I’m running a little late with the Spring Newsletter, but that aside, I would like to start the newsletter with a couple thank-you notes, and then I’ll provide an update on Northwest Forest Soils Council activities!

First, all of us owe thanks to the great job that Darlene did during her tenure as President of the Northwest Forest Soils Council (NWFSC). Her energetic leadership kept the Council on track with regards to its normal activities and mission. She also championed new activities for the Council. The NWFSC t-shirt is one of the things that she and her students orchestrated. I have two of the shirts myself, that I proudly wear during the summer months! Darlene also supported the winter meeting format that included graduate student poster sessions, which helps the students make contact with their peers in forest soil science. Graduate student participation in the technical session greatly adds to the discussions at these meetings. I hope that we maintain this as a regular part of our future winter-meeting format. She also has been taking the lead to explore options to update the publication Soils of the Douglas-fir region…more about this activity later. Darlene has also been a great coach…helping the new President stay on top if his duties…my personal thank you! Thanks again Darlene for all that you have done for the Council!

Rob has done a great job during his tours of duty as Council secretary and web-master. He developed and maintains the Council’s web-page which is the place to go if you want information on what has happened during the past year and what is planned for the coming year with respect to the NWFSC. The Council’s web-site address is http://soilslab.cfr.washington.edu/nwfsc/

The web-site contains the following:

• Summer Field Trip Announcement and Registration form…Boreal Forest Soils in a Changing Climate.
• Winter-meeting 2001 Technical Session agenda and speaker comments.
• Winter-meeting 2001 Business meeting highlights
• Individual Member Activity Reports
• Membership list and e-mail addresses
• Past newsletters , etc.

If you would like to be added to the NWFSC e-mailing list please contact Rob Harrison at robh@u.washington.edu

Thanks to Bob Edmonds, technical session moderator, all the speakers, and graduate students with posters, we had a very successful Winter-meeting Technical Session. The Technical Session was part of the annual winter meeting held at the Bellingham Public Library on January 26th, 2001. A total of 38 people attended. Speakers and topics were as follows:

1. Dave Myrold, Soil Organisms: Is it who you are or what you do that matters?
2. Bob Edmonds and Grace parks: Forest clearcut edges and fungi.
3. Shannon Hagerman: Effects of different clearcut sizes on the diversity and persistence of ectomycorrhizae.
4. Andy Moldenke: Forest soils and invertebrates.
5. Jim Marra: Effects of forest management on soil invertebrates on the Olympic Peninsula.
6. Bob Gitzen and Steve West: Small mammals and forest soils.
7. Grame Hope: Current research in BC on soil organisms: Is it making any difference to forest management?
8. Poster session included several current research projects presented by graduate students.

If you want more details, please refer to the NWFSC web-site!

Darlene Zabowski handed me the gavel at the end of the meeting…to take over the reins as new President. I look forward to serving you and the Council in that capacity for the next two years! If you need to contact me about Council activities, getting something included in the upcoming newsletter, or planning future winter meeting technical sessions or summer field trips please contact me at tom.terry@weyerhaeuser.com

Mike Curran, BC Ministry of Forests, was elected chair-elect and Rob Harrison was re-elected as Council Secretary and web-master. I know they are eager to serve the Council as well!

Under Darlene Zabowski’s leadership a committee was formed to pursue how to update/revise the publication, Forest Soils of the Douglas-fir Region. Committee members Darlene Zabowski, Rob Harrison, Gordon Weetman, Mike Curran, John Depuy, Ron Heninger, and Tom Terry met on Jan. 25 prior to the winter meeting to explore the options. It was generally agreed that the best approach accomplishing this task was to have papers developed on the specific topics of interest so they could be published in a proceedings. There was considerable discussion about the target audience, paper topics, information format, potential authors, etc. The group thought the symposium could not be held any sooner than 2003 or 2004. This would be a major undertaking and everyone, although enthusiastic, was concerned about the time commitment to already full schedules. Future planning meetings will be announced!

One of the opportunities that was raised during the business meeting discussion was the idea of using NWFSC members as peer-reviewers if someone or an organization has a study proposal, strategic plan, or similar document that needed peer review. There was general agreement that this would be of benefit. Basically we would ask members if they would volunteer for such a task, each time someone requested peer review input. If anyone wishes to set up such a committee for a specific project, please let me know, we will send out the request for reviewers.

Winter Technical Meeting 2002:

We are exploring possible theme topics for the 2002 winter technical meeting. Caroline Preston, Pacific Forestry Center, Victoria, BC, has agreed to help organize and moderate the session. A tentative theme topic area has been identified pertaining to Forest Soil Organic Matter (including coarse woody debris)…Characteristics / Function / Forest Management Impacts. We are open for suggestions on theme variation and technical session content, speakers etc. If you have suggestions or would like to volunteer to help organize the session please contact me or Caroline (cpreston@pfc.forestry.ca).

Summer Field Trip 2002:

Jim Boyle, OSU, is exploring the opportunities for the summer field trip 2002 in the SW Oregon region. If you have any ideas on a theme, potential stops, etc. please contact Jim Boyle (jim.boyle@orst.edu).

Our thanks to David Valentine, John Yarie, and Deb Segla who have organized a great summer field trip! The 2001 Summer Meeting will be help in the Fairbanks, Alaska, area from July 8-11, 2001. The theme for the meeting involves touring a geographically broad selection of the soils present in a number of successional forest types found across representative landscapes in interior Alaska. In addition to the undisturbed (directly by humans, anyway) ecosystems that are present, a number of managed sites in the Fairbanks area will be visited. Finally, the tour stop discussions will try to address implications of climate change to higher elevation sites that exist in areas to the south of Fairbanks. To do this there will be a short tour of a limited number of research sites within Denali Park established over the past decade.

Note: If you know of someone that is interested in attending the Summer Field trip but who is not on the current e-mail list, please contact Rob Harrison robh@u.washington.edu He will make sure that they are included on our newsletter e-mail list.

If you know of someone that might be interested in joining the NWFSC please contact Richard Zabel at richard@westernforestry.org . A membership / dues form is attached to this newsletter.

Theme: We will tour a geographically broad selection of the soils present in a number of successional forest types found across representative landscapes in interior Alaska. In addition to the undisturbed (directly by humans, anyway) ecosystems that are present, we will examine a number of managed sites in the Fairbanks area. Finally we will try to address implications of climate change to higher elevation sites that exist in areas to the south of Fairbanks. To do this we will have a short tour of a limited number of research sites within Denali Park established over the past decade.

Ecosystems: The primary ecosystems that will be covered during this field tour include the major successional types on both the floodplain of the Tanana River and the uplands within the Bonanza Creek Experimental Forest. We will include additional sites located in the Standard Creek area that will help to show the short-time-frame (max 30 years) effects of management on upland sites. Finally we will move to the treeline sites in the Alaska Range and get a perspective on potential effects of climate change on higher elevation sites, again from both a floodplain and upland perspective.

This information is also available through the web site at the UAF School of Agriculture and Land Resources Management @ http://www.lter.uaf.edu/salrm

Monday, July 9: - Trip to Bonanza Creek Experimental Forest (map available at http://www.lter.alaska.edu/maps). Click on the map of BNZ for a more detailed version of that area. Additional views can be seen by going to the REGIONAL IMAGES link from http://www.lter.alaska.edu and clicking on the Bonanza Creek Experimental Forest Landscape scene.

Primary theme: Floodplain successional patterns in vegetation and soils including some effects of management along the Tanana River. This part of the day will be handled by boat down the Tanana River. Parts of the river tour are present in the river image of the regional images section of the BNZ LTER home page.

After a lunch break in a cold rain and mosquito heaven we will return to Fairbanks through a successional series of upland sites including some young aged management stands. The successional series in the uplands is the result of fire (a common event in interior Alaska).

Primary theme: Today we will deal with soil factors that develop as a result of a climate. Fairbanks has a mean annual temperature at —2.9º C. We will include a trip to the Permafrost Tunnel near Fairbanks, in which you will be able to view from the inside several representative examples of the types of features typical of discontinuous permafrost. Back on the surface, we will view the effects of melting permafrost (possibly the result of climate warming) in thermokarst areas and the effects of past logging (to the turn of last century) will be presented.

In the afternoon we will move to a ~20-yr chronosequence of logged sites in the Standard Creek area (seen in the two scenes found in the third row of the regional scenes at the REGIONAL IMAGES link point on http://www.lter.alaska.edu; click on the Bonanza Creek Experimental Forest Landscape scene). This series of sites will again be developed in the uplands but on colder sites than were viewed Monday. This will demonstrate some difficulties associated with regenerating white spruce (interior Alaska’s major commercial species) against the backdrop of possibly future warmer, drier climate that may limit white spruce growth and future extent.

Wednesday, July 11: Alpine soils in interior Alaska (Trip to Denali Park)

This section of the tour is still under development. However we will visit the Rock Creek Watershed, which is a long-term monitoring station that has been developed by the park service. Hopefully we will be able to take a tour into the park at least as far as the initial point where Mt. McKinley is visible (on a clear day).

Call (800) 528-4916, or visit http://www.fountainheadhotels.com/sophie.html

The best general website (this will include additional lodging and activities in the Fairbanks area during the summer) is:

www.explorefairbanks.com and click on the Visitors Guide

www.ptialaska.net/~fabb

www.goingnorthtravel.com/fairbanks.htm

www.weather.com/weather/local/USIN0192

www.uaf.edu

Please return this form and a check for registration costs (payable to the University of Alaska Fairbanks) to Deb Segla at the Department of Forest Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775. You can also email the information to Deb (fndls1@uaf.edu), but you still need to send a check.