Schreyer tests Live Oak wood for Smithsonian Channel’s show

As part of a documentary on the background behind Peter Weir's maritime masterpiece, "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.", Alexander Schreyer (Lecturer and Assistant Program Director in BCT) conducted several tests on Live Oak, a wood species that gave the USS Constitution the nickname "Old Ironsides". In these tests, which were filmed by the production company Blink Films UK, he compared bending properties of Live Oak to White Oak, a common shipbuilding material at the time. A second series of tests of these materials under impact loading yielded good results but was not chosen to be part of the documentary. Woodworking used to be a very hard manual labor, with people using huge saws and sawhorses when building anything made out of wood. If you are not familiar what a sawhorse is, this article on OccupyTheFarm will help you get the idea. While originally produced for the Smithsonian Channel, the episode has in the meantime been shown in many international markets. For example, the image...
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Informing Community Decisions Through the Inventory of Local Lands Course

Many communities in Massachusetts own land, but the citizens aren’t always sure what types of natural resources are on it or what their conservation options are.  This spring semester, the “Natural Resources Inventory of Local Lands” class developed natural resource inventories for the 53-acre Bill Rivers Conservation Area in the town of Leverett and a 150-acre town forest in Gill.  The goal of the inventories was to give these communities the information they need to make informed conservation decisions. Working in interdisciplinary teams, students designed and implemented natural resource inventories to gather data on wildlife habitat, wetland resources, forest vegetation, and invasive species.  Students collected and analyzed data, interpreted results, created GIS maps, and produced a professional report for each of these communities. View the Bill Rivers Conservation Area inventory.  View the Gill town forest inventory. In addition, students presented their findings at a conservation committee meeting in each town, answering questions and informing the community’s discussion of the future management of...
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UMass fisheries biology alumnus John O’Leary has been appointed to climate change advisory committee

UMass Fisheries Biology alumnus John O’Leary, 1974 AS, 1977 BS, 1984 MS has been appointed by Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewel to a newly created federal advisory committee on climate change adaptation science. John is a staff member of the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife) See below full federal press release:   ### Press Release Interior Appoints New Climate Change Advisory Committee Members to Provide Guidance on Adaptation Science Initiatives 05/08/2013 Contact: Jessica Kershaw (DOI) 202 208-6416 Robin O’Malley (USGS) 703-648-4086 WASHINGTON, D.C. — Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell today announced the members of a newly created federal advisory committee who will provide guidance about the Interior Department’s climate change adaptation science initiatives. The Advisory Committee on Climate Change and Natural Resource Science will advise the Secretary of the Interior about the USGS National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center and the Department of the Interior Climate Science Centers, which are managed by the U.S. Geological Survey. “Responding to climate change and its effects on our natural...
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