 162: 67–74.

Lahti, T.; Lampinen, R. 1999: From dot maps to bitmaps: Atlas Florae Europaeae goes digital. Acta Bot. Fennica 162: 5–9.

Meier, Paul. n.d. Statistician as expert witness. In: Encyclopedia of Biostatistics. John Wiley and Sons. http://www.wiley.co.uk/eob/sample5.pdf

Mladenoff, David J.; Baker, William L. 1999. Spatial modeling of forest landscape change: approaches and applications.  Cambridge University Press. 352 p. $95 USD.

Riemann, R.; Tillman, K. 1999. FIA photointerpretation in Southern New England: a tool to determine forest fragmentation and proximity to human development.  Res. Pap. NE-709. 12 p. USDA Forest Service, NE Research Station, 359 Main Rd., Delaware, OH 43015 USA.

Segura, Milena; Venegas, Geoffrey. 1999. Tablas de Volumen Comercial con Cortez par Encino, Roble, y otras Especies del Bosque Pluvial Montano de la Cordellera de Talamanca, Costa Rica. CATIE Serie Tecnica No 306, Coleccion Manejo Diversificado de Bosques Naturales Publicaión No. 15. 45 p.

Schönfelder, P. 1999: Mapping the flora of Germany.  Acta Bot. Fennica 162: 43–53.

Sit, Vera; Taylor, Brenda. 1998. Statistical Methods for Adaptive Management Studies. Res. Br., B.C.Min. For., Res. Br., Victoria, BC, Land  Manage. Handb. No. 42. 157 p.  http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/pubs/docs/lmh/lmh42.htm

Weber, H. E. 1999: The present state of taxonomy and mapping of blackberries (Rubus) in Europe. Acta Bot. Fennica 162: 161–168.

Wollrab, S.P. 1999. User’s guide to FBASE: Relational database software for managing R1/R4 (Northern/Intermountain Regions) fish habitat data.  RMRS-GTR-34WWW. USDA Forest Service, RM Research Station. Available on web at http://www.fs.fed.us/rm

Zajac, M.; Zajac, A. 1999: Mapping projects of vascular plants distribution in Poland. Acta Bot. Fennica 162: 61–66.


YOU'RE INVITED! MEETINGS, WORKSHOPS, TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES

For previous listings of upcoming inventory and monitoring related meetings, see:

3 May 2000. Protocols For Monitoring The Productivity Of Commercially Harvested Forest Mushrooms. Olympia, Washington, USA. Contact: David Pilz, Botanist   (Harvested Forest Fungi, Pacific Northwest Research Station, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Room 014, Forestry Sciences Laboratory, 3200 SW Jefferson Way, Corvallis, Oregon 97331-4401 USA, Tel: +1-541-750-7362; Fax: +1-541-750-7329. University Email: David.Pilz@orst.edu Forest Service Email: dpilz/r6pnw_corvallis@fs.fed.us

4-5 May 2000.  Developing needs-based inventory methods for non-timber forest products. Rome, Italy. Participation in the workshop will be free of charge.  Additional costs (travel expenses) will not be covered. If you are interested in attending this workshop, please contact Evelyn Whyte, Coordination Unit Secretary, European Tropical Forest Research Network (ETFRN), Coordination Unit, c/o The Tropenbos Foundation, PO Box 232, 6700 AE Wageningen, The Netherlands. Tel:  +31 317 495 516, Fax: +31 317 495 521, Email: ETFRN@iac.agro.nl  URL: http://www.etfrn.org/etfrn  before 17 April.

10 May 2000. Protocols For Monitoring the Productivity of Commercially Harvested Forest Mushrooms. Eugene, Oregon,  USA. Contact: David Pilz, Botanist   (Harvested Forest Fungi, Pacific Northwest Research Station, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Room 014, Forestry Sciences Laboratory, 3200 SW Jefferson Way, Corvallis, Oregon 97331-4401 USA, Tel: +1-541-750-7362; Fax: +1-541-750-7329. University Email: David.Pilz@orst.edu Forest Service Email: dpilz/r6pnw_corvallis@fs.fed.us

17 May 2000. Protocols For Monitoring The Productivity Of Commercially Harvested Forest Mushrooms. Redding, California , USA. Contact: David Pilz, Botanist   (Harvested Forest Fungi, Pacific Northwest Research Station, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Room 014, Forestry Sciences Laboratory, 3200 SW Jefferson Way, Corvallis, Oregon 97331-4401 USA, Tel: +1-541-750-7362; Fax: +1-541-750-7329. University Email: David.Pilz@orst.edu Forest Service Email: dpilz/r6pnw_corvallis@fs.fed.us

22-26 May 2000 United Nations Millennium Forum. New York City, New York, USA.  The Millennium Forum will bring together representatives of civil society from all over the world to consult about humanity's common future -- and, particularly, the role of the United Nations in confronting the great global challenges of the 21st Century. The Forum will focus on six main sub-themes under the main theme of "The United Nations in the 21st Century." These main sub-themes are: 1) peace, security and disarmament; 2) the eradication of poverty (including debt cancellation and social development; 3) human rights; 4) sustainable development and the environment; 5) the challenges of globalization; and 6) strengthening the United Nations and other international organizations. For more information see http://www.millenniumforum.org or contact: Techeste Ahderom, Co-chair, Millennium Forum, 866 United Nations Plaza, Suite 120, New York, NY, 10017, USA. Email: mngof@bic.org  Tel:+1-212-803-2522. Fax: +1-212-803-2561.

13-17 August 2000. National GAP 2000 and Biological Informatics 10th Annual National Gap Analysis Program Meeting.  San Antoniao, Texas, USA.  Contact: Nancy Hubbard, Texas Tech University, Texas Cooperative Fish & Wildlife Research Unit, MS 42120, Lubbock, TX 79409-2120 USA. Tel: +1-208-885-3555. Email: gap@uidaho.edu. URL: http://www.gap.uidaho.edu/gap.

10-16 September 2000.  Basic Wetland Delineation with Field Practicum.  Kalispell, MT, USA. $1075. Wetland Training Institute, PO Box 31, Glenwood, NM 88039, USA. Email: getinfo@wetlandtraining.com URL:  http://www.wetlandtraining.com

12-15 September 2000.  Plant Identification. Carbondale, IL, USA. $675. Wetland Training Institute, PO Box 31, Glenwood, NM 88039, USA. Email: getinfo@wetlandtraining.com URL:  http://www.wetlandtraining.com

25-29 September 2000.   Basic Wetland Delineation.  Seattle, WA, USA. $875. Wetland Training Institute, PO Box 31, Glenwood, NM 88039, USA. Email: getinfo@wetlandtraining.com URL:  http://www.wetlandtraining.com

25-29  September 2000.  River Assessment & Monitoring. Pagosa Springs, CO, USA.$1450. Contact:   Wildland Hydrology, 1481 Stevens Lake Rd, Pagosa Springs, CO 81147 USA. Tel: +1-970-731-6100 or 6101, fax -6105. Email: wildlandhydrology@pagosasprings.net URL: http://wildlandhydrology.com

23-27 October 2000. Ethnobiology, Biocultural Diversity, and Benefits Sharing. 7th International Congress of Ethnobiology. University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, U.S.A. Contact: 7th International Congress of Ethnobiology c/o John R. Stepp, Department of Anthropology The University of Georgia, 250 Baldwin Hall Athens, GA 30602-1619 USA.  Email: rstepp@uga.edu. URL: http://guallart.dac.uga.edu/ISE

28 November 2000.  Wetland Delineation for Executives.  Seattle, WA, USA. $240. Wetland Training Institute, PO Box 31, Glenwood, NM 88039, USA. Email: getinfo@wetlandtraining.com URL:  http://www.wetlandtraining.com



WHILE SURFING THE WEB…INTERESTING LINKS

For listings of previous links see http://home.att.net/~gklund/invlinks.html

References

Glossaries Remote sensing Miscellaneous

As always, please share as appropriate. If you have any new resource inventory/monitoring-related publications, meetings, or news that you would like listed in FIU, please contact me … and don't forget I always welcome sponsors. This newsletter is dependent upon your continued input and your kind support. Thanks, Gyde.

--
H. Gyde Lund
Forest Information Services
8221 Thornwood Ct.
Manassas, VA 20110-4627 USA
Voice: +1-703-368-7219, Fax: +1-703-257-1419
Email: gklund@worldnet.att.net
URL: http://home.att.net/~gklund

Join the Global Association of On-line Foresters (GAOF).
See: http://www.foresters.org