an interview with
chelcy ford Ford earned a PhD at UGA in Forest Resources in 2004. she also has degrees in botany and applied biology. This scientist now works at the Southern Research Station at the Center for Forest Watershed Science at Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory in the Appalachian Mountains.
BY CYntHIA ADAMs PHotos BY nAnCY eveLYn
F
ord explains that the Center is charged with evaluating, explaining, and predicting how water, soil, forest, and aquatic resources respond to ecosystem management practices, natural disturbances, and the atmospheric environment; and identifying practices that restore, protect, and enhance watershed health. the researchers conduct long-term hydrologic and ecological research on forested upland and wetland watersheds. the national science Foundation sponsors the UGA-led Coweeta Long-term ecological Research project. the other lead institution on the grant is the UsDA Forest service. In addition to the University of Georgia, participating institutions involved in the Coweeta research group include Duke, UnC-Chapel Hill, UnC-Charlotte, nC state University, the virginia Polytechnic Institute, Mars Hill College, Yale, and the Universities of Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin. As a scientist, Ford uses the words “climate change” with authority. It is her business to be objective and analytical, and it gets on her last nerve when she hears naysayers insist “climate change” is a manipulative, misleading phrase. she knows whereof she speaks. Ford was tapped by the federal government to join a consortium of scientists for an extended, ongoing research project. the expert team convenes in a building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. even though she’ll physically leave the project in January, 2012, Ford says she’ll “continue to work on the project from Coweeta until June 2012. “At that point, the Federal Advisory Committee will take over and work on it until 2013." Ford has been coordinating with other scientist across the U.s., synthesizing data and making critical recommendations for the future. Lindsay Boring is director of the Joseph W. Jones ecological Research Center/Ichauway in newton, Ga. Ichauway is a
24
www.grad.uga.edu
29,000-acre conservation site, bequeathed by the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation to the Jones Center. More than 25 graduate students work at the Jones Center and Ichauway. Boring met Ford when she was a UGA student at the Jones Center. He says she is “a rising star whose star has been rising” among a field of impressive researchers. “she is bright, thoughtful, methodical,” he says. “Chelcy shows an amazing amount of maturity." their experiences share parallels: Boring worked in Coweeta for 20 years prior to coming to newton. Ford says she drew inspiration from Boring. “I have nothing but respect and accolades for him. I don't know of many people who have the passion that he has for his job…and I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to do research in and live in the beautiful and ecologically diverse longleaf pine woodlands at Ichauway. In some respects, I feel that Lindsay and I have a very common thread to our careers, only in reverse. He started at UGA, went to Coweeta, and then went to the Jones Center; whereas I started at UGA and the Jones Center and ended up at Coweeta.”