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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.
Read more...
 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.
Read more...
 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.
Read more...
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.
Read more...
 Researchers at SFA’s Waters of East Texas (WET) Center provided state and regional leaders with an overview of select research projects related to East Texas’ water resources at a recent gathering organized by State Representative Travis Clardy.
The WET Center event at Lake Naconiche Park was followed by a luncheon that featured guest speaker Kathleen Jackson, member of the Texas Water Development Board, and focused on Texas’ current and future water resource issues.
“Not only do we have an abundance of water in East Texas, but we have people who have the expertise and the knowledge needed for the entirety of the state,” Clardy said.
Texas’ projected population growth, as well as its accompanying demand on water resources, was a common theme throughout the event. Water quality and availability is such a concern for Texas, that in 2013, the legislature authorized the use of $2 billion dollars from the state’s “Rainy Day Fund” to finance current and future water projects to ensure that Texans have access to sufficient water supplies.
Dr. Kenneth Farrish, coordinator of the WET Center, said that East Texas’ abundant water will undoubtedly be called upon in coming years to address the state’s needs.
“In order to support the population and attract new industry, we’re going to have to have water,” Farrish said. “And our job is to make it happen while still looking out for the environment.”’
The WET Center is uniquely positioned to accomplish this goal as it combines the skill and experience of 24 interdisciplinary researchers from across the SFA campus. Expertise of the WET Center range from water quality assessment and wetland ecosystems to environmental chemistry and remote sensing.
Read more...
 SFA’s Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture provides East Texas high school students a variety of experiences to foster the next generation of professionals in several applied science fields.
The college recently hosted over 100 junior and senior high school students from across the region at the Department of Agriculture’s third annual College Experience Day. During this day-long event, students chose a morning and afternoon session which placed them in the field conducting activities related to that discipline. Depending on which of the eight available sessions they chose, students had the opportunity to take air quality measurements along Lanana Creek, determine forage nutrients using near infrared spectroscopy or aid in the vaccination of newly weaned piglets at the Walter C. Todd Agriculture Research Center.
Dr. Erin Brown, associate professor of animal science, says this direct immersion and awareness of the interdisciplinary nature of agriculture is key to youth involvement now and in the future as they pursue careers.
“People have this idea that agriculture is just about farmers, but there are so many more career opportunities for young people in agriculture, more than we had before,” Brown said.
High schools are also adapting to the changing industry. In addition to agriculture mechanics class, many now offer courses in forestry, environmental science, horticulture, veterinary medicine and wildlife as a part of their agriculture curriculum.
SFA alumnus and Huntington High School agriculture teacher Chris Hunt believes this course diversity has contributed to the growing number of students participating in the school’s agriculture program. He also said the event hosted by SFA broadens the horizons of students who are interested in the field of agriculture and natural resources but are not aware of the possibilities available in a university setting.
Read more...
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