News - August 2023

man planting
As holiday season ends, a final gift for the fish

Student’s project uses discarded Christmas trees to create new habitat   Using the reds and oranges on his digital map as a guide, graduate student Wesley Gerrin guided the small motorboat over the drop spot. Within seconds, the two other lab assistants in the boat were up and heaving wood and concrete over the side. There was a spray of needles and a whiff of pine, and the tree was gone. The crew out on the University of Georgia’s Lake…


Ghosts in the Machine: While one population of red wolves struggles, evidence begins to mount of distant relatives to the wes

Red wolves are standing at a crossroads. To the east lies a successful project to bring the endangered animals back to their historic range—now at a standstill. To the west lies a potential population that has flown under the radar until recently, with locals and wildlife researchers joining forces to learn more about them. And Joey Hinton (PHD ’14) is right in the middle, ready for the journey. Hinton, who has spent more than a decade…


Stewards of the shoreline: A handful of alumni help mitigate damage wrought by the Golden Ray cargo ship

The view out Jared Flowers’ office window has changed a bit in the past year. Flowers (BSFR ’04) is marine biologist supervisor for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Coastal Resources Division. Last August, he could see boats drifting by as they headed out of Oglethorpe Bay and Brunswick’s port. But today, the view is dominated by barges, cranes and a 665-foot cargo ship lying on its side. “It happened over a weekend, in the middle of…


Dick Field (MFR ’71, PHD ’78): ‘You’ve got to be able to communicate’

Dick Field pulls a dark green book from its shelf and cracks it open. An art deco bookplate is pasted on the inside front cover, where, in black ink, is written the name of its former owner: B.F. Grant. It’s one of several 1920s-era books in Field’s library—a collection that’s being slowly dismantled as he and his wife, Susan, begin to downsize. But each one holds a particular meaning, and Field still recalls pulling this book out of a box set…


Building 4 photographer: Wezddy Del Toro Orozco

A native of Mexico, Wezddy Del Toro Orozco is a student in the Integrative Conservation PhD Program through the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources (Dr. Nibbelink Spatial Analysis Lab). She is also a collaborator at the Mamiraua Institute for Sustainable Development in Brazil and a Wildlife Conservation Society Graduate Scholarship Program Recipient. Del Toro’s research and her fluency in four languages has taken her to collaborate…

A radiocollared tapir
Jorge Rojas: Guardian the gardeners of the forest

Jorge Rojas is protecting living fossils. Those “fossils” are Baird’s tapir, an endangered herbivore that looks like a small rhino, with a nose that resembles a short trunk and lives in Central and South America. As a remnant of the megafauna, they roamed the earth alongside mastodons and sabertoothed tigers during the last ice age, but now, only around 5,500 remain in the world. And these tapirs are an important part of their environment. They…

Yellow-bellied slider
A fresh start for turtles: Warnell’s pond gets fall cleaning

The small, square pond in the Mary Kahrs Warnell garden is known as a spot for lunch, meetings or quiet reflection. But regular visitors to the garden will notice a change this fall.   Facing extreme temperatures and an overgrowth of vegetation, maintenance crews at the University of Georgia Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources spent time this summer cleaning the pond. The goal was to reduce the leaves and debris—which affect…


Search committee named for dean of Warnell

A 19-member committee has been appointed to begin the search for candidates for the position of Dean of the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources.   The committee is chaired by Nick Place, Dean and Director of the College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences. In addition to Dean Place, the search committee members are: Chuck Bargeron, Senior Public Service Associate and Director of…


Deer dynamics: Student helps unlock mysteries of chronic wasting disease

Hundreds of GPS collars. Thousands of movements tracked across the mountains. Millions of photographs. These are the elements now being assembled to give researchers a clearer picture of chronic wasting disease, a highly contagious, deadly disease affecting a large number of deer and elk in Arkansas. A trio of researchers collects samples from fawns. Photo courtesy UGA Deer Lab Just how many animals are affected is still unknown, but that’s…


A walk through land use, policy and forests

Degree program's new area of emphasis offers a path combining government and the outdoors Who decides the future of a forest? This is a basic question asked by students studying forest policy at the University of Georgia Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. Whether it’s federal lands, tribal lands, state lands or privately owned forests, there are laws and policies that affect management in a variety of ways. The expertise, said…

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