MonticelloLive

            Dr. Richard Kluender is a busy man.
            As dean of the School of Forest Resources at the University of Arkansas at Monticello and director of the Arkansas Forest Resources Center, Kluender is charged with leading Arkansas’ only undergraduate and graduate programs in forestry.
            Since its creation in 1945, the UAM forestry program has served as the only training ground in Arkansas for future foresters. There are currently 114 students enrolled in the undergraduate program and another 19 seeking master’s degrees.
            Through the years, UAM has developed a reputation for academic excellence in forestry, but educating future foresters is just part of what keeps Kluender busy. As the program has grown in stature, so has its role as a Center for Excellence in the University of Arkansas System, as a leader in forestry research, and in extension programs that reach every corner of the state.
            “The University of Arkansas program centered at UAM includes both the School of Forest Resources and the Arkansas Forest Resources Center.  The unit has three primary missions,” said Kluender, “teaching, research, and extension. In Monticello we have 16 teaching faculty who are also outstanding research scientists.  Dr. Philip Tappe is the associate dean of the School of Forest Resources and the associate director of the Arkansas Forest Resources Center.  Phil leads the faculty in conducting important research through the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station. But we also have seven faculty members who are on Cooperative Extension appointments.  Those faculty are making a great difference in forestry and wildlife management throughout the state by conducting extension programs through the Cooperative Extension Service.”
            The extension programs include activities for both adults and youth. Adult programs include continuing education courses for foresters and other professionals to help maintain licensing for certified foresters, wildlife specialists and registered foresters. The Forest Resources Center also hosts field days at various locations around the state, designed primarily to help private landowners better manage their timber. Last year, UAM hosted field days in Hope and Batesville to teach landowners how to recover land after a timber harvest.
            The University also offers short courses, both on campus and around the state, for professional foresters and landowners in areas such as point sampling, a forest inventory technique that is faster than conventional methods of inventory, and geographic imaging systems. Last year, UAM hosted a Teacher Conservation Workshop for public school teachers in conjunction with the Arkansas Forestry Association.
            UAM forest scientists are also involved in an Urban Storm Water Initiative to help Arkansas communities deal with storm water run-off, an urban environmental problem created by water containing oil, pesticides and chemicals. UAM is also conducting a similar program in northwest Arkansas dealing with chicken litter run-off.           
            Carol Guffey is director of continuing education for the AFRC while Tamara Walkingstick is the AFRC’s associate director of extension. Walkingstick is based in Little Rock and Guffey is located in Monticello. Kluender credits for their efforts in taking the UAM forestry program’s extension projects statewide.
            “Carol and Tamara have done a marvelous job in organizing and directing much of our continuing education and extension programs,” said Kluender. “With extension, research and demonstration programs at Hope, Little Rock, Fayetteville, Batesville and Pine Tree, we reach all parts of the state.”
            Kluender said UAM’s extension programs also target youth to teach things like environmental conservation, an appreciation for the outdoors, and to cultivate an awareness of ecological sustainability.   “We get students out of these activities,” said Kluender. “It’s a good program.”
            Among the programs for youth are 4-H Forestry Contests, various district and state o’Ramas, and the Arkansas Youth Hunter Education Challenge, held each year in Ferndale and designed to teach fire arms safety, map reading and wildlife identification. The Forest Resources Center also hosts the Arkansas Envirothon, a 4-H contest co-sponsored by the state Natural Resource Conservation Service, the Wildlife Habitat Evaluation Program, which is co-sponsored by the Center and the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, and Rice for Ducks, where youth work with county agents, farmers and Ducks Unlimited to put acres that have been in rice into habitat for migratory waterfowl after harvest.
            “When you combine our adult and youth extension programs, we’re serving well over 2,000 people a year,” said Kluender. “We’re not just educating future foresters at Monticello, we’re taking natural resource management statewide.”