News - December 2022


Hurricane’s effects killed about half of adult sturgeon in Apalachicola River

As hurricane Michael churned through the Gulf of Mexico to make landfall near Florida’s Apalachicola River in 2018, it left a sea of destruction in its wake. The path was easy to follow on land, but debris and infrastructure failures also diminished the river’s water quality and led to the death of roughly half the gulf sturgeon population there. A study by researchers at the University of Georgia with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service…

Buds grow on a poplar seedling
Say it with flowers: Scientists develop trees that flower in months, not years

When scientists want to improve a variety of vegetable, it can take a year or less to see changes—just the length of a reproductive cycle. But breeding improvements into trees can take years—sometimes decades—before changes can be seen. Now, a process developed by researchers at the University of Georgia may cut that time to a fraction. Using the CRISPR gene-editing tool, C.J. Tsai of the UGA Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources and…


Convocation speaker relishes 'fun yet challenging' doctoral journey

Talk about a steep learning curve. When Srijana Baral arrived at the University of Georgia in 2017 to begin her master’s degree, she was navigating a graduate program thousands of miles away from her home in Nepal in a dense topic: forest taxation. “I studied the economic impact of forest tax policies on family forest owners in 10 southern states in the US. Forest tax policies can be confusing and complicated to understand for landowners. It…


Fall 2022 graduates celebrate hard work, new challenges

Hard work is rewarded, said the speakers at the fall convocation ceremony for the University of Georgia Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, and this year’s crop of graduates should soon harvest their benefits. That was the message brought to this year’s fall graduating class, as 65 undergraduate and graduate students walked across the stage at The Classic Center in Athens to be congratulated by Dean Dale Greene. The message hit…

The governor's mansion is framed by flags
Student arborists help gauge governor’s trees

When a tree limb fell on the grounds of the governor’s mansion, staff there turned it into a teachable moment. The event launched a larger assessment of all 300 trees across the property and incorporated students at the University of Georgia to assist and learn from the process. As a result, two graduating students in UGA’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources surveyed the 18-acre property and delivered a risk-assessment report as…

Headshot of Mike Clutter
Clutter, 63, remembered as forest economics authority

Warnell faculty, staff and alumni are mourning the death of former dean Michael L. Clutter, 63, on Dec. 24. Clutter served as Warnell’s dean from 2007 to 2015. Clutter was an authority on the economics of the forestry industry. Before joining Warnell’s faculty in 2001, Clutter held various management positions with Georgia-Pacific and Union Camp. After returning to Athens to teach at Warnell, Clutter was named the Hargreaves Distinguished…

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