Student Kateryna Fedyna is a member of the International Forestry Fellowship Program in the United States

   This year, within the framework of the International Forestry Fellowship Program 2019 (IFFP), forestry experts from Georgia, Albania, Sweden, Germany, Spain and Ukraine had the opportunity to work side-by-side with the representatives of the US Forest Service at the national forests and research units. The main criteria considered in the selection of the candidate for the grant were professional knowledge of the forestry, communicative qualities, including the appropriate level of English. Kateryna Fedyna, a student of the Education and Research Institute of Forestry and Landscape-Park Management, became a member of the internship program of the IFFP's International Forest Service and National Forest Foundation.

    Kateryna is undergoing the internship at the Pacific Northwest Research Station. It has begun in August 2019 and will last till December 2019. One of the laboratories of the research station is located at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, USA. It is one of the largest laboratories of the Pacific Research Station. The laboratory scientists are studying the issues related to the management of natural resources and the interactions between the environment and society. The multidimensional nature of the problem creates a variety of research areas: from microscopic studies at the molecular level to large-scale mathematical modelling at the landscape level using remote technologies, in particular, data obtained by satellites and planes.

   Kateryna Fedyna received the opportunity to work in a team of the famous scientist, Alan Eiger, as a result of the cooperation between the US Forest Service and NUBiP scientists, in particular Professor Serhii Zibtsev and Associate Professor Viktor Myronyuk. The researchers are studying the modeling of natural fires at the landscape level, the occurrence conditions of forest fires and ways of reducing the risks by managing combustible materials. For a long time Alan Eiger has been cooperating with the Regional Eastern Europe Fire Monitoring Center in Ukraine on the issue of natural fires in the areas contaminated with radionuclides. Kateryna has joined one of the projects, devoted to the modeling of forest fires. She is currently studying the specifics of the occurrence, behavior, and causes of fires in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

    As the research station is located on the campus of Oregon State University, the interns have the opportunity to get acquainted not only with Oregon forests, but also with students' lives. In their spare time, program members try to get to know the National Parks and visit exhibitions related to forest management in Oregon, USA. Kateryna had the opportunity to tell her colleagues about NUBiP of Ukraine, as well as the forests of Ukraine, and the exclusion zone. The presentation aroused interest among young scientists of the College of Forestry, who are also studying the ecology of fires. The scientists asked many questions about Ukrainian forests, and exchanged some ideas and suggestions.

Such programs allow young scientists to gain new knowledge and valuable professional experience and to establish friendly international relations between countries. Exchanging ideas is an important step in the search for new scientific solutions and the development of forestry.

Andrii Bilous,
Head of the Department of Forest Taxation and
Forest Management