October 2012 Newsletter

Last Updated 30 May, 2013

2012 ANNUAL COFE MEETING

The 35th Annual Meeting was held September 9-12, 2012 at the New Bern River Front Hilton, New Bern, North Carolina.  Host was North Carolina State University.  The theme was: “Engineering New Solutions for Energy Supply and Demand.”  See

 

2012 Awards
The International Forest Engineering Achievement Award winner was Bryce Stokes. The Student Communication Award, which includes two free years of membership, $300 toward travel expenses to attend the Annual Meeting, and a waiver of registration fee, was given to Storm Beck (Oregon State University).

COFE Committee Members

 

Awards Committee

Jeff Benjamin (Chair), Woodam Chung, Loren Kellogg, Robert Rummer, Bryce Stokes, and Billy Watson.

Membership Committee

Mathew Smidt (Chair), Elizabeth Dodson, John Garland, and Jingxin Wang.

Scholarship Committee

Joe McNeel and Mike Duncan.

Website Committee

Dale Greene (Chair), Awatif Hassan, Joe McNeel, and Tom Reisinger.

Proceedings Internet Distribution Committee

Rien Visser (Chair), Shawn Baker, Chad Bolding, and Daniel Guimier.

 

NER.COFE

The New England Regional Council on Forest Engineering Annual Workshop was held at the University of Maine in Orono, Maine on March 11-12, 2013. Attendance was 274. Topics were “Legal Issues in Forestry” and “Foresters—Knowing Your Costs.” More information about NER.COFE is available at www.forest.umaine.edu/nercofe
 
WR.COFE
The Western Regional Council on Forest Engineering held a one-day seminar on the theme, “Improving Forest Harvesting Operations” in Eugene, Oregon, on January 10, 2013. The seminar was attended by 195 people. Andrew Bartoldus and Joel Zeni, who attend Oregon State University, were each given a $1,000 Jerry Sedlak Memorial Scholarship.
 
SR.COFE
The Southern Regional Council on Forest Engineering held their yearly meeting on March 6, 2013 at Orange Beach, Alabama. Attendance at the one-day meeting was 50 people. Several presentations were made on biomass harvesting and related forest operations research in conjunction with the FRA Outdoor Logging Demo.  Their next meeting will be take place in 2013.
 
Discussion about an International COFE Meeting?

The topic of having an international COFE Meeting was discussed. Suggestions were: 1) more COFE members attending international meetings would be beneficial in that it would have a positive impact and possibly enhance COFE’s international membership, 2) it would be beneficial to attend FORMEC, an organization that meets in Europe and is similar to COFE and focuses on forestry mechanization, 3) COFE should still hold annual meetings in North America and perhaps be active in promoting an international conference every four years, 4) combining a COFE meeting with an FEC meeting after 2014. No conclusion was reached concerning this topic.

 

In Memoriam

• Pierre Abeels 1930-2009, Université Catholique de Louvain, COFE Achievement Award 1999
• Ronald Baughman 1945-2009, SW Environmental Consultants, COFE 1992 Chairman
• Benjamin (Mac) Davis 1921-2013,  International Paper &Jari Project, COFE Achievement Award 1998
• Harry William Lee 1938-2009,  University of Idaho
• Alf Leslie 1921-2009,  University of Melbourne Creswick, COFE Achievement Award 2007
• Hugh Dennis Violette 1983–2011, Orion Timberlands, NER.COFE Chairperson 2011-2012
• G. Vern Wellburn, FERIC & UBC, COFE Achievement Award 2003