Karen Kuers, Ph.D.

Professor of Forestry
Department of Forestry and Geology
The University of the South
Sewanee, TN 37383

 

Courses Taught:

  Introduction to Forestry
  Dendrology
  Silviculture
  Urban Forest Managment
  Forest Ecology
  Forest Watershed Measurements

 

Forests as Food and Medicine

Students are studying plants of the Sewanee Domain to learn about uses of the forest for food, medicine, and other non-timber forest products such as holiday decorations and resins and oils. The attached list includes Domain plants that have been recognized as either medicinal or edible.
Edible and Medicinal Plants of the Domain

 

Watershed Research Project:

I am currently participating in a multi-college research project entitled "Collaboration Through Appalachian Watershed Studies". Funded through the Mellon Foundation, Appalachain College Association (ACA), and a National Science Foundation CCLI grant, the purpose of the project is to facilitate collaborative environmental research and teaching among small undergraduate institutions. Students gain expertise in different areas of environmental monitoring through instrumented watersheds located near each of the institutions. The colleges range from Middle Tennessee to Maryland, and provide opportunities for students to compare watershed processes across the Appalachian region and share their work online. Sewanee's watershed is located on the Domain, and student summer interns worked with Sewanee Forestry and Geology Faculty to install a weather station and stream flume that have been recording data for student and faculty research use since April 2001. More information is available on the Sewanee Watershed Website.

 

Other Research Interests

My research interests include hardwood silviculture, forest stand dynamics in response to disturbance, silvics of non-commercial hardwoods, and urban forest management. My current projects focus on the ecology of forested watersheds, species composition and growth of a high quality hardwood site after disturbance, the biodiversity of understory plant species in planted pine, the effects of deer browse on the regeneration of hardwood seedlings, and the identification, assessment, and mapping of trees in the University's central campus using GIS technology.



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