Contact: Sammy McDavid
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A current and a former graduate student in Mississippi State's College of Forest Resources are top winners in a recent regional conference.
Forestry majors Michael R. Guttery of Leoma, Tenn., and David W. "Dave" Wilkinson of Dayton, Wash., were among students from 15 universities competing during the recent 14th Biennial Southern Silvicultural Research Conference.
Guttery, who completed a master's degree in May, received the outstanding student paper award. Competing among a field of 27, his research evaluated regeneration and waterfowl forage potential in an Arkansas greentree reservoir; specifically, the production of willow oak acorns. His work was directed by professor Andrew Ezell.
Wilkinson, a current doctoral student, received the outstanding student visual display award among a field of nine. Directed by associate professor Robert Parker and professor Tom Matney, his work measured the response of thinned pine plantations to competition following a fertilization treatment.
In addition to Mississippi State, universities represented at the Athens, Ga., event included Alabama A&M, Auburn, Clemson, Louisiana State, North Carolina State, Oklahoma State, Purdue, Southern Illinois, Stephen F. Austin, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia. Others included the universities of Florida, Georgia and Missouri.
NEWS EDITORS/DIRECTORS: For more information on the students' projects, contact Dr. Ezell at 662-325-1688 or aezell@cfr.msstate.edu; or Dr. Parker at 662-325-2775 or rparker@cfr.msstate.edu.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.