SUSTAINABLE RESOURCE MANAGEMENT INTEREST GROUP

Program Description

The Sustainable Resource Management (SRM) interest group focuses on helping students develop an integrated set of skills concentrating on silvicultural principles and practices, business management, forest economics, forest biometrics, remote sensing, and operations research. Students draw upon the expertise of a diverse faculty and are encouraged to expand the interdisciplinary nature of their program by enrolling in courses in related UW departments and programs, including the Department of Economics, Graduate School of Business Administration, Dan Evans Graduate School of Public Affairs, School of Law and the Jackson School of International Studies. Cooperating programs also include the School of Forest Resources’ Center for International Trade in Forest Products and the Rural Technology Initiative, as well as other UW programs such as Biostatistics, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, and the Center for Quantitative Science, an inter-school unit of the School of Forest Resources and the College of Ocean and Fishery Sciences.

Learned degrees, Master of Science (MS) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), are tailored to the interests and needs of individual students. Students are involved in research, teaching, and public outreach. Cross-disciplinary interactions with botany, business, communications, economics, engineering, environmental studies, forest management and other disciplines are encouraged. The degrees prepare students for careers in university research and teaching, business management, forestry, and supporting service professions and management agencies and organizations.

SRM provides graduate students with a variety of options for advanced study. Course work is flexible to cover the diversity of interests within the interest group, including: forest products business; forest economics; and Quantitative management, consisting of the following focuses--Forest biometry; Remote sensing; and management science/operations research.

Current Research

  • •  International trade and forest products marketing
  • •  Life cycle inventory analysis of environmental performance
  • •  Adoption and diffusion of new building materials
  • •  Financial performance in the pulp and paper industry
  • •  Developing new products and markets for small-diameter timber
  • •  Material substitution between wood and non-wood structural building materials
  • •  Modeling of intensively managed stand system dynamics
  • •  Assessment of tree sequestered carbon on forest land
  • •  Modeling of climatic influences on tree and stand growth
  • •  Nonparametric tree list generation for forest simulation
  • •  Development of optimal, log bucking and log allocation programs
  • •  Forest simulation using individual tree aggregation methods
  • •  Density-adjusted height-age curves for Douglas-fir plantations
  • •  Estimation of bounding relationships in biological and production functions
  • •  Analysis of the economic impacts of alternative forest tax systems
  • •  Design of optimal road construction and spatial timber harvest schedules
  • •  Decision optimization in uneven-aged stand management
  • •  Rural economics and technology transfer in timber-based communities
  • •  International trade in forest products
  • •  Economic and environmental tradeoff analysis
  • •  Spatial land management planning within a hierarchical system
  • •  Competitiveness analysis for forest products
  • •  Institutional arrangements for forest resource management and utilization (market and non-market mechanisms)
  • •  Conventional aerial photo uses and photogrammetry in conjunction with USFS cooperative
  • •  Laser and radar mapping and data collection techniques
  • •  Computer visualization model building
  • •  Optimization of transportation systems

For current funded grants in this interest group, click here.


FacultyAreas of Interest
Ernesto Alvarado Wildland fire science; Fire ecology and management; Combustion and fire behavior; Carbon emissions; Fire and climate change; Quantitative modeling; International forestry
Bruce Bare Forest management and economics, forest valuation, timber taxation, timber and timberland appraisal, management science, planning, forest policy, and decision support systems.
Ivan Eastin Marketing strategies and international trade of forest products; Marketing of lesser-known timber species
Gregory Ettl Sustainable forestry; Forest ecology; Silviculture
Jerry Franklin Forest ecology; Ecosystem processes; Landscape ecology; Succession; Structure
James Fridley Forest engineering systems design; Interactive computer simulation
Indroneil Ganguly Forest products marketing; Forest economics
Frank Greulich Management science and biometry applied to land management
Robert Harrison Forest nutrition; mineral cycling; long-term forest productivity; organic waste utilization; carbon sequestration
L. Monika Moskal Remote sensing; Biospatial analysis
John Perez-Garcia Trade analysis and modeling of forest sector
Sergey Rabotyagov Environmental economics; Applied econometrics
Peter Schiess Forest engineering; Harvest and transportation planning; Forest road design and construction; Mechanical harvest operations
Sandor Toth Natural resource informatics
Eric Turnblom Forest growth and yield modeling; Sampling and inventory; Biometrics


For further information:

Interest Group Coordinator: Dr. Peter Schiess
School of Environmental and Forest Sciences
Box 352100
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195-2100
email schiess@u.washington.edu; FAX 206-685-3091; Phone 206-543-1583