CMC Foundation awards Kindig graduate fellowships for 2002

By Al Ossinger

Since 1982, the Colorado Mountain Club Foundation has awarded fellowships to students in Colorado colleges to promote research in projects that parallel the goals of the club: “to unite the energy, interest, and knowledge of the students, explorers, and lovers of the mountains of Colorado; to collect and disseminate information regarding the Rocky Mountains on behalf of science, literature, art, and recreation; to stimulate public interest in the mountain area; to encourage the preservation of forests, flowers, fauna, and natural scenery; and to render readily accessible the alpine attractions of this region.”

The highest awards presented are the Neal B. Kindig fellowships, in honor of the late distinguished professor at the University of Colorado known for innovative research in medical engineering frontiers.

This year, the Kindig Fellowship is shared by two doctoral students: David M. Pepin of Colorado State University and Heather M. Swanson of the University of Colorado at Boulder

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David Pepin

Pepin, a student of Professor N. LeRoy Poff in the Department of Biology at CSU, is studying the aquatic ecosystem responses in subalpine stream flows when the water systems are disrupted—usually by man-made projects.

Heather Swanson

Swanson is researching the effects of fragmentation and landscape context on the abundance, diversity, and resource use of ponderosa pine forest birds. Fragmentation effects on the flora and fauna are of increasing interest, because land often is developed in ways that disrupt the continuity of natural systems and the gene pools. Swanson is a student of Professor Alexander Cruz in the Environmental, Population, and Organismic Biology Department at CU Boulder.

Monetary grants were also given to Ethan Green for a study of the effects of large density changes on snow microstructure and to Rosemary Sherriff for a study of ponderosa forest fires in the northern Front Range of Colorado.

Other awardees are Traci Allen (UNC Biology) for a study of white-tailed ptarmigan; Jessica Metcalf (EPO Biology at CU) for research on the hybridization of native greenback cutthroat trout; Kailen Mooney (EPO Biology at CU) for an analysis of effects of ants on ponderosa pine utilizing stable isotopes; and Christina Rumbaitis del Rio (EPO Biology at CU) for a study of the effects on vegetation changes and soil nutrients in the Routt Divide blow down of October 1997.

The review committee this year consisted of Dr. Jane Bock, Rosemary Burbank, Dr. Kurt Gerstle, Dr. Kent Groninger, and Al Ossinger, chairman.