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 The SFA National Association of Environmental Professionals (NAEP) will host their 2nd annual environmental symposium on Saturday, March 28, from 9:30 a.m. to 2:40 p.m. in Forestry Room 117.
This year’s event, Invasive Species: Environmental Menace, will present a range of experts from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Texas A&M Forest Service, the University of Texas at Arlington and SFA to address the history, effects and status of invasive species locally and across the U.S.
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 The Stephen F. Austin State University Poultry Research Center has reduced its carbon footprint and lowered operational costs by converting to a unique method of composting poultry mortalities that occur at the university’s Walter C. Todd Agriculture Research Center.
Through a partnership with the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board, an Ecodrum in-vessel composter was installed in January 2014. A year-long trial conducted by SFA tested the effectiveness of the particular model of in-vessel composter that, at the time of its installation, was the only one of its kind in Texas.
Prior to utilizing the in-vessel composter, the SFA Poultry Research Center relied on incineration to dispose of poultry mortalities. This method was costly and required large amounts of fuel for extended periods of time, according to Dr. Joey Bray, director of poultry science at SFA.
“We’ve really been able to reduce our environmental footprint by using this new method,” Bray said.
Additionally, the new composting method’s operational cost averages around $100 per flock, while incineration averaged $800 to $900 per flock, Bray said.
The composter’s design sets it apart from other in-vessel models. Rifling along the inside of the unit effectively moves the composting material down the barrel with each daily rotation. An air intake feature, also unique to the model, ensures the process remains aerobic, greatly reducing the time needed for successful decomposition.
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 As the truck bumps along the sandy, narrow roads winding through Gus Engeling Wildlife Management Area, Stephen F. Austin State University Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture graduate student Kyle Hand surveys the landscape with a keen eye.
“You see this open area with the tall grasses?” he said, pointing to a large opening near a tree line of post oaks. “That is perfect habitat for nesting and brood-rearing.”
Hand, who is pursuing a master’s degree in forestry, is following the movements of more than 100 Eastern wild turkeys to bolster the current body of knowledge regarding the native bird’s habitat usage and requirements.
The Eastern wild turkey is one of three subspecies that reside in Texas. Historically, this subspecies occupied approximately 80 million acres in eastern Texas. By the late 19th century, its population had drastically declined due to habitat loss and excessive harvesting. Efforts to reintroduce populations of the Eastern turkey occurred as early as the 1920s.
From 1979 to 2007, approximately 7,000 Eastern turkeys from across the U.S. were relocated to East Texas in an effort to establish a viable population, said Dr. Chris Comer, associate professor of wildlife at SFA. However, despite biologists’ best efforts, these reintroduced populations failed to thrive.
“The current population estimate is about eight to 10,000 (turkeys) in all of East Texas, so basically the population has held steady,” Comer said.
Comer said this lack of population growth is troubling.
“If you look at neighboring states and other states across the Southeast where they’ve reintroduced considerably smaller numbers of turkeys, the populations have taken off and done really well,” he said.
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 The International Journal of Higher Education recently published research conducted by ATCOFA’s spatial science faculty highlighting the applied nature of undergraduate research available through the program.
The publication, “Integrating Hands-on Undergraduate Research in an Applied Spatial Science Level Capstone Course,” focuses on undergraduate research designed by David Douglass, a senior enrolled in Ecological Planning, the capstone course of the spatial science program. For the course project, Douglass compared the accuracy of three separate methods of measurement in determining the height of 30 building features. Results of the project indicate that the Pictometry® web-based interface was statistically more accurate than LiDAR data and could potentially be used in lieu of time-consuming in-field measurements.
Perhaps more importantly, the work substantiates the applied, hands-on approach utilized by spatial science faculty within the college. Spatial technology has been identified as a target industry sector for job growth by the President’s High Growth Job Training Initiative, and was also identified as a key element during the recent ATCOFA curriculum revision that relied on the input of over 3,000 individuals actively engaged in natural resources and forestry. For this reason, ATCOFA’s spatial science program focuses on rigorous undergraduate training that maximizes personal faculty interaction. In turn, this cultivates student mastery of the theory and application of spatial science.
Though this publication focuses on the results of a senior-level course, spatial science students in all stages of the program benefit from intensive, real-word projects and personal guidance from instructors.
The full text, authored by Drs. David Kulhavy, Daniel Unger and I-Kuai Hung, as well as David Douglass, can be found online.
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 As Dr. Leon Young spoke about his time in Africa, his eyes lit up. Scrolling through the hundreds of photos taken during his three week CNFA volunteer assignment in Soyo, Angola, he called each person by name, sharing anecdotes about his time with them through CNFA’s Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) program.
He also meticulously examined the photos taken during his layover in Angola’s capital city of Launda, a city booming in oil reserves and new high-rise buildings. The construction cranes peppering the skyline stand in stark contrast to the traditional street markets and subsistence farmers that scrape out a living on the edges of the city.
“You get off the main thoroughfares in Luanda and it’s just like any third-world country,” Young explained. “There are people out there living on a shoestring.”
To confront this drastic inequality, CNFA implemented its F2F program in southern Africa with the goal of generating sustained economic growth in the agriculture sector through short-term technical assistance provided by expert volunteers and local staff. The program engages participant needs at every level, from soil fertility to production and marketing.
Young, SFA regent’s professor of agriculture, was tasked with teaching a local famer’s cooperative in Soyo techniques to improve soil quality through sustainable practices and accessible, affordable resources.
As he searched Google Earth for the exact location of the farmers’ small commercial plots, he explained that the farmers are attempting to grow leafy vegetables during the dry season to sell to the region’s emerging middle class. Easier said than done, however, when key agricultural inputs like fertilizer are inaccessible and in most cases unaffordable.
“For a soil fertility guy, that’s really, really frustrating,” Young said.
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Approximately 200 prospective cattle buyers from throughout the region merged on the Walter C. Todd Agriculture Research Center on Saturday, November 15, for the first cattle sale in SFA history. Students from Dr. Erin Brown’s Advanced Beef Cattle class planned and executed Purple Premium Sale that offered 40 purebred lots of Beefmaster, Angus and Hereford, as well as 38 head of commercial females. Dr. Brown said the event provided students with valuable experience that will undoubtedly assist them in their future careers.
Click the photo above to view KTRE News' coverage of the Purple Premium Sale.
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