Quantum Forest

This week I spent three days in Melbourne, attending a meeting of the Research Working Group on Forest Modelling and Information Systems (RWG2). It was my first experience in this group, having participated in meetings of RWG1 and RWG7 in the past. One of the nice things of working in a new area is that there is no sense of respect for the ‘big names’. There is no ‘they were my lecturers’ or ‘I have read their papers’, so meetings and relationships are much freer and relaxed.

People were very nice and welcoming, and I was able to put faces to names like Cris Brack (Australian National University), Ian Ferguson (University of Melbourne), Chris Goulding (New Zealand Forest Research), Valerie LeMay (University of British Columbia) and Jerry Vanclay (Southern Cross University). There were many other ’small names’ (including mine) and we have quite a bit of fun and exchanged lots of ideas. Thanks guys!

I always have lots of fun presenting and this time was no exception, talking about spatial models for modelling mammal browsing in plantations. This is one of my current pet topics (pun intended), I mean spatial models, not only for browsing, and I hope to have something in publishable form soon.