Arboriculture & Community Forestry Program Held 3rd Annual UMass Student Tree Climbing Competition

On Saturday May 9th, 12 climbers, 8 judges, and a brave crowd of spectators spent a somewhat rainy day at the 3rd Annual UMass Student Tree Climbing Competition. Dan Cohen, a senior urban forestry major, organized the competition this year, with help from Dan Watkins and Dave Welch, who designed the t-shirts. As usual, the competitors put on a great show, and the overall winner, for the second time, was Kyle McCabe, a senior in the Stockbridge Arboriculture & Community Forestry program. Dr. Brian Kane, co-director of the Arboriculture & Community Forestry program said, "Every year, I'm so impressed with how well the students perform. I see them as freshmen, in the climbing lab, and within a couple of years, they've matured into very good climbers. I also can't thank Dan Cohen enough, since he really took it upon himself to organize the competition. We're also really fortunate to have so many alumni who returned to help out with judging,...
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Graduate Student, David Stormer, Mentors High School Student in Juvenile Bluefish Project

Graduate Student, David Stormer, will be mentoring a high school senior, Cassie Raker, this summer. Cassie is a senior at Amherst high school and intends on studing marine science in the fall. David and Cassie applied for a $3,000 American Fisheries Society (AFS) Hutton Junior Fisheries Biology Scholarship. David and Cassie will be working on the Hudson River estuary this summer examining juvenile bluefish cohort-specific patterns of resource use (habitat and diet), growth and energy dynamics....
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Assistant Professor, Simi Hoque, Helps Train Youth for a Green Energy-Efficient Economy

Low-Income Youth Are Training for Green Jobs with Help from UMass Amherst and Youth Build-Holyoke April 28, 2009 Contact: Janet Lathrop 413/545-0444 AMHERST, Mass. – A dozen young people now working toward their general educational development (GED) certificates in Holyoke are also gaining significant job skills for the green, energy-efficiency economy, thanks to community outreach efforts of the green building program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in collaboration with nonprofits YouthBuild-Holyoke and the Center for Ecological Technology (CET), Northampton. Simi Hoque, assistant professor in the new green building program at UMass Amherst, says seven men and five women between 16 and 20 years old who are already enrolled in Youth Build-Holyoke classes are the first group of what organizers hope will be many to benefit from this community-university partnership. The goal is to improve the young people’s skills and job prospects in energy and environmental conservation in western Massachusetts. Hoque and Darnell Goldson, executive director of YouthBuild-Holyoke, with CET, an energy management agency, designed the...
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Current and Former Aboriculture Students Place Top Honors

On Saturday 2 May, 38 tree climbers competed in the New England Regional Tree Climbing competition at Look Park, in Northampton. Of the 38 climbers, 13 were current or former students in the Arboriculture & Community Forestry program in the Department of Natural Resources Conservation. The  women's champion was Marcy Gladdys, a graduate from 2007, and Melissa Duffy (2004) took second place. In the men's competition, Kyle McCabe, expected to graduate in May 2009, won the aerial rescue event. In the footlock speed climb event, UMass took first (Andrew Putnam '07), second (Kyle McCabe '09), and third (Jonathan Royce '07) place. Dr. Brian Kane noted, "Dennis Ryan and I are very proud of our current and former students. It's a real testament to their dedication and our program that they've excelled as climbers. UMass is a great place to get an education in arboriculture."...
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