Forest service director pays LNO courtesy call

Newly appointed director of the US Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Research Station (RMRS), Dr. Sam Foster, recently paid a courtesy call on the LTER Network Office.

Foster and LNO Executive Director, Bob Waide, held wide ranging discussions for more than one hour in the LNO offices at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. Also present at the meeting were Dr. Deborah Finch (Project Leader, RMRS Albuquerque Forestry Sciences Lab), Dr. Burton Pendleton (Research Scientist at RMRS Albuquerque Forestry Sciences Lab), Ms. Dolores Rottach (Assistant Station Director for Operations, RMRS Albuquerque Forestry Sciences Lab), Mike Friggens (Sevilleta LTER Project Manager), and James Brunt (LNO Chief Information Officer).

Foster will oversee the Agency’s research and development work conducted by 91 research scientists in the 14-state area of the Interior West with its headquarters in Fort Collins, CO. The Research Station administers research laboratories in Albuquerque, Boise, Bozeman, Flagstaff, Fort Collins, Logan, Missoula, Moscow, Ogden, Rapid City, and Reno.

Foster praised the existing collaboration between RMRS and LTER and expressed optimism that such collaboration will continue. Several LTER sites, notably Coweeta, HJ Andrews, and Luquillo, are housed within US Forest Service facilities. Additionally, Friggens explained that while Sevilleta LTER in New Mexico is centered on a National Wildlife Refuge, the site boasts 12 collaborative projects with RMRS researchers ranging from Pinyon-Juniper fungal interactions to the effects of fire on a grassland-shrubland ecotone.

An important initiative which Foster will pursue in collaboration with LTER is the development of the USDA Urban Long Term Research Areas (ULTRAs), one of which is proposed to be associated with the CAP LTER in Phoenix Arizona. He said his aim was to open active joint participation on proposal development with Principal Investigators from LTER sites, especially those associated with proposed ULTRA sites such as CAP.

Foster also toured the LNO’s Ecoinformatics and Usability Testing Labs, where Mark Servilla demonstrated the advanced training facilities used in the labs and cyber-based data processing and delivery developed for the EcoTrends project.