Forest Stewards Guild

Fueling Collaboration Panel Discussion Series: The Future is Smoky
2023-12-14 11:00 - 12:30 (America/New_York)
Register
December 14, 2023
11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. ET
Approved for 1.5 Category 1 CFE’s by the Society of American Foresters.
With increasing wildfire activity due to changes in climate, smoke will likely become more prevalent and continue to have an effect on society. Earlier this year, smoke from Canada wildfires lowered air quality in the eastern U.S. to its worst levels in recorded history. As the climate heats up and creates drier conditions, smoky skies will grow increasingly common. Health concerns and prescribed burning actions needed to restore functioning ecosystems will be impacted by already smoky conditions across the country. Panelists include research meteorologists, air quality experts, and fire practitioners. Together, they will explore how we can address and adapt to a smoky future.

Fueling Collaboration Panel Discussion Series: Phenology of Fire: Listening to the Plants and Animals
2024-01-18 11:00 - 12:30 (America/New_York)
Register
January 18, 2024
11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. ET
Approved for 1.5 Category 1 CFE’s by the Society of American Foresters.
Season of fire. Opening the burn window. Both of these focus on one of the elements that make up a fire regime – frequency, intensity/severity, extent/scale, and seasonality. Decades of spring-and/or autumn-centric fire can cause a site or landscape to respond very differently than when burned repeatedly across all flammable seasons. Summer burns can produce differing fire effects including increased species richness averages, biomass, and stem counts (especially forbs), and breaking up the plant species dominance resulting from dormant season burn windows. Our panelists will bring fresh voices to how we can learn from listening to our fire-dependent plants and animals and let the fire effects lead us toward desired outcomes.

Family forest landowner preferences for managing invasive species
2024-01-25 13:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York)
Register
January 25, 2024
10:00 a.m. Pacific Time / 11:00 a.m. Mountain Time / 12:00 Noon Central Time / 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time
Presenter: Dr. Shady Atallah, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Family forest landowners own and manage much of the world’s forests, but we know little about their willingness to control biological invasions on their properties. Using a choice experiment, we find that landowners prefer mechanical methods and strongly oppose chemical methods when controlling the spread of an invasive shrub. Their choices are heterogeneously affected by ecosystem service outcomes resulting from control, namely timber production, trail recreation, and wildlife viewing. Landowners view their decision to control the invasive species on their land as a complement to the control by neighbors, offering further support for the areawide management of forest invasive species.

Successfully Bridging the Gap: Eastern US Models of Fire Science and Management Collaboration
2024-02-15 11:00 - 12:30 (America/New_York)
Register
February 15, 2024
11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. ET
Approved for 1.5 Category 1 CFE’s by the Society of American Foresters.
Land management programs are frequently confronted with the imperative of incorporating the most advanced scientific knowledge into their decision-making processes along with filling voids in research needed to move along effective management. Nevertheless, the persistent disparities between the realms of science and management often impede effective collaboration. In this panel, we will draw inspiration from successful case studies in the eastern United States, where land managers and scientists have forged pioneering partnerships, yielding tangible advancements in the field.

Lunch and Learn: Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission Report
2024-02-23 12:00 - 13:30 (America/Denver)
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Friday, February 23, 2024
12:00 – 1:30 Mountain Time (11:00 PT / 1:00 CT / 2:00 ET)
Event flyer/post
For decades, the wildland fire crisis has been growing. More severe catastrophic wildfires devastate communities and ecosystems and threaten lives and livelihoods across the country. In response, the federal Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission came together in 2021 to recommend improvements to how federal agencies manage wildfire across the landscape.
Join Neil Chapman, Wildland Fire Captain with the Flagstaff Fire Department and Commission member, as he discusses the process, outcomes, and next steps following publication of the commission’s report. Learn more and read the report, with its 148 final recommendations.

Career Call! Guild Student members join Professionals in a Virtual Gathering Circle
2024-05-22 20:00 - 20:45 (America/New_York)
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Wednesday, May 22, 2024
5:00 – 5:45 p.m. PT / 6:00 p.m. MT / 7:00 p.m. CT / 8:00 p.m. ET
Join each other for an opportunity to:
1) meet other members,
2) hear from professionals willing to talk about their jobs, what was important to them in college, and what they wish they knew or did when graduating, (your advice and tips as students enter the workforce or choose degree programs and research projects is so valuable),
3) hear from students about their concerns or needs as they look for and prepare for their careers,
4) enjoy an informal Q&A time before the end of this term.
Guild student chapter members have requested this sequel to the career call we hosted in 2020. Please register if you are willing to share some insights, answer some questions for student members, or ask questions of fellow members!

Virtue and The Steward’s Mind - Communicating Forestry webinar series
2024-06-04 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York)
Register
June 4, 2024
7:00 – 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time
Join Guild member Marianne Patinelli-Dubay, a philosopher with the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, for a presentation focused on understanding Guild-style forestry in the context of virtue ethics. Following the presentation, participants will be encouraged to explore these theoretical concepts in a facilitated discussion.
A forester is trained to understand and facilitate the necessary conditions for regeneration and flourishing. Through practice and careful observation over time, your ability to recognize the natural limits of a forest stand is refined. You take an inventory and reach a conclusion about how to proceed with a harvest by inhabiting the slope and aspect of the land, reading the ground for difficulties, knowing your own limits and those of others to identify and then do the right thing.
As your steward’s mind matures, your approach becomes intuitive. Your familiarity with the land and your knowledge of what it wants in terms of optimal conditions becomes a matter of how you see more than how you see the land. Is this forestry or virtue? Is there a difference? How and when do virtue and forestry coincide? To proceed with honesty, courage, and a clear understanding of need versus desire means living in the question of what good forestry means for the way we work and live on the land.
As part of our Communicating Forestry Series, this webinar recognizes that the more we understand what motivates Guild members to do good forestry, the better we can communicate good forestry and its drivers to specific interested parties, landowners, and the general public.
Watch recordings of previous webinars in this Communicating Forestry Series, by and for Guild members on YouTube. The full list of previous sessions is in the Guild’s webinar library.

Environmental Ethics in Running a Logging Business
2024-06-13 19:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York)
Register
June 13, 2024
7:00 – 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time
Join us for a discussion with Guild member Katrina Amaral of Timberdoodle Farm to learn about logging for long-term sustainable land management while farming, what to consider for stand health and diversity, and Timberdoodle’s environmental ethic.
Timberdoodle Farm is a specialty logging & sawmill business based in Strafford, New Hampshire. Owners Miles and Katrina Amaral began custom sawmilling on a homemade chainsaw mill in 2010, operating out of their landlord’s driveway in Madbury. With backgrounds in mechanical engineering and conservation biology, Miles and Katrina found that they weren’t satisfied by commercial timber offerings – they believe in locally-sourced, ecologically responsible lumber. Timberdoodle Farm has been featured in NPR Marketplace, Fast Company, Northern Woodlands, The Northern Logger magazine, and various podcasts.
Katrina and Miles are members of NH Timberland Owners Association (NHTOA) and the Northeast Loggers Association (NELA). In addition, Katrina serves on the Board of NELA, as a member of the Forest Society’s (SPNHF) Forestry Committee, and a professional member of the Forest Stewards Guild.

Old-Growth Forest Stewardship: New USFS Technical Guidance
2024-06-20 13:30 - 14:30 (America/New_York)
Register for this webinar
June 20, 2024
10:30 – 11:30 a.m. PT / 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. MT / 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. CT / 1:30 – 2:30 p.m. ET
Please join Forest Stewards Guild members and colleagues for a discussion of the new US Forest Service Technical Guidance for Standardized Silvicultural Prescriptions for Managing Old-Growth Forests. This is an informal chance to share and learn together. Dr. Zander Evans will facilitate a conversation about the Technical Guidance and what can be useful for stewards of Tribal, private, and conservation lands.

Guild discussion on old-growth forest stewardship
2024-07-09 15:00 - 16:00 (America/New_York)
Register for this webinar
July 9, 2024
Noon – 1:00 p.m. PT / 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. MT / 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. CT / 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. ET
Please join the Guild’s Membership and Policy Council to discuss old-growth forest stewardship. We’ll cover protection, preservation, conservation, management, and recruiting future old forests. Guild experts will discuss current federal work on old forests and opportunities for the Guild to lead on this important issue. The MPC welcomes you and your input around this facet of our work and world.

The future of forest stewardship (virtual conversation among Guild members)
2025-04-10 19:00 - 2025-04-11 13:00 (America/New_York)
Register (choose one or both sessions below)
Thursday, April 10, 2025 at 7:00 p.m. EDT
Friday, April 11, 2025 at Noon EDT
Guild members are invited to join a conversation about the rapid change in federal priorities and what that means for the future of forest stewardship in the U.S. We are in a tumultuous time and we need a space where Guild members can talk about that change. Zander Evans will facilitate an open forum where Guild members can share information about new policies and think through implications for stewardship. For example, if states are asked to shoulder more of the forest stewardship burden as the federal workforce is reduced, what are the implications? How might different states react? What is the Guild’s role? The conversation is likely to be wide-ranging and a bit chaotic but will hopefully signal how we can serve members in the future.

Tree People: Trees, Forests and the Human Imagination (virtual retreat)
2025-04-15 16:00 - 2025-04-29 17:30 (America/Los_Angeles)
Register (free, with suggested donation)
Note: the date of the third session of this retreat has been moved. It is now scheduled for May 6. See you then!
April 15, 22 and May 6, 2025
4:00 – 5:30 p.m. PT / 5:00 – 6:30 p.m. MT / 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. CT / 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. ET
A Forest Stewards Guild 30th Anniversary Guild Gathering event over zoom!
Retreat facilitator: Jason Minton Brown, Guild member and Lecturer in the Department of Global Humanities at Simon Fraser University and founder of holyscapes.org.
Synopsis: In this 3-part online-based participatory retreat/workshop we will explore the deep connection human cultures have forged with trees and forests and how these ‘arboreal’ cultures are expressed today. We will investigate the evolutionary past of tree-beings and explore their importance to the world’s religious and mythological systems. We will track the history of the modernist camps of agricultural, conservation, wilderness and Indigenous approaches to forestry practice. And end the workshop with an imaginative exploration of the future of forests. Along the way we will ask participants to examine their own relationship to trees and ask how they understand the role of trees in a changing global civilization and climate.
Learning/Exploration Outcomes

Explore the relationship between trees, forests and human societies.
Learn about how trees and forests show up in the world’s religious and spiritual traditions.
Understand the cultural history of forestry, natural resources and ecological sciences related to trees and forests.
Deepen one’s personal relationship to trees and forest spaces.

Workshop Outline:
One-and-a-half-hour, weekly format with short slide presentation, group discussion and weekly field journal invitations:

Week 1: The Primeval Forest: The role of trees and forests in religion and mythology.
Week 2: The New Forest: The rise of conservation, wilderness and the new science of tree communication and ecology.
Week 3: The Known Forest: The ways in which we relate to and understand trees and forests on a personal level.

Retreat facilitator bio:
Jason Brown was born and raised in Southern California and studied anthropology and international development as an undergraduate at Brigham Young University. He has lived in Vancouver, BC since 2013 and is a dual citizen of the US and Canada and is a proud Cascadian. He earned joint master’s degrees in forestry and theology from Yale. He completed his PhD in 2017 from the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES) at the University of British Columbia where his dissertation explored the sense of place of contemporary Catholic monks in the American West. His book on the experience, Dwelling in the Wilderness: Modern Monks in the American West was published in 2024. As a Lecturer at Simon Fraser University Jason teaches courses in religious studies and ecological humanities for the department of Global Humanities. He teaches a course entitled Trees, Forests and the Human Imagination. He is also an un-ordained, non-aligned earth chaplaincy for Simon Fraser University. The program seeks to promote contemplative practice as a response to climate anxiety and grief. He writes at www.holyscapes.org.
You can hear more from Jason in his Contemplative Forestry podcast session and the recording of the Guild’s Communicating Forestry Webinar Series called “Give Me That Old Growth Religion.“

The Guild’s Business Plan (webinar)
2025-04-30 12:00 - 2025-05-01 19:00 (America/New_York)
Register (for one or both sessions…they will be the same presentation)
April 30, 2025 at Noon EDT
May 1, 2025 at 7:00 p.m. EDT
Guild members are invited to join a discussion about our new business plan. Ignited by the spark of shared passion, the Guild was founded in 1995 to both practice and promote forest stewardship. Our national network of members, staff, and partners have advanced the culture of forest stewardship based on ethical principles, best-available science, and diverse experience. Three decades of thought-meets-practice leadership from the Guild and partners has brought the concept of ecological forestry from the fringes to become the expected standard for management in much of the U.S., but there is much more work to do!
Zander Evans will share the strategic choices the Guild is making to expand our positive impact, increase our membership, and step up to our responsibility to keep forests healthy in the face of wildfire, droughts, invasive species, and other threats. We will host two opportunities with the hope the one option will work for members interested in the discussion.

Significant mortality of old trees across a dry forest landscape in Oregon
2025-08-27 15:00 - 16:00 (America/New_York)
Register
Aug 27, 2025
Noon – 1:00 p.m. PT / 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. MT / 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. CT / 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. ET
Continuing education credits are pending approval.
Webinar Presenter: Dr. James Johnston, University of Oregon
Description: Dr. Johnston will discuss recent forest mortality dynamics based on a network of 1617 trees in unlogged roadless areas in the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon with precise age and growth data. There was extensive mortality of the oldest trees in stands—a quarter of trees greater than 300 years of age died over a ten-year period. There was little evidence for a difference in mortality between species in sites that experienced wildfire. Dr. Johnston will also describe a novel simulation model which demonstrated that succession of young trees is unlikely to replace recent losses of old trees. The confluence of a rare insect defoliator outbreak, drought, and past management decisions that increased competitive stress and fuel connectivity is the most likely explanation for the elevated mortality we observed. The protected areas where the team collected data are not achieving old tree conservation objectives. Active management to reduce forest competition is the most realistic pathway for old tree conservation in dry forests.

Guardians and gardeners: Managing wilderness for the twenty-first century
2026-01-22 14:00 - 15:00 (America/New_York)
Register
January 22, 2026
2:00 – 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time
Please join us for a presentation and discussion on wilderness in the 21st century. The 1964 Wilderness Act provides robust protections to landscapes designated as federal wilderness. The National Wilderness Preservation System, which includes 806 wilderness areas and 111 million acres, represents the world’s largest highly protected conservation network. However, a long-standing ethos of nonmanagement—exemplified by the philosophy that managers should be guardians but not gardeners—obscures long legacies of Indigenous stewardship and may not sustain essential wilderness values in a time of unprecedented ecological stressors. Many wildernesses are increasingly subject to complex and compounding unintentional (as well as intentional) human influences.
In this webinar, Dr. Boerigter will present how a guardians and gardeners approach would acknowledge Indigenous influence, recognize contemporary and future environmental challenges, and provide managers the necessary rationale to respond to these complex realities. In the twenty-first century, it may be necessary to carefully, thoughtfully, and compassionately reimagine the dominant wilderness philosophy. Read the full paper: https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biaf141

National Guild Gathering - Celebrating 30 years!
2026-09-15 08:00 - 2026-09-17 17:00 (America/New_York)
Save the dates
September 15 – 17, 2026
Freeport, Maine
Event flyer
More details coming soon…
Join us in celebrating 30 years of the Forest Stewards Guild — a milestone gathering of Guild members, partners, and like-minded stewards from across the country. Together, we’ll reflect on three decades of transformational change in forest stewardship and chart a bold vision for the next 30 years.
This multi-day event in Freeport, Maine will feature inspiring discussions, working sessions, and field trips that connect policy, practice, and people. Discover the beauty of New England’s forests while connecting with the Guild community in a setting that embodies the values of stewardship and collaboration.
Experience Maine’s rich coastal culture — from vibrant working waterfronts and small-town charm to world-class local cuisine — while engaging in meaningful conversations on forest stewardship, ecological integrity, and the future of conservation.
Connect with Guild members, staff, and partners to inspire, learn, and act — advancing shared goals in forest stewardship, ecological resilience, and community.
