Oak Silviculture and Fire

Dan Dey, Ph.D.

Research Forester, USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station

Dan Dey, Ph.D. is a Research Forester for the USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, located in Columbia, MO. He is also Project Leader of a research unit that studies ecology and sustainable management of Central Hardwood Forest ecosystems. Dan’s personal research emphasis is the silviculture of eastern forests including documenting fire history in the eastern US and conducting studies in fire/forest ecology and silviculture to sustain fire-dependent forests and restore oak/pine woodlands and savannas. He received his Ph.D. in 1991 from the University of Missouri, and since then has worked as a research forester for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, the Missouri Dept of Conservation, and the USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station. Before becoming a scientist, Dan worked as a forester on the Ketchikan Ranger District, Tongass National Forest, and the Red River Ranger District, Nez Perce National Forest.

Michael Demchik, Ph.D.

Professor of Forestry, College of Natural Resources, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point

Michael Demchik grew up in southern West Virginia in unincorporated Pond Fork. With the freedom to explore the outdoors, a mountain on one side and a stream on the other, a future career in natural resources just made sense. Demchik is currently a professor of silviculture at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. His previous positions included an Extension Forester specializing in farm forestry in Minnesota, a state Maple Syrup and Non-Timber Forest Products specialist in Pennsylvania, and a number of other jobs ranging across federal, state, and private industries in West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.  

Paul Priestley

Wildland Fuels Specialist, Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa

Paul is an alumni of UW–Stevens Point graduating in 2017 with B.S. degree in Wildland Fire Science / Forest Ecosystem Restoration, and spent two years as the Fire Effects Officer with the UWSP Fire Crew. Since his time at University, Paul has worked for the US Forest Service on the Great Lakes Wildland Fire Module, The Nature Conservancy as a Prescribed Fire Coordinator, and currently for the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa as the Wildland Fuels Specialist. Paul is passionate about prescribed fire in forest ecosystems and sharing the flame with the next generation.

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