Comparison of Forest Engineering Students’ Attitudes towards Their Education and Future Jobs: Case Results from Turkey

Forestry is a complex multidimensional discipline that implies a broad job description and task variety for forest engineers. Thus, the scope of professional forestry education is expanding and diversifying. It is essential to determine the students’ attitudes towards their education and future jobs to develop focused solutions in forestry education. In this context, the present study aims to analyze the attitudes of forest engineering students towards their education and future jobs. This study evaluated and compared the students’ attitudes over a 10-year period through questionnaires administered to senior forest engineering students of the Faculty of Forestry at Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa (IUC). It was revealed that, during job selection, non-job factors (39.5%) were nearly as influential as job-related factors (53.7%). Moreover, students’ career plans were based mainly on working in public institutions (41.4%) and simply doing their job (78.1%). The results showed that students’ views on education have improved over time; however, they have doubts about their readiness to succeed in their careers (M = 3.41) and the adequacy of their knowledge and experience level (M = 2.95). Their attitudes on their future job were not wholly positive: They have doubts about finding a job (M = 2.90), having satisfactory working conditions (M = 3.38), and income (M = 3.57). The results of this study can support decision-making in forest education and human resources in forestry.

PROBLEMS OF FOREST ENGINEERING AND DIRECTIONS OF THEIR SOLUTION

A high dependence on imports is observed in the segment of forest machine- building products. The volume of production of logging machines and woodworking equipment remains insufficient – both in terms of the number of manufactured equipment and its consumer properties. The main problem of domestic mechanical engineering remains low competitiveness in relation to products manufactured by leading foreign companies. The lack of competitiveness of the domestic forest machine building is largely due to the lack of funds for the technical and technological renewal of production at the majority of enterprises. Sectoral research institutes, previously engaged in the development of technologies and equipment for timber industry enterprises and companies, have practically ceased their scientific and design activities. In these conditions, the innovative development of the timber industry complex is mainly carried out on the basis of the acquisition of imported equipment. The share of imported machinery and equipment of domestic production is more than 90 percent. The solution to this problem requires serious systemic measures in the implementation of technical policy in the forestry sector of the country’s economy. The strategy for the development of the forestry complex until 2030 provides for the creation of at least 3 research consortia – innovative and technical centers corresponding to the world level, on the basis of which the coordination of scientific research, the creation of technologies and equipment for logging, woodworking and the production of pulp and paper products. The article formulates a number of proposals on measures of state support for the domestic forest machine building.

Marketing analysis of the technological equipment market for the Russian logging industry

The results of the analysis of the equipment market for the logging industry in Russia are presented. A literary review of the domestic and foreign equipment markets is presented, the size of the market is estimated, its segmentation is carried out, consumer preferences are identified and characterized. The assessment of the key product range for the industry is carried out, the main foreign competitors are identified and the existing barriers to the entry of domestic products into the market are analysed, as well as ways to overcome them are proposed and justified. The features of the demand for products are analysed, the possibilities of import substitution of currently used logging machines are studied and the ways of their marketing promotion are presented. The directions of further development of forest engineering and the entire forest complex of Russia based on import substitution and ensuring the economic and technological security of Russia are substantiated.

Detection and Modeling of Unstructured Roads in Forest Areas Based on Visual-2D Lidar Data Fusion

The detection and recognition of unstructured roads in forest environments are critical for smart forestry technology. Forest roads lack effective reference objects and manual signs and have high degrees of nonlinearity and uncertainty, which pose severe challenges to forest engineering vehicles. This research aims to improve the automation and intelligence of forestry engineering and proposes an unstructured road detection and recognition method based on a combination of image processing and 2D lidar detection. This method uses the “improved SEEDS + Support Vector Machine (SVM)” strategy to quickly classify and recognize the road area in the image. Combined with the remapping of 2D lidar point cloud data on the image, the actual navigation requirements of forest unmanned navigation vehicles were fully considered, and road model construction based on the vehicle coordinate system was achieved. The algorithm was transplanted to a self-built intelligent navigation platform to verify its feasibility and effectiveness. The experimental results show that under low-speed conditions, the system can meet the real-time requirements of processing data at an average of 10 frames/s. For the centerline of the road model, the matching error between the image and lidar is no more than 0.119 m. The algorithm can provide effective support for the identification of unstructured roads in forest areas. This technology has important application value for forestry engineering vehicles in autonomous inspection and spraying, nursery stock harvesting, skidding, and transportation.

A re-examination of the angiosperm wood record from the early and middle Miocene of Turkey, and new species descriptions

The early and middle Miocene in Turkey was characterised by a warm climate and a diversified and rich vegetation. Many fossil angiosperm genera have been identified from this period. The present study re-examined previously identified genera and identifed new samples of angiosperm wood remains. The studied material included thin sections housed at the Department of Forest Botany, Division of Forest Engineering, Faculty of Forestry, Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa, and also new ones. Twelve new species are described: Liquidambaroxylon efeae Akkemik sp. nov., Eucarpinoxylon kayacikii Akkemik sp. nov., Ostryoxylon gokceadaense Akkemik sp. nov., Quercoxylon yaltirikii Akkemik sp. nov., Cryptocaryoxylon grandoleaceum Akkemik sp. nov., Fraxinoxylon beypazariense Akkemik sp. nov., Prunoidoxylon prunoides Akkemik sp. nov., Populoxylon sebenense Akkemik sp. nov., Salicoxylon galatianum Akkemik sp. nov. Aceroxylon aceroides Akkemik sp. nov., Ulmoxylon kasapligilii Akkemik sp. nov. and Zelkovoxylon crystalliferum Akkemik sp. nov. In addition, four previously described species are documented for the early and middle Miocene: Pistacioxylon ufukii Akkemik and I. Poole, Fagoxylon radiatum Süss, Laurinoxylon litseoides Süss and Platanoxylon catenatum Süss and Müller-Stoll. In addition to the species descriptions, identification keys are given for all the genera recognised in this study, including all currently known fossil species of the respective fossil genera. These keys hold important new information, as they place the fossil species from Turkey in a wider taxonomic and biogeographic context. The results show that in the early and early-middle Miocene of Turkey a rich woody flora existed in well-drained upland or lowland and riparian areas. This flora comprised subtropical taxa along with warm-temperate taxa indicative of seasonality of rainfall as well as transitions to xeric conditions in the early Miocene.

FOUNDERS OF THE FORESTRY ENGINEERING SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL

The article provides brief information from the life and scientific work of the founders of the Faculty of Forestry Engineering and the Faculty of Woodprocessing Technology (currently the Faculty of Forestry Industry). 2020 marks the 90th anniversary of the establishment of Voronezh University of Forestry and Technologies. Celebrating the 90th anniversary of the existence of the university, it would be fair to recall the names of the scientists who stood at the origins of the forest engineering faculty and the faculty of woodprocessing technology. Many generations of scientists have been involved in the organization and development of faculties, who have made a significant contribution to the development of the forest complex of Russia. They are widely known not only in our country, but also abroad. These are: V.K. Kuryanov, V.I. Kharchevnikov, F.V. Posharnikov, V.P. Zhukov, A.A. Filonov, P.N. Khukhryansky, T.K. Kuryanova, N.I. Popova, L.I. Belchinskaya. This publication provides information from the life of the scientists who stood at the origins of the creation and development of the scientific authority of Voronezh Forestry School. A number of information about the life and work of these outstanding researchers was borrowed by the authors from the sources cited, and some data were supplemented by personal memories of people with whom the authors communicated

Seventy unique years of the Botanical Garden of Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice

The Botanical Garden in Košice (BG) was established owing to the initiative of Dr. Jozef Rácz on 5th May 1950 as the Botanical Institute of the University of Agricultural and Forest Engineering (VŠPLI). Later it belonged to the Slovak Academy of Sciences and the Pedagogical Institute, until it became a part of Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice (UPJŠ) in 1964. From its beginning it has played a role of a scientific and pedagogical institution. A lot of plants were planted in the originally almost bare area, greenhouses were built, which were open on 14th October 1958. At that time, they belonged among the largest ones in Central Europe. In 1969, the administrative building was completed. At present, the BG is a protected area with a total of 30 ha, greenhouses on an area of 3,200 m2 and more than 4,000 species, subspecies, and cultivars of plants. It is thus the largest BG in Slovakia with the richest collection of cacti and cycads in Slovakia, as well as with various unique plant species from around the world. The main scope of the activities of the BG is the scientific research aimed at the concentrating and studying of the gene pool of endangered and common species. Further important activities comprise direct support of higher education and various activities within the framework of education at primary and secondary schools, as well as the support of natural history, ecological and cultural knowledge of all visitors.