Hello, CALS,
I hope this finds you and yours well. This week is CALS Week - see schedule of events. Please attend the many events our great CALS Student Council has worked so very hard to plan. From lunch on central campus to guest speakers to tours of the ISU Creamery - there is something for everyone!
Also this week, there are two interesting lectures to attend. On Tuesday at 6 p.m., a lecture in the Memorial Union on the 1980s Farm Crisis, "When a Dream Dies: Iowa's Experience of the Farm Crisis of the 1980s." The impacts of the farm crisis still reverberates today, and so many families all around us had the course of their lives changed by the impact of that time. If you don’t know much about the farm crisis, check out the lecture or read up on it a bit. It's worth it. We will also have this week the Deal Lecture, one of our most significant named lectures, on Wednesday evening at 5:30 p.m. in 127 Curtiss Hall. "Innovating Ag Innovation" will be presented by alumnus Al Tank. He is a tremendous thinker and someone who will share with us truly challenging ideas about innovation and ways forward. Please plan to attend the Deal Lecture – let's have a great turnout for that!
This past weekend was the 80th anniversary celebration of the Ag 450 Farm, and reports are that it was a great, sun shining event with more than 50 people in attendance. The event served to celebrate the farm and, more importantly, all the excellent and continuing generations of students, faculty and staff who have learned and served there. This farm is truly a great point of pride and excellence for us - known as the only truly student-run farm in the nation, and going strong under the leadership of Mike Retallick, Skyler Rinker and Jacob Parr.
Last week, I had the terrific opportunity, along with Carmen Bain and Kendall Lamkey, to visit the Rod and Connie French Conservation Camp, also known as Montana Camp, outside of Alberton, Montana. It’s one of our three satellite campuses and is an extraordinary place for learning. The camp was gifted to us in 2016-2017, and is home to field courses especially for the Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management's animal ecology and forestry programs. It has also hosted other classes and is available for more! Anyone from any department in the college, or the university, can work with NREM to figure out scheduling and logistics, and to qualify as a location for or a learning stop over point for our Study USA programs. It was an important visit last week to better understand the workings of the camp and its opportunities and possibilities. Besides being in a beautiful place with fascinating ecology and landscapes that provide a truly unique learning environment for our students, it speaks to the excellence and reach of our college.
Have a great week! - Dan
Scenes from CALS
Students, faculty, staff and alumni had a chance to tour the Ag 450 Farm in celebration of its 80th anniversary this past weekend. Attendees were provided insight into the history and future direction of the farm.
Scenes from my visit last week with Kendall Lamkey and Carmen Bain to the French Conservation Camp on Fish Creek near Clearwater Crossing in the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Mountains in Alberton, Montana. The camp is about one hour from Missoula and 16 miles down a gravel road surrounded by the USDA Forest Service’s Lolo National Forest. Pictures include:
- students in the field forestry course in front of a huge western red cedar tree, and Carmen and Kendall in front of other large cedars in the same grove;
- the forest immediate adjacent to the camp recovering from a wildfire that happened just a few years ago;
- the main camp office building, and inside the camp's dining hall (NREM adjunct assistant professor Peter Moore is included in the photo);
- a picture of NREM associate teaching professor and camp director Jennifer Schieltz, who does extraordinary work keeping this facility humming with energy and learning, with NREM staff member Jason Cataldo, who is the on-site coordinator for the facility and jack-of-all-trades;
- other scenes from this remarkable place!
