A prominent national forestry organization is recognizing a Mississippi State Extension Service staff member with a prestigious honor.
Senior Extension Associate Marcus Measells is one of only 17 honorees nationwide recently named a fellow of the Society of American Foresters. One of the organization's highest accolades, fellows are honored for their extensive and long-standing dedication to the advancement of the forestry industry at ...
Mississippi State is now home to one of the nation's largest wood collections, making the university a prime training ground for research on rare and exotic species.
MSU's Department of Sustainable Bioproducts in the College of Forest Resources has acquired the 32,000-specimen David A. Kribs wood collection, the fourth largest in the U.S. according to the International Association of Wood Anatomists. This acquisition also makes MSU home ...
Murry Burgess was alone, reaching her hand into a swallow's nest from the top of a 16-foot ladder in a barn in rural North Carolina, when she realized something didn't seem right. Rather than the familiar texture of small chicks, she felt something smooth, slick and scaly.
"There is a huge black rat snake just sitting in the nest, chilling, after eating my research," Burgess said.
Eastern rat snakes (Pantherophis alleghaniensis) a...
It's finally here and it feels like you've waited all year for this. The trail cams have been set out for months. You've been watching. You think you know who's who. There's one in particular. A ten-point buck you've seen on the camera a half a dozen times at least. It's a perfect predawn Saturday with a calm breeze. You head to the blind. You wait and wait and wonder where has the buck gone?
This scenario happens more often than many hu...
At thirteen, selling drinks up and down the stands of Davis Wade Stadium, a seed was planted in Jonathan Stoll. Now, years later, Stoll has returned to Mississippi State to reap the harvest as forest supervisor.
Stoll, a 2013 forestry graduate from the outskirts of Starkville, was hired to the position in July of 2019, after having worked as a consulting forester in Louisiana before returning to Mississippi to work for a timber company...
Oftentimes, we'll take the stairs to get in those few extra steps. As we climb toward better health, do we consider how much strength lies in the wood beneath our feet? While we may not think twice about the actual steps we take, there are others who do. The Stairbuilders and Manufacturers Association has partnered with scientists in the MSU Forest and Wildlife Research Center to assess the wood commonly used in constructing stairs.
Dr...
Senior wildlife, fisheries and aquaculture major Sean Moskal has three main passions which have all been cultivated by family: hockey, magic and the great outdoors.
A native of Germantown, Tennessee, he grew up playing hockey and attended Christian Brothers High School, where he was the starting goalie on the Frozen Wave ice hockey team that his uncle founded years earlier. His whole family loves the sport, and Moskal even has had th...
Roughly one third of the land area of the United States is made up of forested land. That's estimated at over 800 million acres of forests. Trees remove CO2 from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. This carbon is stored in the roots and trunk, making forests a globally important carbon storage system. A single tree can sequester about 88 pounds of carbon per year; so just how much carbon does the entire U.S. capture? A scientist ...
It is estimated that the average single-family home in the U.S. includes 16,000 board feet of lumber for framing. Architects and engineers select grades and sizes of lumber for various components in construction of housing and buildings based on design values.
In 2013, afer several years of testing and reassessment, the design values for southern pine dimension lumber were adjusted. This change impacted the utility value of several lumbe...
A Mississippi State College of Forest Resources faculty member is acquiring the prestigious title of fellow from The Wildlife Society.
Leslie Burger, assistant extension professor in the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture, will be honored at the organization's annual conference to held virtually Sept. 28-Oct. 2. As one of the highest awards bestowed by TWS, the honor recognizes Burger for her remarkable service to the wild...
Andrew Shamaskin, a Ph.D. candidate studying land conservation at Mississippi State University, has been selected as a finalist for the Sea Grant John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship. A panel of professionals selected him to serve as one of 74 fellows through a highly competitive process.
He will spend one year in Washington, D.C., gaining experience with the policy-making process in agencies and committees that deal with marine a...
On World Environment Day [June 5], Mississippi State is being recognized for the seventh consecutive year as a Tree Campus USA, an Arbor Day Foundation distinction.
MSU currently is the only university in the Magnolia State with this honor that recognizes commitment to the value and maintenance of trees.
The distinction requires that MSU have a campus tree advisory committee, plan for tree maintenance, allotted maintenance ...
Mississippi State University Provost and Executive Vice President David R. Shaw and interim MSU Division of Agriculture, Forestry, and Veterinary Medicine (DAFVM) Vice President Reuben Moore jointly announced plans today [May 13] for the interim restructuring of DAFVM's administration.
At the direction of MSU President Mark E. Keenum, Shaw—the university's chief academic officer—said the new administrative structure "refl...
According to a Mississippi State research study, feral pigs cause $66 million in property damage in the Magnolia State each year. With the wild hog population increases and damage estimates constantly changing, it's now easier to report and assess impacts with a newly designed MSU app.
The "Feral Pig Damage" app makes it easy for users to report the location of wild hog sightings and the damage they cause. Users can pinpoint or dra...
Vultures and airplanes have difficulty sharing air space. Now the predominantly black bird of prey may be sporting a bright orange wing tag, designed to help researchers study its flight path.
Scientists at Mississippi State are asking for citizen scientists to report sightings to help determine, among other things, the flight pattern of the mammoth bird.
Scott Rush, an associate professor in the wildlife, fisheries and aqu...
Amid the COVID-19 outbreak, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has identified the wood products industry as an essential critical infrastructure workforce.
Mississippi State has the only research program in the state dedicated to expanding the service and use of wood products, delivering research to the state's forest industry. While the way the research is being conducted may have shifted temporarily, researchers are leaning i...
The American beaver, once prized for its pelt, is now frequently considered a nuisance for the extensive damage they can cause to crops, timber, and roadways. There is limited economic data on the damage caused by beavers, however, estimates for southern states reach millions of dollars.
Since beavers are a species of management concern across the U.S. and especially in the South, MSU researchers are investigating beaver ecology to help...
The hundreds of floodplain lakes that dot the landscape of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain between Cairo, Illinois and Baton Rouge, Louisiana tell a story that spans the ages. These lakes were created by the meandering of prehistoric river systems, the Mississippi River, and other contemporary rivers that flow through the valley to join the Mississippi River. While rich in legacy, lakes also serve as a water source for Delta farmers. Forest and...
Mississippi State faculty, staff and students commemorated Arbor Day on Friday [Feb. 7] by planting trees along Hail State Boulevard.
The eighth annual event took place a week prior to Mississippi's Arbor Day observance, which occurs the second Friday in February. Nationally, Arbor Day is in April, but southern states celebrate earlier to ensure a better survival rate for newly planted trees.
Seedlings planted include loblo...
Timber is a multibillion dollar industry. Forestry is the number two leading commodity in the state of Mississippi generating nearly $1.2 billion in timber harvesting last year alone. Scientists in the Forest and Wildlife Research Center have completed a five year study to help increase the value of southern forests.
"Wood is the most important source of housing in the U.S. and the U.S. South is the most viable and sustainable, and la...
Unmanned aerial vehicles are taking flight to aid Mississippi State researchers in a quest to improve grassland bird conservation, safeguarding the storied feathered vertebrates that are nationally in decline.
UAVs are assisting MSU researchers in the university's Forest and Wildlife Research Center in detecting quail coveys. The new method for estimating bird population also provides a faster, more accurate and less disruptive way t...
A Mississippi State University partnership with the Fort Worth Zoo has hatched the first of more than 30 metamorphosed toadlets produced through in vitro fertilization.
A Puerto Rican crested toad named Olaf, hatched at the Fort Worth Zoo this year, is what one might call a work of art. ART, or assisted reproductive technologies, developed by scientists in the university's Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station and the ...
The College of Forest Resources at Mississippi State University is honoring a wildlife, fisheries and aquaculture faculty member with the esteemed Sharp Professorship.
"We congratulate Dr. Kevin Hunt on this great honor," said George Hopper, dean of the College of Forest Resources and director of the Forest and Wildlife Research Center. "For nearly 20 years, Dr. Hunt's research in human dimensions as it pertains to wildlife has helpe...
Mississippi State's College of Forest Resources recently recognized outstanding achievements of faculty and staff during an annual awards ceremony.
George Hopper, dean of the College of Forest Resources and director of the Forest and Wildlife Research Center, praised this year's honorees for their commitment to advancing natural resource utilization and conservation, and further positioning MSU as a national leader in the field.
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Mississippi State's student chapter of the Society of American Foresters again is claiming a top honor in the national Outstanding Student Chapter competition, a feat accomplished by the organization for more than two decades.
This year, the MSU organization is being recognized as the first-place chapter with officers of the 26-member group recently traveling to Louisville, Kentucky, to accept the honor at the annual SAF convention.<...
A conservation and landscape genetics pioneer is this year's guest for Mississippi State's 2019 Carlton N. Owen Lecture Series.
Lisette P. Waits will lead the Friday [Nov. 22] public program titled "Genetic monitoring of wildlife for conservation and management—examples from rabbits and large carnivores." Her presentation begins at 10 a.m. in Thompson Hall's Tully Auditorium.
Waits is a distinguished professor and hea...
When we think of wildfires, images of acres of upland forests ablaze out West may come to mind, however, fires happen each year at home in Mississippi. In 2017, there were 2,318 wildfires which threatened 4,441 structures and burned 33,574 acres across the Magnolia State. But prescribed fires, which are intentionally set under relatively controlled conditions to achieve specific forest management objectives, also burned another 38,826 acres.
Mississippi State University researchers are shifting commonly held ideas about the diet of grey wolves in a newly published article gaining national attention.
Published in the scientific journal "Ecology," MSU assistant professor Brandon Barton's Sept. 18 article "Grasshopper consumption by grey wolves and implications for ecosystems" details the unexpected effects of wolf reintroduction into the western region of the U.S.
MSU ...
Mississippi State University scientists are receiving a five-year, $3.9 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's RESTORE Science Program to increase understanding of how birds use the Gulf of Mexico, helping resource managers improve habitat for coastal species.
The MSU-led group is one of only four teams of researchers and resource managers from across 20 institutions including universities, federal and s...
How often, as you wander across your hardwood floor to set your mug down on the oak coffee table, do you stop to think about the wood products you use every day? Wood products exist all around us. We work at wooden desks, write notes on paper, and have homes made and furnished with wood.
Kassandra Stout, a sustainable bioproducts graduate student, explores these questions with her research project on "Attitudes and Perceptions of the M...
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