Australian Fellow joins WFI

Matthew Pope joined WFI in March for a one-year Fellowship. He is employed by Forests New South Wales and is based in the small regional community of Tumut. Matthew has worked as an operations forester with a broad range of responsibilities including fire, recreation, weed control, and fertilizing and more recently he has been working with construction and maintenance of an 8,000 km road network. He is the first Australian to come from a background in radiata pine plantations, of which his region is responsible for 90,000 hectares.

Matthew will be investigating the use of integrated field data management systems. A competitive global market for timber products has increased the need to efficiently manage every aspect of the forestry business. The amount of information required by managers has also increased, due to greater accountability requirements for investors, environmental regulations, and certification systems. This equates to greater information transfer “to” and “from” the field with as much real time information as possible.

There is growing adoption of handheld computers to manage information in the field that goes beyond simple inventory numbers, and most questions have a spatial element. The coupling of GPS with handheld GIS for various functions allows for easy collection and management of field data. Matt’s project hopes to gain ideas for expanding upon data collection functions for more complicated user questions. For example, imagine the efficiency boost if field users could quickly find answers to questions related to management issues of boundary types, road suitability for harvest, and culvert use, without returning to the office for additional information.

Matthew is accompanied by his wife Ainsley and children Keegan (4) and Will (2). Ainsley has recently completed her teaching degree, but she also has diverse educational and work experience, including degrees in Asian Studies and Aquaculture. Before teaching Ainsley worked with the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife service as an interpretive ranger, which included fire fighting duties and managing a silver pearch fish farm. The Pope family has traveled extensively, thanks in part to one of Ainsley’s positions as a travel agent, and are looking forward to their year-long American adventure.