Forward thinking
But don’t let any of that fool you. Knotweed is invasive and aggressive and, for those who know something about plants, an unwelcomed upcropping wherever it grows.
What’s worse, the destructive plant may be having negative effects on the fish, insects and other organisms that make up the ecosystem of the state’s smaller waterways.
But what kind of damage is it causing? And how do we stop it? Those are the questions that UNH researchers — faculty and students — are working to answer through their work both at a field site in the foothills of the White Mountain National Forest, and in the classrooms and labs on the UNH campus.
A big part of what’s making that research possible is financial support from Dick George ’65, ’70G. But George is not your typical philanthropist. He’s a proud, frugal Yankee and accepts the label of being a bit curmudgeonly at times.
Case in point: He still thinks the poetry course he took more than 60 years ago — then a required freshman English component — was a waste. He won’t travel far because he doesn’t usually get on an airplane — he’d rather drive and be on his own schedule. Besides, “What am I going to see out there that I’m not going to see out in my own woods?” he posits. The reason he retired? “I got fed up with the politics of working for the state.” What does he do in retirement? “Anything I want, I suppose.”
If you’re getting a picture in your mind of George as that quintessential New Englander — plainspoken with no tolerance for nonsense — the stereotype fits.
But while George might be quick to tell you about what he doesn’t believe in, he’ll also share what he does have faith in. He believes in boots-on-the-ground problem-solving. He hopes today’s researchers can create solutions for generations far into the future. And he believes in dreams of students who want to do something for the greater good.
“I hope my money buys something that improves the situation of the people who use it to get the education it pays for and does some good for the people who benefit from whatever the education produces,” says George, whose gifts also support a Cooperative Extension internship program. He also plans to support graduate students in the future.
For Nathan Furey, an assistant professor of biological sciences in the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture, George’s support is doing just that. Furey leads the knotweed research project, which takes several approaches to studying how knotweed may be affecting its environment — from tagging brook trout to monitor their diet and movements, to studying the silt and sediment in streams heavily lined or invaded by knotweed, to the collection and measurement of insects found in streams that serve as a food source to the trout. Over the course of the past year, says Furey, seven different undergraduates worked in his lab to identify some 4,000 insects from Garland Brook, thanks to George’s financial support of the research.
Furey and his students are also studying how knotweed might be relocated by erosion or storms. The team has microchipped 120 clumps of knotweed to track their movements downstream, if any.
The goal is to look at a stream habitat, and be able to predict knotweed invasion, or at least deal with it better where it already exists, Furey says: “By knowing the characteristics in a stream where it’s likely to end up, and how quickly it spreads downstream, that will provide a management tool so that you’d be able to prioritize how you go in and deal with it,” he adds.
He says the work wouldn’t be possible without George’s support.
“We’ve been allowed to be creative with this work because of this fund,” Furey says, noting that the support has impacted graduate and undergraduate students and has produced real-time data to be used in the study of stream ecology. “This is really supporting a lot of students. They’re getting hands-on experience and training that will help them get jobs or get into graduate school.” The research provided weeks’ worth of labs, activities and assignments in class.
Steve Eisenhaure, land-use manager in the UNH Woodlands Office, agrees. He and students research invasive plants around the campus’ 22 woodland properties, studying how they affect important native tree species. Their work is supported in part by George’s gifts.
“These are invaluable learning experiences for our students; measuring, observing and studying in this way. For some students, this hands-on, real-world approach is the best way they can learn,” says Eisenhaure.
For George, who grew up in Contoocook, New Hampshire, the outdoors have always been a place to spend time, mostly by “going out and wandering, or fishing” he says.
He chose to enroll in UNH’s College of Technology (today’s UNH College of Engineering and Physical Sciences) because of the opportunities he thought it would present him.
“I thought, if I can make out fine, buy some land maybe, and then I’d play forester on my own,” he remembers. His prouder achievement was passing a five-credit math class that many others failed, and he graduated in 1965 with a degree in electrical engineering. A couple of years later, he returned for his MBA for business training he recognized he needed. “Business and engineering go hand in hand — if one doesn’t understand the other, they both have problems.”
He worked several jobs in southern New England before deciding New Hampshire was calling him back home. He worked in a hospital for a while, a paper mill, worked for an electrical contractor, and for the state. He would eventually come to own a timber property in Webster.
He feels Cooperative Extension has been a great help to him, and that his gifts to UNH are a way to pay back an institution that he thinks is a worthy investment.
“There are plenty of good choices [of causes to support], and UNH was as good as any. UNH helped me go to school and they helped me in my avocation, and others haven’t. This seemed like the logical choice.”
For Brooke Gauthier ’19, her internship, funded in part with George’s support, was a gateway to a graduate degree. As a junior, she was a county farm woodlot intern, working for three different county foresters around the state — every day was something new.
Some of her time was spent timber cruising, or using a tool to measure tree sizes, volume and quality to appraise and prepare for timber sales. She also met numerous landowners who had questions about tree illnesses and other topics. In addition, she worked on an oak regeneration survey.
An environmental conservation and sustainability major at UNH, Gauthier was drawn to the study of forests from her very first classes in field methods and in dendrology.
“I thought it was so cool to be able to walk around and identify trees, so I just kept taking more and more forestry classes,” she remembers.
When it came time to enter the University of Kentucky’s forestry program for a graduate degree, Gauthier says her internship gave her a competitive edge.
“I couldn’t fund myself, so I reached out to professors, saying I wanted to get my master’s, but I needed financial support. I was able to get a department assistantship, working as a TA and doing research,” she explains. The Kentucky faculty were impressed with the oak regeneration study she had done as an undergraduate during her UNH internship. “I beat out 25 other students for the job, thanks to that.”