Gary Beluzo is Professor of Environmental Science at Holyoke  Community College. M.S. Global Ecology (Botany) UMASS Amherst

He was the Department Chair 1984-1998. Although Gary’s earlier interest was limnology, he entered a partnership with Bob Leverett in the fall of 1998 to inventory, characterize, and map (GPS/GIS) the old growth forests of Massachusetts with a special permit from the MASS DCR and now also the Great Smoky Mountains (TN/NC).
 
Through an NSF Grant in 1996, Professor Beluzo created an Environmental GIS laboratory at HCC and is now developing an extensive geo-database of old growth forests and champion trees for Massachusetts .

Professor Beluzo is also the on campus architect of the HCC Forest Summit Lecture Series and Eastern Native Tree Society Rendezvous.  This event brings together scientists, foresters, environmentalists, and the public to discuss current Eastern U.S. Forest Issues.

Founder of the Western Native Tree Society

My career started in as a pre-Forestry community college student working for the BLM as a Forestry Aid (GS-3) with BLM in Eastern Oregon, and with a few exceptions (as material coordinator/pipefitter supervisor with Fluor Engineers and Constructors, in Saudi Arabia) I stayed the course with federal land management agencies through retirement last year as a GS-12 program manager, with the National Park Service, Grand Canyon National Park, AZ. 

My education started early on pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Forest Resources Management, which I completed at Humboldt State University in 1983.  After nearly a decade with the USFS, I was encouraged to pursue my Master of Science degree in Forestry with University of Massachusetts, at Amherst, where I specialized in Remote Sensing of Old-growth Forests, and successfully defending thesis in 1993. 

Returning to the West (Arizona/Alaska), I developed skills in GIS that eventually led to Fire Area Growth Simulation, to model wildfire growth. With additional studies at Northern Arizona in Ecological Restoration, I obtained NEPA compliance for, and completed Wildfire Hazard Reduction Research project at Grand Canyon National Park. At my retirement from Grand Canyon, I was Vegetation Program Manager (Developed Area). Since retiring in 2007, I’ve continued participation with ENTS/WNTS, the Cook Inlet Chapter of SAF, and am Alaska’s Big Tree Coordinator.  In my spare time, I’m an apprentice Beer Judge, and actively pursue excellence in Anchorage’s world-class brewing venues.

Don Bertolettes Early Days in Forestry  June 2008

 I have been an ENTS "member" since Will Blozan hired me on as an employee with his company, Appalachian Arborists in 2005 and introduced me to the organization. However, this is the first time that I have posted a message, so, hello to everyone!

I am from central Illinois originally and have a Bachelor's degree in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences from the University of Illinois @C-U. Since graduation I have lived and worked in northern Arizona as a wildland firefighter and western North Carolina as an arborist and now live in north-central Colorado (Fort Collins) with my wife and son, working as a wildland firefighter with the US Forest Service.

I have been involved in environmental studies for years, before and since my graduation, extending the scope and specialization of my personal education at my own pace. I have no real "field of specialization" but really enjoy learning about whatever I can in the natural world, with forest ecology, old growth, and wildfire in particular. I have worked in wildfire for three + years now, and cannot lie, really enjoy being around fire. The experience of proximity to such an awesome natural force cannot be compared to much else in this world. I feel blessed to be able to more fully appreciate fire for what it's worth as an ecological tool and disturbance factor due to the job that I hold. 

I grew up in Milford, Michigan near Kensington Metropark and it was here that I developed a strong interest in biology. I went to Michigan Technological University and received a B.S. degree in biological science with a major in microbiology. I switched to entomology for my masters degree while at the University of Tennessee and I received my doctoral degree in entomology from Clemson University.

I love to plant trees as much as I like to find and measure big ones. I plant them for their great beauty, their delicious fruits and nuts and just because I love to watch and measure their growth. Aside from studying insects, trees and other organisms, I also enjoy gardening, hiking, backpacking, kayaking and photography.

Erik Bjarling

Bio: I like experimenting with shrubs and trees as a hobby, planting from seed or from tiny sapling, exploring the subtle differences, and seeing which species and cultivars thrive and which ones struggle. For example, I currently have about 23 or 24 different viburnums on my small property, as well as tree saplings from far away like Kalopanax septemlobus (from New Zealand) and Callitropsis nootkatensis (native to the west coast up to Alaska). So far, in five years, I've only lost about 2 or 3 saplings (because my company sent me away on temporary transfers). My house (summer cottage) was built circa 1939 smack dab in the middle of a mountain swamp with black, loamy soil, which turned out to be perfect conditions for my hobby.

"Erik Bjarling is a technician, but what he does at work and what he does at home are so far removed that you'd think he was too different people. Even in the face of an impending recession, he can't help himself from buying more tree saplings. He'd sooner go without his cell phone, TV, and Internet than stop planting trees. He jokingly, and with all modesty, calls his property ' Bjarboretum I ', and he has another property up the hill which will be called ' Bjarboretum II '."

Tree and Shrub Listings by Erik Bjarling Oct 2007

President, Eastern Native Tree Society, President, Appalachian Arborists, Inc., ISA Certified Arborist SO-4032A http://www.appalachianarborists.com/ 

The ENTS president is a certified arborist and former science technician with the GSMNP. Will has a widely recognized reputation as a tree measurer. He has been featured in articles, on TV., and on radio. Will is a co-author of "Stalking The Forest Monarchs - A Guide To Measuring Champion Trees". He has climbed and measured the tallest or among the tallest trees in South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.

Will Blozan helped organized and mapped the structure of the Middleton Oak, in South Carolina, the Sag Branch Tulip - the first two tree to be mapped in eastern United States. Will organized and directed the Tsuga Search Project that documented the largest and greatest of the Eastern hemlock trees found anywhere, many of them hundreds of years old, prior to their untimely death as the result of infestation by an invasive insect - the Hemlock Wooly Adelgid. Will Blozan has recently become involved in a canopy mapping project of some of the giant Sequoia's in Whittaker Forest in California.

   Southern Research Station

   P.O. Box 3516 UAM

   Monticello, AR 71656

I have engaged in multiple research projects related to the upland forests of the Midsouth region.  This has included studies on ice damage to pine plantations in the South, investigation of the Cross Timbers woodland in western Arkansas, and completion of long-term growth and yield projects.  Much of my work has also concentrated on the refinement of silvicultural techniques for the development of old-growth-like attributes in managed stands of the northern Lake States and the Midsouth (primarily Arkansas). 

B.S. (1992) Forestry, Michigan Technological University

M.S. (1995) Forestry, Michigan Technological University

Ph.D. (1999) Forest Ecology, Utah State University

I am a member of the Society of American Foresters, the Ecological Society of America, the Forest History Society, the Torrey Botanical Society, the U.S. Chapter of the International Association of Landscape Ecologists, and the Natural Areas Association.

http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/staff/767 

http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/4106/
about/Scientists/dbragg/dbragg.htm 

Select Publications:
http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/4159/about/Scientists/
dbragg/dbragg_pubs.htm

SRS-RWU-4159 Ancient, Big, and Historical Trees of Arkansas, Past and Present: http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/4159/about/Scientists/
dbragg/big%20trees/AR_big_trees.htm

www.frankblauphotography.com/owls_062609

http://www.frankblauphotography.com/

Pamela Briggs

http://www.pamelabriggs.com/ Pamela is an Iowa native. She lives in the Mississippi River Valley where the river flows east to west. Bald eagles come there to fish each winter. She worked at a public library for 15 years. She's been a reporter for three newspapers and has had diverse freelance writing and editing gigs. She has a BA in Theatre, and has performed in 41 stage productions. She's appeared in two Italian movies, neither of which she has seen. She sang with Elvis on Velvet, an a cappella quartet, for five years. Her original song "Run Like A Deer" is on their recording Four-Eyed Soul.