UAM graduate student wins forestry-poster competition

Cassandra Hug won first place in the 68th annual Southern Hardwood Forest Research Group poster contest on Tuesday.

Hug is a graduate student in the University of Arkansas at Monticello Natural Resources program. The contest was held online this year via Microsoft Teams.

“This was the first time attending,” said Hug.

The meeting is for people from various state agencies, organizations and universities to talk about ongoing projects and current research, as well as management for forests and funding.

The 11th annual Dr. John Adams student poster contest was open to any undergraduate, master of science, or doctoral student working on original research that investigates some aspect of southern hardwood forestry.

Hug’s poster focused on tree inventories on one of the green tree reservoirs, George’s Woods, within the Five Oaks property near Humphrey. A green tree reservoir is a forest of hardwood trees that stays shallowly flooded in fall and winter. They are desirable areas for waterfowl.

Five Oaks Agricultural Research and Education Center has funded her research project. This particular green tree reservoir is managed mainly for waterfowl and duck hunting, said Hug.

“What we want to see are a lot of trees that produce smaller acorns, such as nuttall oak or willow oak. This study has shown that there is more overcup oak in the overstory as opposed to seeing nuttall or willow oaks, which would be desirable for waterfowl,” she said.

Hug’s poster explains that most green tree reservoir management techniques involve constant flooding throughout the dormant season. Hug’s poster asserts that constant flooding increases stress on trees in such reservoirs and alters the forest composition.

The large-scale project includes dividing the 12 GTRs into

750 plots, where she takes detailed vegetation composition and tree health measurements. Eventually, Hug will include elevation measures to see if different elevations affect the tree’s health. Hug evaluated 70 plots in George’s Woods to begin her project. Hug has spent the last few months collecting data on the overstory canopy structure, diameter at breast height distribution, and importance value (IMP) of each tree species.

Hug’s research revealed the overcup oak had an IMP of 65%. Overcup dominated the forest canopy in their forest area, followed by species such as nuttall oak cedar elm, and willow oak. The nuttall and willow are of particular value to waterfowl due to the smaller acorns they produce. Their acorns are small enough for the ducks to swallow.

“I only evaluated one green tree reservoir because it’s what we had accomplished before the poster competition, ” said Hug. “We hope to have all 12 green tree reservoirs done by this summer, 2022. We are hiring two different field research teams to measure the 750 temporary and permanent plots. It is all part of my master project thesis, so it’s crucial to get measurement completed this summer,” said Hug.

Hug is originally from the front range of the Rockies near Denver, Colo. She did her undergraduate work at Regis University. She said she has never been duck hunting or any kind of hunting. While looking for a master’s degree assistantship, she didn’t intentionally go for forestry over wildlife but was offered two opportunities. She turned down an assistantship in Indiana for aquaculture studies. Hug said she doesn’t really care for fishing and certainly not for a career.

“I grew up around the outdoors and trees, so the natural resources route seemed like a good fit,” Hug said.

Hug said the poster contest was a byproduct of her research and larger thesis project. She said the poster presentation was not required as part of her schoolwork. Hug was told about the poster contest by her faculty adviser and UAM assistant professor of biometrics, Pradip Saud.

“By presenting posters, the student can interact with the camera in place of a person,” said Saud. “They have an audience. It’s another kind of experience, rather than the traditional in-person experience.”

“I believe that the poster presentations help build confidence and motivate students to become more involved with their research,” said Saud.

Saud said he walked Hug through the process step-by-step. Saud himself has presented a half dozen posters and shared his experiences.

Hug collected $250 for the first-place award and she will receive a certificate. Hug said the money would go toward her ongoing educational expenses.

A video link for Cassandra’s presentation is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_cw57IdaZw . She is the third presenter @ Time Code 3:14:17.

Lon Tegels is with the College of Forestry, Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Arkansas at Monticello.