Our job as Extension Forestry Educators is to serve as interpreters of the language of forest management. Even that term itself, forest management, feels foreign to many woodland owners. Admittedly, sometimes I miss the mark, like trying to explain basal area to a group of landowners off the cuff. But most of the time, connecting […]
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Engaging the Next Generation: Let’s Get Kids Outside! by Jamie Nack
Imagine my delight, when my daughters (9 and 11) complained about not being able to go outside during the polar vortex back in February. School had been cancelled due to the extreme cold and we were “stuck” at home and inside. My husband and I have made it a high priority to connect our children […]
What is forest certification?
Do you remember not so long ago when Harry Potter books were quite the rage? One of those books, Goblet of Fire, sold over 5 million copies. In total, the seven books sold over 450 million copies. Goblet of Fire was 734 pages, or 367 sheets of paper. For that one book, that is 1,835,000,000 […]
Leasing your sugarbush
It’s that perfect weather, with the fire roaring, and you sit down at the breakfast table with your steaming mug of coffee, a stack of warm pancakes, and that sweet local Wisconsin maple syrup. Chances are pretty good it’s from Wisconsin anyway, since we are 4th in the nation for production. In 2010, we reported […]
It’s a Beautiful Day to Be Neighborly
I got home from work the other day, and sat down to take off my work boots and put on my play boots. This led me to start whistling a familiar childhood song. (That would be Mr Roger’s neighborhood theme, for those that haven’t caught the reference.) With that tune came this month’s article topic, […]
An action plan
At one of the classes I recently held for woodland owners, a couple approached me looking for some guidance for the property they recently purchased. This was the first forested parcel bigger than an acre they owned and were understandably unsure as to where to start. They had all kinds of ideas for things they […]
Tree planting and maintenance
by Randy Mell Last Saturday I found myself walking the woods with a good friend. Today was one of those perfect mornings that you remember in the dead of winter that picks up your spirits. I have had many walks in the past with him through his woods. On those walks he would express his […]
When is fire good?
Fire in forested settings is a tricky subject to broach. Recently in Wisconsin, we’ve been experiencing the effects of smoke from wildfires in Canada. We’ve seen headlines about wildfires blazing out West. Locally, once the trees start to lose their leaves, Wisconsin experiences a higher than normal risk of wildfires. With all this information, it […]
A stand apart
I had the opportunity recently to walk through a woodland owner’s property and offer some advice. We had in-depth discussions on what she wanted to get from her woodland and how we were going to make that happen. She, like many of the woodland owners I work with, saw her woodland as one uniform forest, […]