Department of Forestry
 

John Munsell - Assistant Professor and Forest Management Extension Specialist

Responsibilities

    • Forest management Extension for Virginia’s citizens.
    • Research to support and refine forest management Extension programming.
    • Assist district Extension agents working with localized target audiences.
    • Enhance landowner engagement in areas critical to forest conservation.
    • Partner with diverse organizations to improve Extension statewide and beyond.

Activities

Virginia’s Links to Education About Forestry (LEAF):
Virginia’s LEAF program aims to provide new educational experiences for Virginians by combining outdoor forestry and natural resources learning with heritage tourism. The LEAF program receives support from diverse groups with an interest in improving forestry and natural resources management education in Virginia. LEAF sites are located across the state on partner property and capture unique aspects of forestry and natural resources management, offer indoor and outdoor training, and provide an opportunity for youth and adults to learn while also enjoying the state’s history. Also, a permanent inventory system at each site will help track the benefits of forestry and natural resources management and interpretive curriculum will provide opportunities for combining history and technical education. http://www.cnr.vt.edu/vleaf/

Virginia's Links to Education About Forestry (LEAF) Map


At the Powell River Project Research and Education Center, we are working to take the “next step” in coalfield reclamation by researching and demonstrating sustainable forest management in natural and planted forests on former surface coal mine sites. Our objective is to offer sustainable forest management in a setting profoundly affected by historical land use.

We are combining longstanding beef management with sustainable forestry at the Shenandoah Valley Agriculture Research and Extension Center – home to the Cyrus McCormick Farm where the mechanical reaper was invented. As a National Heritage Site, the Farm offers a fantastic opportunity to combine technical forestry education with a heritage experience.

We are developing a working forest management and restoration classroom in second-growth forests at James Madison’s Montpelier. The working forest will showcase a variety of research-based forest management tools. A trail system will service the classroom and tie into an existing network of trails traversing the estate’s old-growth Landmark Forest.

Preliminary work to develop an outdoor classroom in Arlington County is underway. In this instance, key aspects of Arlington’s green infrastructure will serve as the outdoor classroom. Property owners, urban planners, and community leaders will be able to learn about urban forestry in a setting with numerous historical opportunities and progressive green initiatives.

Comprehensive Stewardship Education for Virginia Forestland Owners – A Montreal Process Criteria and Indicators Short-Course, Field Book, and Interpersonal Communication Strategy:
The Montreal Process Criteria and Indicators (C & I) outline principles and metrics that guide statewide partnerships in developing much needed stewardship tools and programs for forestland owners. Personnel at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and Virginia’s Department of Forestry are working to develop and deliver, in concert with our partners, C & I stewardship education to Virginia forestland owners through Virginia’s Forest Landowner Education Program (VFLEP). Our initial efforts will provide C & I education for underserved audiences in targeted locations. Follow-on work will facilitate statewide C & I education via Virginia Cooperative Extension’s (VCE) district natural resource agents.

Our objectives include: 1) developing a user-friendly, durable C & I field book and an indoor / outdoor VFLEP C & I short-course; 2) offering a series of 2 VFLEP C & I short-courses for forestland owners in critical, underserved regions of the state; 3) supplying VCE’s district natural resources agents with VFLEP C & I short-course materials and field books for use in Extension programming; 4) facilitating a series of 3 C & I short-courses hosted by partnering VCE agents; 5) supporting commitments on the part of VFLEP short-course participants to share C & I information with fellow forestland owners and 6) providing the Sustainable Forests Partnership with a summary of lessons-learned. Our aim is to contribute to C & I education and enhance C & I stewardship planning and monitoring on all Commonwealth forestland. 

Woody Biomass Energy Training in Virginia:
This project will develop and implement woody biomass energy training and marketing in Virginia. Training activities will incorporate materials provided by the Southern Forest Research Partnership and consist of supply-side and demand-side streams. Supply-side activities will target Virginia Cooperative Extension agents, Virginia Department of Forestry foresters, the Virginia Forestry Association, and the Virginia Forest Products Association. Demand-side activities will engage organizations such as Virginia’s Association of Counties, Virginia’s Department of Mines, Minerals, and Energy, Virginia’s Economic Development Partnership, and Public Policy Virginia. Passive and active marketing efforts will accompany supply- and demand-side activities. Efforts will consist of displays at statewide agriculture, forestry, and political conventions, web-based information portals and tutorials, and an incremental poster and brochure campaign distributed and displayed statewide via county Extension and Department of Forestry offices, County Commissioner offices, and Virginia’s Master Naturalist Program. All training and marketing programs will remain responsive to emerging opportunities and challenges during the duration of the project.  

Landowner Diaries:
This project seeks to monitor and synthesize the trends shaping private nonindustrial forest land ownership, using the words and deeds of forest land owners. Willing landowners across the Country will be asked to keep an on-line diary for a period of 3 years detailing their personal perspectives and insights regarding their forests and the role they see them playing in an ever-changing world. Researchers will collect entries using web-bases software, analyze entries for important themes, and prepare a bound, hardback diary for each participant. Participating owners will be asked to make entries in three different ways:

  • Reflective Entries – These entries will be characterized by longer, thoughtful entries about their woods in relation to changing environmental issues. All participants will be required to make at least six reflective entries per year.
  • Active Entries – These entries will likely consist of shorter, descriptive entries about particular actions taken by owners in the woods. These actions can range from recreation to intensive management. There are no requirements for active entries.
  • Responsive Entries – These entries will allow owners to write about their woods whenever they feel like it and with no pre-conceived frame. Responses will very in length and capture immediate responses to certain issues of interest. There are no requirements for responsive entries.

 Woody Biomass Energy in Virginia's Southside: Balancing Feedstocks, Forest Products, and Owner Objectives in Transitional Tobacco Communities:
Virginia's Southside lies east of the Blue Ridge Mountains, encompasses nine counties, and covers 5,822 square miles. The region has long relied on tobacco crops for economic stability, yet current decline in the tobacco market has led to great uncertainty. Southside communities and residents are in need of alternative land use opportunities. Producing biomass for renewable energy is a promising option. Constructing realistic and effective renewable energy strategies depends on accurate estimates of the region's potential biomass availability.

The region's forestland, which constitutes 60-80% of each county and is primarily privately owned, would likely play a significant role in producing biomass for renewable energy. Moreover, establishing fast growing plantations offers an additional opportunity for biomass production. However, precise estimates of the region's woody biomass availability will not only need to evaluate the sustained yield potential of residue from existing forests and new plantations, but also account for parallel efforts to promote warm seasonal grasses for energy, the need to manage for multiple forest products, and differences between production potential and landowner objectives.

We will use a GIS and three steps to estimate the availability of woody biomass in two case study areas formed by 20-mile radii around Keysville and Gretna Virginia. First, we will exclude agricultural land that will support warm seasonal grasses. Next, we will use US Forest Service Forest Inventory Analysis data to estimate per acre yield using silviculture in existing forests and PTADEA 3.1 to model thinning yields from hypothetically planted loblolly pine forests. Lastly, we will meet with a sample of landowners to learn about their management objectives and conduct field surveys to assess the potential for their land to supply woody biomass. We will then contrast this potential with owner objectives to estimate availability. Our ultimate goal is to use the insight gained from landowner interviews and property assessments to test our estimates of landscape-level woody biomass availability relative to other feedstocks and products.

The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology as a Dynamic Forestry Extension Evaluation Tool:
It goes without saying that impact evaluations are critical. Yet for some the task is less than clear. Take for instance forestry. Unlike many forms of environmental management, forestry activities occur irregularly. It can be years before a participant decides whether to implement the management practices conveyed in Extension programming. In the meantime, there are a variety of other social, psychological, and economic perspectives that compete for a participant’s attention. A dynamic evaluation tool is needed that will account for competing factors in addition to measuring implementation as circumstances dictate. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology is a framework that can be used to assess these factors and measure implementation.   

The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology is a synthesis of eight technology use models. Key determinants of an individual’s technology use intention and behavior are performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions. Mediating determinant impacts are an individual’s gender, age, experience, and volition. In using these constructs Extension agents will not only enhance their understanding of participant expectations, perceptions, and intentions, but also the mediating factors influencing management behavior. Moreover, this approach affords flexibility in assessing impacts regardless of whether management activities have occurred.

An impact evaluation based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use Technology was recently piloted at three Virginia Cooperative Extension landowner conferences. Pilot surveys were administered to participants directly after the event. Participants were also asked if they would participate in follow-up phone conversations in six months to a year to re-measure key constructs and engage in open-ended discussion. The draft tool, pilot results, and lessons learned are being discussed and the applicability of this approach to other natural resources Extension programs explored.      

Expanding the Market for the Blue Ridge Forest Cooperative and the Headwaters Forest Landcare Partnership:
The Blue Ridge Forest Cooperative, Inc. is a forest landowner Cooperative incorporated in the Commonwealth of Virginia. BRFC was formed as a “producer Cooperative” under the statutes of the Commonwealth of Virginia for the purpose of organizing and educating interested forest landowners, with landholdings in the Commonwealth of Virginia of ten acres or more, to manage their land in a manner which is economically beneficial, environmentally sound, and that will produce a sustainable yield of marketable timber for the indefinite future.

The market for the Blue Ridge Forest Cooperative’s locally-produced sustainable forestry products (certified by the Forest Stewardship Council) will be expanded by implementing a targeted marketing campaign extolling the benefits of sustainably produced forest products from local family forests and making manufacturers, distributors, and consumers more aware those products are available. This marketing initiative will build relationships between the end users of the finished products and the producers and their forests as well as educate consumers regarding the beneficial social, ecosystem, and watershed consequences of forest stewardship. The marketing campaign will help to attract new members to the Blue Ridge Forest Cooperative, thereby expanding not only the demand for but the supply of certified forest products. In addition, the marketing initiative will serve as a pilot for Cooperative marketing of sustainable forest products in the mid-Atlantic and Southeast. Project deliverables including marketing materials, messaging strategy, and market evaluation results will be disseminated to other landowner groups in the region.

Green infrastructure and landcare provide goals and principles around which multiple parties in the Headwaters Region of Virginia have organized since 2005.  Project management provided by The LandCare Center at Virginia Tech and made possible by this grant will advance and expand landscape-scale forest restoration projects through the development and integration of a forest landcare industry into the existing regional Green Infrastructure initiative. Partners have already demonstrated the capacity to advance landscape-scale forest projects and will leverage our past successes to achieve the following goals: 1) develop and sustain a trained, willing, able, and appropriately rewarded forest landcare business workforce and industry; 2) build capacity within the New River Valley Green Infrastructure initiative and strengthen the relationship to forest landcare; and, 3) expand the market for woody biomass to support forest landcare practices that sustain and improve regional green infrastructure.

Refereed Publications

  • Munsell, J.F. and R.H Germain. 2007. Woody biomass energy: An opportunity for silviculture on non-industrial private forestlands in New York. Journal of Forestry.105(8):398-402.
  • Munsell, J.F. and R.H. Germain. 2007. Measuring BMP knowledge and implementation among Catskill/Delaware watershed NIPF owners. Proceedings: international conference on transfer of forest science knowledge and technology. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-726. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 255 p.
  • Germain, R.H., J.F. Munsell, and K. Brazill. 2007. The New York City watershed model forests revisited five years later: an assessment of successes, failures, and challenges for the future. Journal of Extension. 45(3).
  • Munsell, J.F., R.H. Germain, E. Bevilacqua, and R.M. Schuster. 2006. Voluntary BMP implementation by NIPF owners in New York City's water supply system. Northern Journal of Applied Forestry. 23(2):133-140.
  • Germain, R.H. and J.F. Munsell. 2005. How much land is needed for the harvest access system on non-industrial private forestlands dominated by northern hardwoods? Northern Journal of Applied Forestry. 22(4):243-247.
  • Munsell, J.F. and R.H. Germain. 2004. Forestry extension participation and written forest management plan use in New York City's water supply system. Journal of Extension. 42(2).

Extension and Popular Publications

  • Munsell, J.F., M. Yancey, A.K. Downing, J. Rockett, and J. Gagnon. 2008. Heritage Extension in Virginia: Merging Tourism and Forestry Education in an Outdoor Setting. Virginia Forest Landowner Update. 22(2):5.
  • Munsell, J.F. 2008. Wood-to-Energy in Virginia: Boon or Bane? Virginia Forest Landowner Update. 22(1):3.
  • Munsell, J.F. 2007. Words Can Vary, But Not Our Principles – Thoughts From the New Forest Management Extension Specialist. Engagement Matters. 1(1):2.
  • Munsell, J.F. 2004. What are Forestry Best Management Practices (BMP) SUNY-ESF Environmental Information Series.
  • Munsell, J.F. and R.H. Germain. 2001. In this case, talk is far from cheap: a landowner's role in extension and outreach. New York Forest Owner. 39(6):10-11.

Websites

Professional Activities and Awards

  • Policy and Legislation Chair, Virginia Division of the Appalachian Society of American Foresters
  • Virginia’s Sustainable Forestry Initiative Implementation Committee
  • Virginia’s Forest Stewardship Coordinating Committee
  • The Virginia Forestry Association Magazine Editorial Committee
  • Society of American Foresters
  • Association of Natural Resources Extension Professionals
  • C. Eugene Farnsworth Memorial Fellowship
  • Albert A. Leaf Award for Publication and Presentation Excellence
  • Joachim Center for Forest Industry, Economy and Environment Fellowship
  • Edna Bailey Sussman Internship Award Winner
  • Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal

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