Dr Sasha Bosbeer MIEEM CEnv

Professional committees and societies:

• Member (elected) of Woodlands of Ireland Steering Group (10/01 - present).
Woodlands of Ireland is a multi-disciplinary expert group involved with development of, monitoring of, and extension training for a variety of native woodland grants and projects.

• Member (appointed) of Woodlands of Ireland Technical Advisory Committee.
Member of Training and Silviculture sub-groups (2/01 - present).

• Member of Terryland Forest Park steering committee, a partnership of community groups and local government staff planning a new urban woodland in Galway city. (1/00 - 12/01).

• Co-ordinator of Crann an Iarthair, Galway branch of Crann, a national NGO promoting broadleaf trees in Ireland through guided walks, lectures and other activities for the public. (1/00- 6/01; 9/04 - 05/05).

• Participant in professional study-tours to forests and to forest management education and research centers in Finland, Germany, France, Russia, Ecuador, and western USA and Canada. Guest lecturer at Oregon State University, the University of Washington, and the University of California, Davis.

• Completed courses on design for forest recreation led by Simon Bell, the Irish Native Woodland Scheme, and GIS (ArcGIS and ArcView), Phase 1 habitat mapping, freshwater quality assessment using invertebrates, and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) auditing.

Professional memberships:

• Chartered Environmentalist (Society for the Environment),

• Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (full member),

• Society for Conservation GIS,

• Society of American Foresters,

• Certified Ecologist, Ecological Society of Amercia,

• British Ecological Society, and

• Botanical Society of the British Isles.

• Approved ecologist for the Native Woodland Scheme, Forest Service of Ireland.




	Dr Sasha Bosbeer (née van der Sleesen)- professional profile click here Professional Associations click here Publications click here Dr. Sasha Bosbeer - professional profile

Webmaster: rcoll@ireland.com	Dr Sasha Bosbeer (née van der Sleesen) is trained both as a forester and as an ecologist. Sasha holds a PhD in Botany from the National University of Ireland, Galway, an MSc with honours in Forest Ecology and Silviculture from Wageningen Agricultural University in The Netherlands, and a B.A. cum laude from Yale University in the USA. More recently, she has completed a year's GIS professional development training at San Francisco State University and the SmartWood training as an FSC Assessor.
	Sasha is one of a team of experts who trains professionals in native woodland management planning for the Irish Native Woodland Scheme (2001-present). She was also the leader of a two-person team carrying out a pilot study of native woodland inventory in County Offaly, Ireland, for Dúchas (now NPW) in 2001. She has assessed the plant flora for improved management planning for an ancient woodland in Cork for County Nature Trust (CNT, 2003) and coordinated the development of the current management plan for the site. Since 1999, she has been monitoring vegetation recolonisation and development in an old Irish forest after clearfelling for timber. She has been funded in 1999 and 2002 by the Heritage Council of Ireland to survey the Irish public on their attitudes towards nature including woodlands and is currently working on a web-based interactive woodland key with David Fallon. Sasha's research specialities are forest plant inventory and change, as well as non-timber uses of forests including recreation. The social context of woodlands and improved management planning are other key parts of the ongoing research of Sylvan Consulting Ecologists. Dr Bosbeer has taught forest ecology and social forestry since 1998 at the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology in Galway, Ireland. She has also led many walks and lectures for the public as far afield as Galway and Oregon, USA. . Sasha has served for the past several years on the Technical Advisory Committee of Woodlands of Ireland and was a member of the Steering Group for five years until 2007. She has also served on the steering committee of the community Terryland Forest Project in Galway. She is a certified ecologist (Ecological Society of America) and a chartered environmentalist (Society for the Environment). She is also a full member of the Institute for Ecology and Environmental Management (IEEM), and a member of the Society for Conservation GIS, the Geographical Society of Ireland, the British Ecological Society, Botanical Society of the British Isles, and the Society of American Foresters. She has traded under the registered name Sylvan Consulting Ecologists since 2001. Photograph above shows Sasha Bosbeer exploring Sitka Spruce old growth along the Pacific coast of North America.
	Professional Associations


	Professional committees and societies: • Member (elected) of Woodlands of Ireland Steering Group (10/01 - present). Woodlands of Ireland is a multi-disciplinary expert group involved with development of, monitoring of, and extension training for a variety of native woodland grants and projects. • Member (appointed) of Woodlands of Ireland Technical Advisory Committee. Member of Training and Silviculture sub-groups (2/01 - present). • Member of Terryland Forest Park steering committee, a partnership of community groups and local government staff planning a new urban woodland in Galway city. (1/00 - 12/01). • Co-ordinator of Crann an Iarthair, Galway branch of Crann, a national NGO promoting broadleaf trees in Ireland through guided walks, lectures and other activities for the public. (1/00- 6/01; 9/04 - 05/05). • Participant in professional study-tours to forests and to forest management education and research centers in Finland, Germany, France, Russia, Ecuador, and western USA and Canada. Guest lecturer at Oregon State University, the University of Washington, and the University of California, Davis. • Completed courses on design for forest recreation led by Simon Bell, the Irish Native Woodland Scheme, and GIS (ArcGIS and ArcView), Phase 1 habitat mapping, freshwater quality assessment using invertebrates, and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) auditing. Professional memberships: • Chartered Environmentalist (Society for the Environment), • Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (full member), • Society for Conservation GIS, • Society of American Foresters, • Certified Ecologist, Ecological Society of Amercia, • British Ecological Society, and • Botanical Society of the British Isles. • Approved ecologist for the Native Woodland Scheme, Forest Service of Ireland.
	The woodland ecosystem includes fungi, mosses, fallen dead leaves that feed invertebrates, grasses, and flowering plants.
	Publications
	Some publications and presentations: Van der Sleesen S (2004). The potential for non-timber forest products in Ireland. Invited talk given at the Native Woodland Conference, Galway, Ireland. (Proceedings published on CD by Woodlands of Ireland, 2005) Van der Sleesen S and A Poole (2002). Inventory of semi-natural woodlands in the eastern part of County Offaly, Ireland: A pilot study for the national inventory of native woodlands. Report submitted to the Research Branch of Duchas, the Heritage Service [now renamed National Parks and Wildlife]. Van der Sleesen S (2002). Social values and public opinion in Irish forests. In Forestry at the Great Divide, Proceedings of the Society of American Foresters' Annual Symposium, Denver, CO, 13-17 Sept. 2001. p452-462. Van der Sleesen S (2001). Forest resources in a scarcely wooded environment. Poster presented at the International Policy Research Symposium, "The changing role of forestry in Europe: Between urbanisation and rural development". 11-14 Nov, Wageningen, The Netherlands. Van der Sleesen S (1999). The place of woodlands and forests in the Irish landscape. Talk presented at the British Ecological Society winter meeting, Leicester, England. 5-7 January. Van der Sleesen S (1998c). Survey of attitudes to woodlands in Galway. Invited talk presented at the Crann / Coillte conference on Forestry and the Community, Roscrea, Co. Tipperary. 22-24 September. Van der Sleesen S (1998b). Woodlands in the landscape around Galway city. Talk presented at the National Landscape Forum, Maynooth. 16-18 September. Van der Sleesen A (1998a). The concept of nativeness. Talk presented at the Irish Botanists Meeting, Dublin. 1-2 April. Van der Sleesen A and D Kelly (1997). Tree huggers to tree haters: Views toward woodlands of recreationists in the West of Ireland. Talk presented at the Irish Botanists Meeting, Galway. 24 - 26 March. Van der Sleesen A (1994). Pollution and Siberian pine forests: Effects of industrial emissions on the subtaiga forest of the Baikal-Angara watersheds. Baikal as a natural laboratory for global change. INTAS/Russian Academy of Science conference, Irkutsk, Russia. May 11-17. Conference abstracts vol. 7. p55-56. Ballyannan Wood Steering Committee (2007). Five year management plan Ballyannan Wood, Midleton, Co. Cork. Compiled by Sylvan Consulting Ecologists.