USFS NASP 18 Module 4 in 2025 - University of Kentucky Subaward

Statement of Work Project Title: USFS NASP 18 Module 4 in 2025 – University of Kentucky Subaward Collaborators: Jacob J. Muller and John M. Lhotka, University of Kentucky, Department of Forestry and Natural Resources Proposed Activities: Collaborators from the University of Kentucky (UK) will deliver a field activity-based curriculum supported by targeted use of classroom instruction and selected foundational readings. This component of the USFS NASP 18 Module 4 will be conducted for 45 NASP participates at the University of Kentucky Robinson Forest starting on April 30, 2025 and concluding on May 3, 2025. Educational activities will utilize established professional forester training areas and long-term studies located on Robinson Forest. Additionally, demonstration areas highlighting the impact of early- and mid-rotation silvicultural practices along with evenand multi-aged regeneration practices on stand conditions will be maintained and created on Robinson Forest to support our proposed educational activities. To facilitate the use of training and demonstration areas by students, permanent plots within existing and newly created areas will be inventoried. Establishment and monitoring of training and demonstration areas will be completed by April 2025 to facilitate final curriculum and educational material development ahead of the 2025 NASP 18 Module 4. The curriculum we propose will directly address the NASP program objectives and will complement the educational activities delivered by collaborators at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. The proposed curriculum at Robinson Forest includes two focal areas: 1) forest and stand dynamics, 2) silvicultural systems including regeneration. Under these two areas, the proposed curriculum at the UK Robinson Forest will provide an emphasis on the upland hardwood regeneration, recruitment, and growth as well as the ecological basis for oak silviculture. The curriculum will also provide NASP students experience with silvicultural methods both from a traditional even-aged perspective as well as irregular (and gap-based) approaches. Finally, field-based experiential activities, classroom lecture sessions, and a summative prescription writing project developed by collaborators Muller and Lhotka will integrate the following instructional components: • Site productivity and forest community relationships, delineating forest stands • Site preparation and early stand management • Even-aged and gap-based regeneration methods • Crop tree release, area-wide thinning, and marking an area-width thinning using the proportional-B method. • Historical perspective of the oak resource and barriers to oak sustainability • Silvicultural solutions to addressing the regeneration and recruitment pillars of oak management • Oak management decision tools • Thinning and regeneration of mesic cove hardwood stands • Upland oak prescription project – NASP students we conduct stand assessments and write prescriptions for three different oak-dominated stands across a site productivity gradient and a a range of oak regeneration potential. NASP 18 Module 4 in 2025 – Tentative Robinson Forest Schedule **Wednesday - April 30th** - 12-1 pm: Group arrival, lunch, and cabin assignments - 2 pm: Welcome, group introductions, ice breaker activity - 3:30 pm: Drive to firetower and hike back to camp - 5:00 pm: Dinner - 6:30 pm: Evening lecture: Oak resource trends historical development - 7:30 pm: Adjourn for evening **Thursday – May 1st** - 7 am: Breakfast - 8 am: Morning classroom activities: Regeneration methods and supplementary silvicultural practices to address regeneration and recruitment barriers - 9:30 am: Size of clearcut opening study site visit - 10:30 am: Crop-tree release study site visit - 12:00 pm: Lunch - 1:00 pm: Old field yellow-poplar and xeric oak ridge top site visits - 1:30 pm: Overview and site visits to prescription exercise locations -- stands across increasing productivity gradient including: 1) scarlet oak-pitch pine, 2) white oak, 3) northern red oak, 4) mixed cove hardwoods. - 4:30 pm: Daily close-out Q&A and group break-out for exercise data collection planning - 5:30 pm: Dinner - 6:30 pm: Adjourn for evening **Friday – May 2nd** - 7 am: Breakfast - 8 am to 11:00 am: Group prescription site data collection - 11:30 pm: Lunch - 12:30 pm: Group break-out for prescription development - 2:30 pm: Presentations and discussion of group prescriptions - 4:30 pm: Wrap-up - 5:30 pm: Dinner - 6:30 pm: Adjourn for evening **Saturday - April 29th** NASP students depart Robinson Forest for return to Blacksburg after breakfast - 7:30 am: Breakfast - 8:30 am: Depart Robinson Forest