1. My purpose in pursuing a career in Forestry is to expand my understanding in the
business and economics behind the use of natural resources pertaining to the United
States, and to take my knowledge foreword and be able to make a profit while doing the
best for the environment.
Growing up, I held many outdoor jobs from selling Christmas trees; maintaining
trails for 680 acre Appleton Farms, and working the dairy and hay aspects of the farm.
From these early experiences I learned that I enjoy working outdoors and learning about
my surroundings. I attended the University of Vermont, with the intention of learning the
science of agriculture and how to manage a farm of my own one day. As my knowledge
grew along with the curriculum, I became exposed to the many different paths this major
had to offer. As a sophomore, I changed my minor from business to forestry after having
completed courses in dendrology, silviculture, woodlot management, and a basic natural
resource class. Additionally, the research component of my study that year involved
spending my winter semester on logging jobs, cruising timber, and writing a forest
management plan for an 87-acre plot. During my college summers, I worked in the
research sector with Cornell University’s small fruits breeding program. This hammered
in the detail oriented skills needed for research, as well as the exposure to how the system
works by writing grants, reaching out to local farmers, and presenting to other academics.
My senior year, I then was able to put these skills to use at the University of Vermont’s
Horticultural Research Center, working with a team of researchers on apple and grape
experiments, As well as provide support for the 40-student farmer-training program.
Pursuing Forestry to the next stage, I am now attending Duke University’s Nicholas
school of the Environment. At Duke I have been given the opportunity to be an assistant
to the Working Forest associated with the school allowing me to gain first hand
experience at every aspect of the timber sale process. The challenges presented to me at
the Duke Forest have given me experience in using Forest management for timber,
recreation and wildlife needs.
At Duke I am pursuing a GIS certificate, giving me experience extrapolating
watershed and hydrology information from elevation data, using remote sensing to
classify land/cover types. I have the most practice with habitat analysis and maxent
softwatre, as I have created models for white-tailed deer in the Duke Forest and
Woodcock Habitat for Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge in Maine . I am
sufficient with excel and collecting/transferring data from GPS to GIS. Most of My
Forestry Training and experience in in the Northeast between working with state
and county foresters in Vermont and inventorying, writing implementation plans,
and marking timber sale areas for Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge, Errol, NH.
I view forestry as a perennial cropping system that relies on the natural process to
produce the end product. In agriculture, the end product is a good crop/livestock
(product) whose inputs need to be controlled. In forestry, there are multiple factors to
manage simultaneously. A good manager has to balance removable forest product
(timber, etc.), ecosystem health (erosion, pollution control, and wildlife habitat), and
recreation purposes (trail placement and maintenance.) It is this area of natural resources
that I enjoy studying and see an opportunity to expand my knowledge. In Silviculture, the

2. challenge of every job is having new or different variables. Navigating the effect of
different soils, drainage/topography, climate, and land use history as well as varied
landowner objectives, assures I will always have a puzzle to piece together.