Today my class spent the afternoon out at Duke Forest as part of the Forest Management Travel Seminar, a one-unit course organized by professor Dan Richter. I signed up for the class because it was a great opportunity to get out in the field and expose myself to more forestry topics in North Carolina. During the first three weeks of class, we decided as a class what areas of forestry we wanted to explore. During the average week, we will take a day trip in the area to learn about a particular forest management related theme (urban forestry, visiting a wood treatment plant, forest certification, etc).  We also scheduled three overnight trips for the more remote locations, which will include South Carolina, and Roanoke River and Asheville in North Carolina.  I highly recommend the class to any Nicholas student, even if you don’t plan on focusing on forestry.

We were lucky to have Judd Edeburn as our guide for the day. He has been the Duke Forest Resource Manager for the past 29 years and one could argue he knows the area better than anybody. The forest he manages totals 7000 acres (see map) and is only a short walk away from west campus. Although the role of the forest is to serve as a research facility, it is open to the public and many people happily utilize its hiking trails for recreation.

Today, the reason for the trip was to acquaint the class with the management challenges of the Duke forest team. Judd talked about many topics including the process needed to maintain the FSC certification, how the team organizes timber harvests, deer overpopulation problems and possible solutions, and we were introduced to some of the natural heritage sites on the property. At the end of the day, I really had a good overview of the challenges and importance of managing the Duke forest.  It also reminded me that there is a beautiful retreat from the urban environment only minutes away from campus.

Judd Edeburn-Duke Forest Resource Manager