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Hi Francesco,</div>
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Thank you for sending this and coming up with a project! </div>
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<br>
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Next steps:</div>
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<div role="presentation" class="elementToProof">Students begin reviewing projects on Oct. 13th/14th in both sections</div>
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<div role="presentation" class="elementToProof">Mid-Nov. We will have teams settled and I will send out notification to the sponsors</div>
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<div role="presentation" class="elementToProof">December 1st/2nd students will do a small presentation to their class about the project that they will be working on</div>
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<div role="presentation" class="elementToProof">January 2026, the work starts...</div>
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Let me know if you have any other questions!</div>
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Thank you again for being such a willing and great sponsor for our program!</div>
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Leah</div>
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<div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size:11pt" color="#000000"><b>From:</b> Francesco Tonini <francesco.tonini@TNC.ORG><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, October 7, 2025 12:33 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> Leah Saunders <lsaundersuw@outlook.com>; cps-gis@u.washington.edu <cps-gis@u.washington.edu>; gis_info@listsmart.osl.state.or.us <gis_info@listsmart.osl.state.or.us><br>
<b>Cc:</b> Matthew Kenny <matthew.kenny@TNC.ORG>; Teal Wyckoff <teal.wyckoff@TNC.ORG>; Zach Ferdana <zferdana@TNC.ORG><br>
<b>Subject:</b> RE: UW GIS Certificate Program Annual Call for Projects - Submission Deadline 10/10/2025</font>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal">Hi Leah and UW team,</p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal">Please find below our proposed project. Keep us posted on the next steps.</p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><b>Sponsor name and contact information: </b>The Nature Conservancy – Francesco Tonini, PhD, GISP Geospatial Data Scientist at TNC (<a href="mailto:francesco.tonini@tnc.org">francesco.tonini@tnc.org</a>) and Matthew Kenny, Geospatial
Data Engineer at TNC (<a href="mailto:matthew.kenny@tnc.org">matthew.kenny@tnc.org</a>)</p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><b>Proposed student team size:</b> ~3-4 students</p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><b>Name of proposed project</b>: Evaluating Forest Disturbances and Responses to Management in the Central Appalachians Using Earth Observation Data and GIS</p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><b>Brief description of proposed project</b>: </p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal">The <a href="https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/priority-landscapes/appalachians/">
Appalachian landscape</a> extends from Alabama to the eastern provinces of Canada, encompassing 198 million acres and extending 2000 miles across North America. This region has been identified as one of The Nature Conservancy’s (TNC) focal landscapes, a place
where coordinated efforts to protect, restore, and manage forests and freshwater systems are expected to have especially high returns on conservation investments. This prioritization recognizes the exceptional biodiversity of the lands and waters associated
with one of North America’s oldest mountain chains, and the tremendous opportunities to support and partner with Indigenous peoples and local communities to improve conditions for both people and biodiversity. The scale and breadth of
<a href="https://www.nature.org/content/dam/tnc/nature/en/documents/a/p/Apps-Impact-Report-Digital.pdf">
TNC’s goals</a> for this region require that we build and support collaborative partnerships, and invest in science that helps us to understand how actions taken at many different locations influence regional and continental scale processes such as carbon sequestration,
and movement corridors that support species’ responses to climate change. The work we propose focuses on improving our understanding of the climate change sensitivities of Appalachian forests, and how management practices such as prescribed fire can help sustain
these diverse systems. In particular, we are interested in characterizing the spatial variation in responses of the forest canopy to drought conditions and have several forms of ground-based mapping and field measurements in the Central Appalachians that can
be leveraged as part of a spatial analysis workflow. The proposed project will use time series of satellite imagery to derive vegetation-based indicators (e.g. NDVI, NDMI) to detect drought events and compare them with other landscape disturbance events, such
as wildfire. Students will become more familiar with ESRI’s ArcGIS suite of tools and ArcGIS Online apps (e.g. StoryMaps, ArcGIS Experience Builder) while gaining experience using both raster and vector types of data. During this project, students will have
the opportunity to learn about conservation initiatives in the Appalachians and geographical areas where TNC works in scaling these analyses and methods.</p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt; font-family:Barlow; color:green">At TNC we work flexibly, and while it suits me to email now, I don’t anticipate a response outside your normal work hours.</span><span style="font-size:9.0pt; font-family:Barlow; color:#D9D9D9"> </span><span style="font-size:9.0pt; font-family:Barlow"></span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Whitney Office"; color:#D9D9D9">_____________________</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif; color:black"></span></p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal" style="background:white"><b><span style="font-family:Barlow; color:#333333">Francesco Tonini, PhD, GISP</span></b><b><span style="font-family:"Cambria",serif; color:#333333"> </span></b><b><span style="font-family:"Whitney Office"; color:#333333">
</span></b></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Barlow; color:#585858">Geospatial Data Scientist, Geospatial Services</span><span style=""></span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Barlow; color:#585858">Conservation & Geospatial Systems, IT</span></p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Barlow; color:#156082">Michigan, U.S.A. (Eastern Time Zone)</span></p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><a href="http://nature.org/"><span style="font-size:9.0pt; font-family:"Aptos Display",sans-serif; color:#00291F; text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="120" height="40" id="x_Graphic_x0020_1" style="width:1.25in; height:.4166in" data-outlook-trace="F:1|T:1" src="cid:image001.png@01DC379E.C247AD30"></span></a><span style=""></span></p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> Leah Saunders <lsaundersuw@outlook.com>
<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, August 19, 2025 8:14 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> cps-gis@u.washington.edu; gis_info@listsmart.osl.state.or.us<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: UW GIS Certificate Program Annual Call for Projects - Submission Deadline 10/10/2025</span></p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:black">The University of Washington Professional and Continuing Education’s GIS Certificate program is seeking project ideas for the 2025/2026 academic year. We are soliciting ideas
from organizations and agencies around the region, including local or regional governments agencies, non-profits, engineering and consulting firms, and private businesses of any nature. If you have a project idea that might be a good fit for the students
of the GIS Certificate Program, we would appreciate hearing from you!</span></p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:black">Here’s a little bit about what would make a good student project:</span></p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:black">·
<b>Size: </b> should be appropriate for a 3-4 (maybe 5) student project team</span></p>
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<b>Schedule:</b> Project selection takes place during October and November. Students begin working on the projects in January as Winter quarter begins and deliverables are completed and turned over to the sponsor at the conclusion of the program in early
June.</span></p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:black">·
<b>Content:</b> in order to offer the students quality learning opportunities, a project should not be limited to a single activity such as data development or data editing/collection. Opportunities to perform any of the following help increase the learning
value of the experience: database design, data collection, mapping/cartography, spatial analysis, ArcGIS Online application development, etc.</span></p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:black">·
<b>Sponsorship: </b> some of our best projects have been real-world practical projects submitted by organizations like yours from around the region (including, in the past, from Washington, Oregon, California and Alaska). These projects are typically efforts
that the sponsoring organization has wanted to act on, but, until now, has been unable to address due to their own limited resources. </span></p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:black">·
<b>Time commitment for sponsors:</b> this does not need to be a great impact on you. Some students interview their sponsors to assess the needs and requirements, and then work independently from that point forward. Other projects have very active sponsors
who may meet regularly with the student team, and is involved in reviewing documents, providing feedback, and other activities. Regardless of the level of involvement, sponsors will receive periodic status reports from the team as the projects progress. </span></p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:black">We have found that many organizations have perfect candidate projects in tasks that have been lingering on the back-burner for some time. Utilizing our student teams is a great
way to get some of these small projects off the back-burner and, at the same time, provide valuable experience for the students. As for quality of results, our program focuses on practical and professional execution of projects in a way that strongly mimics
how a project would be executed in the workplace. We have had great success with the vast majority of our projects and many have gone on to win awards at the annual WAGISA (formerly WAURISA) conference and other conferences. </span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:black">If you have a project in mind, here are the details that we would need to get started:</span></p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:black">· Sponsor name and contact information</span></p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:black">· Name of proposed project</span></p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:black">· Brief description of proposed project (a short paragraph is ideal)</span></p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:black">Students will begin discussing projects towards the end of October, and by mid-November all projects will have been selected. Ideally, we would like to hear from you on or before
Wednesday October 10th, 2025. However, if you think of a project later than that, we would still like to hear from you. </span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:black">If you have any questions or project ideas, please feel free to contact me by replying to this email (</span><a href="mailto:+lsaundersuw@outlook.com"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:#196AD4">lsaundersuw@outlook.com</span></a><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:black">),
and please feel free to forward this to others as you see fit. </span></p>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:black">Thank you</span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:black">Leah Saunders</span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; color:black">UW GIS Certificate Program Instructor</span></p>
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