Department of Biology and Agriculture

The new Biology building receives a gold Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) Certification

The new Biology building is great for education and the environment.

FLC hires new Public Heath Professor

The Biology Department is happy to announce that Dr. Connie Kitchens will be leading the new Public Health Program at Fort Lewis College. Dr. Kitchens received her Doctorate in Public Health in August of 2010 from the University of Utah. She has participated in two humanitarian projects — one in Mexico and the other in Vanuatu. Her research interests focus on prescription drug misuse and their predictors. During the Winter 2011 semester she will be teaching Introduction to Public Health, Epidemiology and Community Health Behavior.

Drs. Dott and Korb tackle invasive Tamarisk along the Dolores River

Drs. Dott and Korb began the first of 2 summers of work trying to understand the dynamics of tamarisk invasion along the Dolores River in SW Colorado.  Tamarisk (Tamarix. spp.) is a non-native tree introduced for erosion control in the southwest in the early 1900s, which has since invaded into riparian habitats throughout the intermountain west.  With this project, Drs. Dott and Korb are investigating what current environmental conditions seem to favor tamarisk growth over native woody species like willow and cottonwood, and how the understory vegetation varies among stands of these woody plants.  They are also interested in determining when tamarisk became established along the Dolores River, by using dendrochronology to calculate tree ages.  All of this information will be useful to land managers along the Dolores, as a major initiative is underway to remove tamarisk and encourage native species to move back in and fill the void.  The crew of 4 biology majors worked hard this summer in challenging conditions collecting the preliminary data and samples to make this research possible.

 Field crew of Biology majors include:

• Sara Bombaci
• Griffin Shaughnessy
• Eric Falk
• Bryan Barnett

                                                                       Tamarix chinensis (Tamarisk)

Welcome to the Biology and Agriculture Department blog!

The Fall 2010 semester is starting next week!

This will be a great year in Biology because we have moved into our new Biology building. The new Biology wing has new laboratories for physiology, microbiology, botany and genetics.  In addition there is a great greenhouse that the plants and Ross love.

We are all excited to start the semester and hope the students are ready to study. Our next post will summarize faculty research projects completed during the summer.