Forest rehab aided by MSU students

9/5/2001 Contact: Catherine Zabinski (406) 994-4227; Beau Stuart (406) 449-5201

            BOZEMAN -- Help Wanted: Work with the Helena National Forest Service. Collect soil and vegetation samples in burned and unburned forest areas. Determine by DNA and other analyses the macro- and microbiology of the sites. Report to the Forest Service so its personnel can develop a management plan.

            Sounds like a job for a professional consultant, but students are doing this work as part of their "capstone" course in MSU's Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences. Students in the course apply what they have learned in geology, physics, chemistry, biology and range science.

            "It's a lot of hands-on stuff using what we've learned in four years here," says Travis Trudgeon, an MSU senior from Whitehall. Trudgeon is majoring in land rehabilitation with a minor in soil science.

            The capstone course got an early start at MSU, beginning a week before other students arrived in August. In the first week, students took samples in the area burned by the Cave Gulch Fire that burned 29,000 acres between Townsend and Helena last year.

            Trudgeon says he will conduct a DNA analysis of the soil microbes to determine the different flora in burned compared to unburned areas, aiming at identifying what is missing.

            "Any of the information the students come up with will help us in the future in managing these burned areas," says Beau Stuart, a hydrologist with the Helena Forest Service.

            Stuart, who received his bachelors and masters degrees from MSU, has been with the Forest Service for 24 years, 11 of those years with the Helena National Forest. Stuart and others had suspected a need to inoculate last year's burn areas with mycorrhizal fungi that help make nutrients available to the forest plant community. But they had few details of what would be needed.

            Having the MSU students' data will help the Forest Service get a handle on exactly what is needed, says Stuart.

            "I've never been in a burn area, not the year after anyway. I didn't know what to expect," says Brandy Carroll, a junior from Bozeman. "I've never had a class like this where you get so much experience with lab work and field work. It's a small class, so we have a lot of one-on-one time with the teacher."

            The teacher is Catherine Zabinski who works with Sara Zimmerley, a graduate teaching assistant.

            "One group of students is looking at microbial differences in severe, moderate and unburned soils," says Zabinski. "Another is looking at the seeds that remain after the fire in those same soils, and we're looking at the chemical composition of soils, especially the nitrogen cycle and how they are affected by fire."

            Zabinski says that scientists do not have a lot of information about how fire affects soils.

            "There's some data, but every fire has a unique set of conditions, including the temperature it burned at and the amount of soil moisture. We're still building the framework that would let us anticipate fire effects."

            However, the students' work is not a full-blown research project.

            "We had to temper the data-gathering to fit the learning experience," says Zabinski. That experience will include a final report to the Forest Service, written in a way that makes them useful for making future decisions.

            "It seems very relevant," says Tracy McCreery, a senior from Gillette, Wyo. "We will have a product that the Forest Service can use when we are done."

            The capstone course is a requirement for seniors who graduate in Land Resources and Environmental Sciences. It was recently redesigned with the help of a grant from the USDA. There is also a group of on- and off-campus experts who help identify projects and mentor the students. The on-campus team also includes Jon Wraith of LRES and Jeff Adams of the Physics Department.

            Other students in the class include: Jacky Hafla, a senior from Idaho Falls, ID; Kristi McKinnon, a senior from Hagerman, ID; and Sarah Rothschiller a senior from Big Sky.          

Photos:

1.    Travis Trudgeon, Whitehall, MT
2.    Catherine Zabinski
3.    Tracy McCreery, Gillette, WY,  conducting a vegetation cover inventory

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Send questions or comments to Carol Flaherty, MSU Communications Services, Bozeman, MT 59717 or email Flaherty at carolf@montana.edu.

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