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Graduate Graduate Courses Offered

Forestry Courses

 

515 Forest Fire Management. With lab.
Principles of forest fire science (fire history, weather, effects of fire on organisms and the environment, fuel(s). Application of fire to forest management practices.

528 Forest and Wetland Hydrology.
Hydrologic structure and function of forest, wetland, and agricultural ecosystems. Changes in water flow and quality associated with land and resource use. Management approaches to prevent or reverse adverse environmental impacts.

540 Forest Resources Management.
Use of forests to meet multiple objectives. Summary of forest history, policies, programs and review of traditional and contemporary forest management principles and practices. Case examples, weekly site visits and reports, interaction with practitioners and landowners.

577 Ecosystem Modeling and Simulation.
Basic concepts in general systems theory and computer modeling used in ecology. Case histories of models used to critically review the ecological modeling literature.

587 Introduction to Digital Remote Sensing
Computer processing of digital images as a means of obtaining information about natural resources. LANDSAT images primarily used. Image processing, classification and image enhancement techniques discussed and applied.

592G Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Forestry.
Use and application of GIS mapping in natural resources. Hands-on use of ArcView on PC or UNIX.

597C Ecosystem Management.
Emphasis on the historical context of ecosystem management (EM); exploration and discussion of the various philosophical, conceptual, and practical definitions of EM; key principles and concepts that underlie EM; exploration and discussion of some of the approaches used to implement EM, emphasizing the conceptual processes and illustrating with case studies.

601 Research Concepts in Natural Resource Management.
Introduction to the scientific method and specific problems in forestry and wildlife conservation research. Preparation of research proposal and publications.

604 Advanced Silviculture.
Forest stand dynamics, including ecological disturbances, regeneration, and development to the old-growth stage. Consideration of how silvicultural techniques are used to control stand dynamics to meet timber, wildlife habitat, and other management objectives. Includes field work.

697A Landscape Ecology.
Introduction to the evolving discipline of landscape ecology, with emphasis on the theoretical underpinnings. Focus on ecological scaling; landscape structure; agents of landscape structure; consequences of landscape structure to populations, communities, and ecosystem processes; landscape dynamics; and landscape management. Emphasis on modeling.

697B Forest Ecophysiology.
This course explores the effects of resource availability on plant physiological processes at the leaf, plant, and stand levels. Topics include the effects of availability of light, water, and nutrients on leaf development, photosynthetic performance, and biomass allocation, as well as implications for species growth and competition in forest overstory and understory environments.

697C Multivariate Statistics for Natural Resources.
Provides natural resource scientists with a conceptual and practical working understanding of the classic multivariate statistical techniques, and a framework for choosing the most appropriate technique given the question of interest and the properties of the data set. Emphasis on ordination, discrimination analysis, cluster analysis, and canonical correlation analysis. Analysis of real data sets using SAS.

697D Social Conflict and Natural Resource Policy.
Introduction to the social factors that influence social value formation, and how the different meanings and values ascribed to natural resources in modern society contribute to political conflicts over resource allocation and management. Develops awareness of strengths and limitations of approaches, tools, and techniques of conflict resolution in policy development

697E Ecosystem Principles and Recent Advances.
Controls of primary production and nutrient cycling in terrestrial, wetland, and aquatic ecosystems.

697U Urban Forestry Management.
A course designed as a broad spectrum introduction to community forest management. Will be taught as a lecture/discussion and will include a team studio project that identifies an actual community forest issue as a project, for which an interdisciplinary solution will be developed by the class.

703 Advanced Forest Ecology.
Methods for describing and analyzing forest ecosystem structure; effects of environmental factors on forest ecosystems; forest ecosystem processes and development.

777 Advanced Systems Ecology.
Advanced techniques in computer modeling and ecosystems analysis. Students apply techniques to construction and analysis of models in their own field. Emphasis on new techniques in ecology.

 

Building Materials and Wood Technology Courses

 

506 Wood Machining Technology. Lecture, lab.
The fundamentals of cutting actions; industrial wood machining equipment and manufacturing processes; machining techniques; field trips to area wood processing industries.

508 Wood Moisture Relations. Lecture, lab.
The fundamentals of wood-water relations and their effects on product processing, quality, and in-service performance; includes the study of modern techniques in the drying of wood. Field trips.

511 Wood Adhesives Technology.
Lecture, lab. Adhesion phenomena and the properties of adhesives; principles of wood gluing, methods of testing glued products, evaluation of results; processes and means of control.

512 Wood Protection.
Lecture, lab. Study of materials and methods used to protect wood and wood products from decay, fire, weathering, and other agents of destruction; includes wood preservation and finishing.

530 Mechanics of Building Materials for Construction
Prof. Clouston - Website

Introduces students to the mechanical behavior of engineered wood products and wood composites as contemporary structural building mateirals. Basic structural concepts including statics and strength of materials are addressed in a practical, hands-on manner. An overview of the relative merits of common structural wood products is provided. Practical applications of wood-based materials are highlighted throughout the course through in-class examples and illustrations, homework assingments and lab tutorials.

538 Chemical Modification of Wood. Lecture.
The chemical nature of wood, chemical modification of wood; chemistry of products used with wood; potential contribution of wood to energy and chemical needs of society.

540 -- Design of Wood Structures
Prof Clouston. - Website

Provides students with a fundamental understanding of structural engineering wood design principles. Focus is placed on design procedures - as well as underlying assumptions therefor - for wood members in residential, commercial and industrial applications. Through class examples and assignments, students will learn design techniques for individual wood components including: beams, columns, trusses, wood/steel connections, and diaphragms using both conventional lumber products and state-of-the-art engineered wood products.  

Selected Courses From Other Graduate Progams

  • Wildlife and Fisheries Conservation
    563 Wetland Wildlife Ecology and Management
    564 Forest Wildlife Ecology and Management
  • Plant and Soil Science
    565 Soil Formation, Classification, and Land Use
  • Entymology
    572 Forest and Shade Tree Insects
    581 Integrated Pest Management
  • Biology
    524 Coastal Plant Ecology
    526 Plant Geography
  • Biostatistics and Epidemiology
    540 Introductory Biostatistics
    640 Intermediate Biostatistics

 

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Contact Information:
Dave Damery, Director
Building Materials and Wood Technology
120 Holdsworth Natural Resources Center
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003
Tel: +1 (413) 545-1770