The WyomingView program was pleased this year to offer five scholarships in support of undergraduate and graduate students using remotely sensed data and geographic information science in their research. These scholarships were made possible by generous support from the USGS and AmericaView Inc. which fund WyomingView. Wyoming Agriculture Experiment Station and Drs. Reiners and Knight (UW – Botany Department) provided matching contributions. We look forward to offering similar opportunities in the future as funding permits. This years recipients; Madison Ellison, Andrew Prior, Tanna George, Brian Flemister, and Julia Angstmann, describe their work below.

Madison Ellison

I recently graduated with a B.S. in biology at the University of Wyoming and I’m continuing my education with a masters in Rangeland Ecology and Watershed Management. I received the WyomingView Scholarship after taking a Remote Sensing course where I presented my project at a national conference in North Dakota. My remote sensing class was excellent and made me realize the important ways that remote sensing can benefit agriculture. My project focused on the potential to predict crop yield from aerial images. At the conference, I learned that farmers are using remote sensing to locate problem areas on their land so they can take corrective actions before the damage is done thus saving them money.

Tanna George

I am grateful to have received a WYGISC $650 scholarship this past spring. The scholarship and internship provided me with a wonderful experience. For my internship, I worked on a project with the Wyoming Department of Agriculture. I used WyomingView imagery to analyze conifer encroachment in the Snow Range over a 10 year span. Using ArcView software, I was able to classify open grazing lands in several designated grazing allotments. My internship has led to summer employment with the Wyoming Department of Agriculture, where I am able to continue with the project. The data that I helped to collect and analyze will possibly be used in future grazing allotment management plans. The scholarship was much appreciated, and I feel honored to have received the award.

Brian Flemister

I am a senior working toward a bachelor’s degree in Geography. In my project I utilized Landsat imagery to develop a large-scale wall map as well as a classified map of the Laramie Basin. This project was done in conjunction with the Dr. William Reiners and Dr. Dennis Knight, UW Botany department to distinguish vegetation characteristics between a year with average precipitation and a year with below average precipitation.

From this opportunity I have discovered many exciting possibilities in the area of remote sensing that I hope to follow into a graduate level degree. It was a wonderful experience that I am glad to have been a part of.

Julia Angstmann

I received the WyomingView scholarship after taking a course in remote sensing. Through the course I was able to understand the many uses of remote sensing in ecological studies. As a graduate student in the course, I developed a remote sensing project to study the differences between well- and poorly drained boreal forest burns. Many previous studies have been conducted researching the use of remote sensing imagery to predict leaf area of the dominant tree species for application in climate and ecophysiological modeling. Distinguishing between well- and poorly-drained areas may have important implications in the accuracy of models and scaling from individual-level measurements to holistic canopy resolutions. I am thankful for the scholarship because it has allowed me to add an interesting and integral component to my PhD research.

Andrew Prior

Information and photo not available.

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