Say Hello to 2012 Rolleo!

Posted on November 2, 2012 by rwgonzal

NC State Forestry Club Members Pair up for Jack & Jill Crosscut at 2010 Rolleo

On Saturday, November 17, North Carolina State University’s Forestry Club will host the 2012 Rolleo at Schenck Memorial Forest in Raleigh, NC. The NC State Forestry Club has a long tradition of organizing this fall forestry and timbersports competition to help sharpen their skills in preparation for Southern Forestry Conclave in the spring. Having just hosted the 2012 Southern Forestry Conclave on campus in March, the NC State Forestry Club is poised to put on the best ever Rolleo this year. This will be the third year that it will be held at Schenck Memorial Forest, which has been very popular because of its close proximity to NC State’s campus, great event staging, and ample parking (sorry, no dogs are allowed at Schenck Forest).

Haywood Community College Woodsmen’s Team Prepares for Log Roll at the 2009 Rolleo

“We are excited to host Haywood Community College, Montgomery Community College, University of Tennessee, and Virginia Tech as our guests at Rolleo this year,” said Travis Howell, President of the NC State Forestry Club. “We are seeing a growing interest in joining the Forestry Club from NC State students and for competing at Rolleo from other schools,” he added.

That is largely due, no doubt, to the superb job they did hosting the 2012 Conclave and the tremendous showing that NC State students have had during the past few years in the STIHL TIMBERSPORTS Collegiate Series, which is aired on TV. Victor Wassack (’12 Forest Management) won the Southern Collegiate Championship in 2012, and Logan Scarborough (’10 Forest Management) took the 2010 Southern and National Collegiate Championship titles and is now pro status.

Logan Scarborough (left) and Victor Wassack behind the scenes at the 2012 STIHL TIMBERSPORTS Southern Qualifier hosted by NC State. Victor won the collegiate competition, giving much thanks to his friend and mentor, Logan, who competed as a Pro.

“We are very proud of Victor and Logan,” said the club’s faculty advisor, Dr. Joe Roise. “NC State is the home of timbersports champions, and our current students will be an exciting group to watch over the next few years, because they are very focused and cohesive.”

Rolleo pits the competing schools’ teams against each other in a variety of events. Academic/technical events include dendrology, timber volume estimation, photogrammetry and more. Physical events include archery, axe throw, cross-cut saw, underhand chop, and many other old-fashioned lumberjack skills.

Rolleo is fun for contestants and spectators, alike. The Forestry Club invites all students, staff, faculty, alumni, friends and family to join in the fun! Academic/technical events will begin around 8:30am, followed by the physical events. There is no cost for attendance, but you can purchase a Rolleo T-Shirt onsite to help support the club. Lunch will be available for $3, and if you are staying for dinner and the awards ceremony that evening, you may purchase a catered dinner at cost (estimated at $8-$10). Please contact Travis Howell (tlhowell@ncsu.edu) if you are planning to stay for dinner so that he can notify the caterer. The club wishes to thank Signlogic of Elizabethtown for help with the t-shirts and alumnus Fred Hardin for his help in obtaining wood for the competition.

If you are an alum and wish to compete with other alumni at Rolleo, please contact Travis for more information. Whether competing or just watching, the Forestry Club hopes everyone will come out and support forestry, timbersports, and all of the contestants!

Location:

Schenck Memorial Forest Location on Google Maps
Carl Alwin Schenck Memorial Forest, Raleigh, North Carolina 27607

Media Contact: Travis Howell, NC State University Forestry Club President

Bright Outlook for Fall Foliage in NC

Posted on October 12, 2012 by

North Carolina’s fall foliage should put on a vivid show as it washes over the state this month. With color already beginning to pop in the western mountains, the foliage forecast is bright, says Dr. Robert Bardon, forestry and environmental resources professor at North Carolina State University.

“The biggest thing to worry about is wet rainy weather that can dampen colors,” Bardon says. “If there’s enough wind and rain, trees can begin dropping leaves.”

Weather conditions so far and changes in day length have set the stage for the leaves to change color.

“Actually, many of the colors are already present in the leaves, but they’re masked by the green pigment, chlorophyll,” Bardon explains. “When the chlorophyll starts dissolving, the yellow and orange colors in the leaves become visible.”

The yellow and orange colors are the result of carotenoids, the same pigments that give carrots their color. Anthocyanin provides the rich reds that appear later in the growing season when warm sunny days lead to high concentrations of simple sugars that are trapped in leaf cells when night temperatures range from freezing to 45 degrees.

Variations in leaf colors are due to the mixing of varying amounts of the chlorophyll and other pigments in the leaf during the fall season. While leaves on poplars turn a consistent yellow, other trees, like sweetgum, have a huge variation in colors, from oranges to dark purples.

Bardon recommends taking time to enjoy the natural display, whether it’s on a drive through the Uwharries, a riverbottom hike in eastern North Carolina or a break on the back porch.

“What’s unique about our state is that we have colors across North Carolina, from the mountains to the coast,” says Bardon, who leads extension programs in the College of Natural Resources. “We have plenty of opportunities to see the colors throughout the state, and a somewhat longer season because of variations in elevations.”

– ford –

Media Contacts:
Dr. Robert Bardon, 919/515-5575 or rebardon@ncsu.edu
D’Lyn Ford, News Services, 919/513-4798 or dlyn_ford@ncsu

Students for Solar Shine on Campus and Strive to Brighten the Lives of Haitian Students

Posted on September 27, 2012 by rwgonzal

Life without electricity… that is what one group of NC State University students asks us to imagine. Now envision students in a rural Haitian school for whom that existence is an everyday challenge. But with the help of NC State’s Students for Solar and One Million Lights, solar lights will soon bring clean, renewable lighting to these students who would otherwise not have access to electricity.

William Lee, a junior majoring in Environmental Technology and Management, is a Global Ambassador for the nonprofit One Million Lights that distributes solar lights throughout the developing world to improve education, health and the environment. William and the other members of Students for Solar are raising funds for purchasing and distributing 50 solar lights to Terrier Rouge School in rural Haiti. They hope to personally deliver the lights to the school next summer.

Students for Solar is a student-led community group whose focus is to both advocate for and implement solar technologies on campus. The group’s principle is that “utilizing clean-energy technologies, such as solar energy, is of paramount importance to NC State University in its efforts to achieve climate neutrality.” One of the group’s objectives is to make solar technologies readily available to the student body, and the NC State Solar Pavilion is an excellent example of how this group put their principles into action.

The Solar Pavilion project, from which Students for Solar was founded, was the 2010 winner of the Student Government Sustainability Commission‘s Think Outside of the Brick competition. Within two years, a pavilion structure in the courtyard between Welch, Gold, and Syme halls was fitted with a solar array of three panels that now provide renewable energy to two outlets in the pavilion. August 21, 2012 was the Grand Opening of the NC State Solar Pavilion.

Recently, the group received a grant to conduct a site assessment on campus to determine which campus buildings and parking garages are suitable for solar array installation. “We worked with the Sustainability Office on campus to complete the site assessment and write a proposal,” stated group member Melissa Keeney, a junior in Environmental Technology and Management. “We have also been asked to do a site assessment for another school, which we are very excited about!”

If ingenuity and hard work are indicators of success, then Students for Solar’s fund drive to bring solar lights to students in Haiti will be a shining achievement. But they can’t do it alone. To donate, go to OneMillionLights.com, click on donate, and select “Students for Solar Project in Haiti” to give what you can.

One Million Lights Flyer

Like Students for Solar on Facebook!

Piercy Named Pulp and Paper Foundation Executive Director at NC State University

Posted on September 11, 2012 by

Ms. Jennifer Parr Piercy, ’94, has been named Executive Director of the Pulp and Paper Foundation at NC State University where she will also lead recruiting and alumni relations activities for the Paper Science and Engineering Program in the College of Natural Resources. Piercy will be working with this respected paper program during its transformation into a biomaterials leader in a growing natural resources-based economy.

Piercy is a product of the Paper Science and Engineering program at NC State. She was recruited as a student in Owensboro, Kentucky by long-time former foundation director, Ben Chilton. Alumnus John Pritchard issued the invitation to the recruiting session in Hawesville, Kentucky where she was introduced to the world of paper. Following her first student work experience in the paper industry in the summer of 1989, Piercy worked five internships. She later served as Operations Manager for a tissue machine for P&G in Albany, GA and five years in the MBA Career Services Center at the University of Virginia.

The Paper Science and Engineering program at NC State is now almost 60 years old and has approximately 1400 alumni working throughout the world. Ms. Piercy recently told a group of incoming freshmen, “You are beginning a life-long relationship with the most exciting, innovative and hard working people you can imagine. There is no place like NC State and no place like the paper industry.” Sounds like just the right philosophy for the position!

Piercy is excited about working for her alma mater, reconnecting with old friends and meeting the challenges ahead. She can be reached by phone at 919-515-7709 or by email at jmpiercy@ncsu.edu .

Landowners’ Knowledge, Attitudes, and Aspirations Towards Woody Biomass Markets in North Carolina

Posted on September 11, 2012 by

A training model for woody biomass landowner training is the result of a survey conducted by Extension Forestry and the Department of Agricultural and Extension Education at NC State University. The study is featured in the August 2012 edition of the Journal of Extension.

Non-industrial private forest (NIPF) landowners are often not included in discussions of emerging woody biomass markets for energy, yet they will likely be principal suppliers of the resource. Surveys administered to 475 forest landowners before and after an Extension Forestry education program in 10 counties across North Carolina indicated that landowners have low knowledge levels of woody biomass. However, as a result of participating in the training, landowners increased knowledge, had more positive attitudes, and developed aspirations to harvest woody biomass on their land. Extension professionals can use our training model to develop similar woody biomass educational programs.

Authors:
Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University: Jasmine Shaw, Graduate Student; Dennis Hazel, Associate Professor and Extension Specialist; Robert Bardon, Associate Professor and Extension Specialist
Department of Agricultural and Extension Education, North Carolina State University: K.S.U. Jayaratne, State Leader for Program Evaluation and Assistant Professor

Read the complete article in the Journal of Extension – Vol 50 num 4.

For more information, contact: Robert Bardon, Extension Forestry