College of Forestry
Sessions, John
University Distinguished Professor, Strachan Chair of Forest Operations Management
Education:
Registered Professional Civil Engineer: Washington and Colorado
PhD, Forest Economics, 1979 Oregon State University
MS, Forest Engineering, 1971 University of Washington
MS, Civil Engineering, 1968 California State University
BS, Civil Engineering, 1966 University of California, Los Angeles
Current Programs:
Developing techniques for transportation planning, tactical forest planning, strategic forest planning, decision support systems for road management, strategic planning on State forests, biomass collection and transport.
Graduate Students
Rene Zamora (PhD), Storm Beck (MS), Chad Gilbreath (MS), Ricardo Pavez (MS)
Courses:
FE 447/547: Tactical and Project Planning
FE 449/549: Strategic and Tactical Forest Planning
FE/FOR 456: International Forestry (team taught)
FE 470/570: Logging Mechanics
FE 499: Biomass Assessment, Harvesting and Transport (team taught)
FE 552: Forest Transportation
FE 555 Forest Supply Chain Management
FE 572: Logging Vehicle Performance
FE 640-001: Combinatorial Optimization in Forest Planning
FE 640-002: Biomass Harvesting and Transport
FOR 457/557: Techniques for Forest Resource Analysis
FOR 459: Forest Resource Planning and Decision Making (team taught)
During Academic Year 2012-2013:
Summer and Fall Term 2012– Projects
- National Indian Forest Assessment
- NW Forests State Planning Support
- Biomass Production and Transport Planning
- Logging Vehicle Performance
Winter Term 2013
FE 470/570: Logging Mechanics
FE 499: Biomass Assessment, Harvesting and Transport
FE 640-001: Combinatorial Optimization
FE 640-002: Biomass Harvesting and Transport
FOR 457/557: Techniques for Forest Resource Analysis
Spring Term 2013
FE 447/547: Tactical and Operational Planning Techniques
FE 449/549: Strategic and Tactical Forest Planning
FE/FOR 456: International Forestry
FE 552: Transportation Planning
FOR 459: Forest Resource Planning and Decision Making
Fall Term 2013
FE 555 Forest Supply Chain Management
Recent Publications:
Wing, M. G., J. Burnett, and J. Sessions. 2012. Eyes in the sky: Remote sensing technology development using small unmanned aircraft systems. Submitted to J. of Forestry.
Wing, M. G., J. Burnett, and J. Sessions. 2012. Remote Sensing Technology for Monitoring and Quantifying Forest Fire Impacts. Submitted to the International Journal of Remote Sensing.
Ghaffariyan, M. R., J. Sessions, and M. Brown. 2012. Evaluating productivity, cost, chip quality and biomass recovery for a mobile chipper in Australian roadside chipping operations. J. of Forest Science 58(12): 530–535, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
Akay, A., M. G. Wing, and J. Sessions. 2012. Estimating sediment reduction cost for forest road construction using a LiDAR-Derived High-Resolution DEM. Accepted. Baltic J. of Road and Bridge Engineering.
Beck, S. and J. Sessions. 2012. Forest road access decisions for specialized vehicles using Ant Colony Optimization and breakeven analysis. Submitted to Int. J. for Forest Engineering.
Ghaffariyan, M. R., J. Sessions, and M. Brown. 2012. Roadside chipping in a first thinning operation for radiata pine in South Australia. Submitted to Croation J. of Forest Engineering.
Smith, D., J. Sessions, K. Tuers, D. Way and J. Travis. 2012. Characteristics of Forest Derived Woody Biomass Collected and Processed in Oregon. Submitted to Forest Products Journal.
Zamora, R., P. Adams, and J. Sessions. 2012. Ground-based thinning on steep slopes in Western Oregon: Soil compaction and disturbance effects. Western J. of Applied Forestry (in review).
Sessions, J., K. Tuers, K.Boston, R. Zamora and R. Anderson. 2012. Pricing Forest Biomass for Power Generation. Western J. of Applied Forestry (accepted).
Ghaffariyan, M. R., J. Sessions, and M. Brown. 2012. Collecting pine plantation harvesting residues for bio-energy in Victoria (Australia). Silva Balcanica. (in review).
Lyons, K., J. Sessions, and J. Wimer. 2012. Effect of undercut style and post hinge behavior in tree felling. Forest Science, published online Feb 2, 2012; http://dx.doi.org/10.5849/forsci.11-005.
Pilkerton, S., J. Sessions, and L. Kellogg. 2012. Development of efficient cutting patterns to maximize value with a log allocation constraint. Int. J. of Forest Engineering. (accepted)
Ghaffariyan, M. R., J. Sessions, and M. Brown. 2012. Machine productivity, volume recovery, and harvesting residues of a cut-to-length harvest system in Southern Tasmania. Southern Forests (accepted).
Lyons, K., J. Sessions, and J. Wimer. 2012. The adequacy of falling object protection design criteria for feller bunchers. Submitted to Forest Science.
Akay, A., M. G.Wing, and J. Sessions. 2012. Estimating structural properties of riparian forests with airborne LiDAR data. International J. of Remote Sensing 33(22):7010-7023.
Zhang, C., J. Y. Zhu, R. Gleisner, and J. Sessions. 2012. Fractionation of forest residues of Douglas-fir for fermentable sugar production by SPORL Pretreatment. J. of Bioenergy Res. DOI 10.1007/s12155-012-9213-3.
Chung, W., D. Dykstra, S. O’Brien, R. Abt, and J. Sessions. 2012. User’s Guide to SNAP for ArcGIS. USDA Forest Service, PNW Station, Gen. Tech. Report. PNW-GTR-847.
Hayati, E., B. Majnounian, E. Abdi, J. Sessions, and M. Makhdom. 2012. An Expert-Based Approach in Forest Road Network Planning by Combining Delphi and Spatial Multi-Criteria Evaluation. Environmental Modeling and Assessment (accepted).
Clark, J., J. Sessions, and R. Zamora. 2011. Optimizing Knife Change Times for Forest Biomass Chipping Operations. Biomass and Bioenergy (in review).
Simwanda, M., J. Sessions, K. Boston, and M. Wing. 2011. Modeling biomass transport on single lane forest roads. Western J. of Applied Forestry (in review).
Clark, J., J. Sessions, K. Boston, and C. Schmidt. 2011. Sizing CHP Plants in a Biomass Supply Chain for Timber Harvest Residues. Biomass and Bioenergy. (in review)
Wing, M. G., M. Craven, J. Sessions, and J. Wimer. 2011. LiDAR-derived DEM and raw height comparisons along profile corridor gradients within a forest. Can. J. of For. Res. (in review).
Ghaffariyan, M. R., M. Brown, M. Acuna, J. Sessions, and M. Kuehmaier. 2011. Biomass harvesting in Eucalyptus plantations in Western Australia. Southern Forests: A Journal of Forest Science 73:3-4, 149-154.
Ghaffariyan, M. R. and J. Sessions 2011. Error impact of regression models on forest road spacing. Silva Balcanica 12(1)97-111.
Simwanda, M., M. G. Wing, and J. Sessions. 2011. Evaluating global positioning system accuracy for forest biomass transportation tracking within varying forest canopy. Western J. of Applied Forestry 26(4):165-173
Wing, M.G., A. Eklund, and J. Sessions. 2010. Applying LiDAR technology for tree measurements in burned landscapes. International Journal of Wildland Fire 19:104-114.
Sessions, J., J. Wimer, F. Costales, and M. G. Wing. 2010. Engineering Considerations in Road Assessment for Biomass Operations in Steep Terrain. Western J. of Applied Forestry 25(3):144-153.
Ghaffarian, M. R., K. Stampfer, and J. Sessions. 2010. Road Network Optimization using heuristic and linear programming. Journal of Forest Science 56(3)137-145. Institute of Agricultural Economic and Information, Czech Republic.
Thompson, M., and J. Sessions. 2010. Exploring Environmental and Economic Tradeoffs Associated with Aggregate Recycling from Decommissioned Forest Roads. Environmental Modeling and Assessment. 14 pages, 2010. doi:10.1007/s10666-010-9220-8.
Akay, A., J. Sessions, H. Serin, M. Pak, and N. Yenilmez. 2010. Applying Optimum Bucking Method in Producing Taurus Fir (Abies cilicica) Logs in Mediterranean Region of Turkey. Baltic Forestry. 16(2): xx-xx. (in press)
Thompson, M., J. Sessions, K. Boston, A. Skaugset, and D. Tomberlin. 2010. Forest Road Erosion Control using Multiobjective Optimization. Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 12 pages, doi: 10.1111/j.1752-1688.200.00443.
Recent Theses
Stander, Henk. 2011. Uncertainty, Risk Forest Management on the Tillamook State Forest: A Case Study. PhD. Oregon State University, 346 pp.
Kokenge, Kyler. 2011. Opportunities and Challenges for Decision Support Systems in Log Truck Scheduling and Dispatching. MS. Oregon State University, 147 pp.
Schmidt, Christian. 2011. Spatially-Explicit Prediction of Recoverable Harvesting Residues. MS. Oregon State University, 179 pp.
Simwanda, Matamyo. 2010. Modeling biomass transport on single lane forest roads and monitoring GPS accuracy for vehicle tracking under different forest canopy conditions, MS. Oregon State University, 153 pp.
Thompson, Matthew P. 2009. Contemporary forest road management with economic and environmental objectives, PhD. Oregon State University, 302 pp.