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Matthew Beaty, left, graduate student in geography, and Alan H. Taylor,
associate professor of geography, look at the leaf litter in a local wooded
area.
The leaf litter is part of the fuel source for forest fires.
Photo: Greg Grieco
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By A'ndrea Elyse Messer
Public Information
For 94 years, forest caretakers have restricted Mother Nature by suppressing forest fires. Now a geographer wants to know what the forests would have been like if we'd let them burn.
"I'm interested in how fire shapes the landscape. Resource managers are interested in restoring forests to what they were like before the arrival of Euroamericans," said R. Matthew Beaty, graduate student in geography. "To restore forests, we need to understand their natural variability."
What Beaty and Alan H. Taylor, associate professor of geography, are finding is that variation on a fairly local scale is important and that the environment, especially the topography, is key.
The researchers examined pairs of aerial photographs from 1941 and 1993, and noted significant changes in the Cub Creek Research Natural Area of the Lassen National Forest in Northern California. These changes are remarkable because the Cub Creek area has never been logged or grazed. The only human impact in the area has been fire suppression.
The watershed is very rugged with two ridges that run east and west from its headwaters. The researchers divided the area into three regions based on differences in topography.
"In the 20th century, fire suppression has changed the density and species diversity of these forests, but differently in each area. The controlling factor seems to be the direction that the slope faces," Beaty said. "A slope's direction influences species distributions and fire vulnerability because of microclimates."
Fire suppression began in 1905 and these forests which had widely spaced larger trees became closed forests, densely packed with smaller trees, saplings and seedlings. Fire suppression also has changed the forest composition from mostly pine, which are fire tolerant, to firs which are more shade tolerant but fire intolerant.
To learn about the pre-Euroamerican fire history, the researchers took wedges from existing trees to identify when past fires occurred. Because trees add one growth ring per year and because the width of these rings is affected by climate conditions, scientists can date fire years with accuracy.
"Some fires burned throughout the area," said Beaty. "In 1795, 1829 and 1883 there were major fires that burned everywhere and these were also very dry years throughout California."
The three areas investigated were a south-facing slope, headwaters and north-facing slope. Natural fire breaks separate these areas and the historic frequency and severity of fires differs in each.
"One apparent outcome of fire suppression is that, without fire, each of these areas is becoming more homogeneous," said Beaty.
The historic diversity of fire regimes within this small watershed contributed directly to past biological diversity. Now, white fir has reached unprecedented dominance, while other species are in decline. If resource managers want to maintain the remarkable diversity of these landscapes, the restoration of diverse fire regimes is necessary.
If the mere mention of the word "allergy" leaves you with itchy, watering eyes and a case of the sniffles, you may need to take extra precautions this season.
"It's quite possible that people with allergies will experience an extremely aggravating time this spring and summer," said Dr. Timothy Craig, an allergist with Penn State Geisinger, The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and an associate professor of medicine in the College of Medicine.
"Because of the unusually warm, wet winter El Niño has given us, the entire country will have elevated pollen counts this spring. The weeds that cause allergies do much better and grow much larger in moist, warm areas. They tend to fully pollinate for longer periods of time, which can intensify and prolong the suffering for people," he said.
Craig recommends the following tips for those who are worried they will have to spend the next few months locked behind closed doors and windows.
* Try to limit outdoor exposure during the hours of 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., when warm, dry winds are at their peak, increasing pollen distribution.
* Schedule physical activities at appropriate times. If you jog, plan to do so either in the morning or at night, when pollen levels are at their lowest.
* Stay in air-conditioned environments as much as possible. This will help to alleviate symptoms and make sleeping more comfortable.
* Ask your doctor or pharmacist about topical nasal steroids and over-the-counter antihistamines. The antihistamines can ease discomfort but also may cause drowsiness, so use extra caution when driving or engaging in other potentially dangerous activities. Remember that alcohol will increase the drowsiness effect of the medication.
* Avoid irritants such as smoke, harsh chemicals, fumes from cleaning products and perfumes. These will aggravate any symptoms you may have.
If your allergies continue to worsen, interfere with your quality of life or create a disturbance in your sleeping pattern, consult your physician about other methods of treatment.
Regis Dunn, a student in hotel, restaurant and institutional management
and a cook in
Warnock dining commons on the University Park campus, prepares food for
the
Warnock Carnival. The carnival, held April 4, was the first of several to
be held on the campus.
Tickets are sold outside the carnival area for a variety of foods. Menu
items include hot sausage
sandwiches, grilled chicken sandwiches, fresh-squeezed lemonade, cookie-on-a-stick
desserts,
garden veggie wraps and more. Upcoming carnivals are scheduled for Waring
on April 18,
Redifer on April 21, Pollock on April 24, Findlay on April 29 and Simmons/McElwain
on May 1.
Photo: Greg Grieco
Eve Stryker Munson, assistant professor of communications, and Catherine A. Warren have put together a collection of essays called James Carey: A Critical Reader published by the University of Minnesota Press. Carey, who has been called one of "the nation's leading cultural historians," has studied and written about the ideas of an array of philosophers, sociologists, historians and anthropologists, including John Dewey, Max Weber and Jürgen Habermas. Carey's themes range from the strains on democracy and drawbacks of technology to the critique of journalism and the politics of academe. The book that has resulted is an introduction to Carey's work that intersperses his major essays with articles exploring his central themes and their importance.
For more information, visit the University of Minnesota Press Web site at http://www.upress.umn.edu.
Calyampudi R. Rao, holder of the Eberly Family chair in statistics and director of the Center for Multivariate Analysis, has written the second edition of a book titled Statistics and Truth: Putting Chance to Work, published by World Scientific. Rao is internationally acknowledged as one of the world's top five statisticians.
The first edition of his book was based on three lectures on the history and development of statistics given by Rao in 1987 during the Ramanujan Centenary Celebrations, sponsored by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in India.
The second edition provides an account of the development of statistics from its origin as the collection and compilation of data for administrative purposes to a separate scientific discipline of study and research for making decisions under uncertainty. In addition to including completely reorganized and expanded material from the first edition, the book contains a new chapter on the public understanding of statistics. Statistics and Truth: Putting Chance to Work has been translated into German, Polish, Spanish, Japanese and Chinese.
Strange Fruit, an anthology of plays addressing the impact of lynching on U.S. theatre and culture, has been published by Indiana University Press. Edited by Judith Stephens, associate professor of speech communication at Penn State Schuylkill, and Kathy A. Perkins, the book focuses on women's unique views of lynching and reveals a social history of interracial cooperation between black and white women.
Included in this work are plays spanning the period 1916 to 1994 from playwrights such as Angelina Weld Grimke, Georgia Douglas and Michon Boston.
While natural disasters have been hard to predict, it's easy to predict mankind's unwavering fascination with it all.
Tapping into this fascination, Ernest Zebrowski, a physics professor at Pennsylvania College of Technology, has penned a new book, Perils of a Restless Planet: Scientific Perspectives on Natural Disasters.
Within its 302 pages, Zebrowski compares and contrasts ancient and modern natural disasters and examines natural disasters to reveal the intimate relationship between science and society. He also describes the current state of knowledge on natural disasters and focuses on the science behind disaster prediction and prevention. Zebrowski believes historical examination of natural disasters allows scientists to prepare societies for events that will occur, not within the coming weeks, but within the next 10 years or the next generation.
In addition to the academic and scientific communities, the book is geared toward general readers who are intrigued by scientific and environmental concepts.
With spring semester quickly coming to a close, it soon will be time for Intercom to switch to its summer publication schedule. Beginning April 23, Intercom will publish every other week through Aug. 13. The remainder of the schedule for this academic year is:
| Publication date | Deadline* |
| April 23 | April 15 |
| May 7 | April 29 |
| May 21 | May 13 |
| June 4 | May 27 |
| June 18 | June 10 |
| July 2 | June 24 |
| July 16 | July 8 |
| July 30 | July 22 |
| Aug. 13 | Aug. 5 |
