Forest Stewards Guild

Webinar: Is This Endgame for Beech Trees?
2019-08-28 12:00 - 13:00 UTC | Webinar
Register today!
Title: Is This Endgame for Beech Trees? Tracking Symptom Expression, Chronological Spread and Mortality Caused by Beech Leaf.

Speaker: Dr. Constance Hausman, Plant and Restoration Ecologist, Cleveland Metroparks
The Natural Areas Association invites you free of charge to this webinar. Beech leaf disease (BLD) poses an apparent threat to the survival of American beech trees (Fagus grandifolia) and the ecological health of the Eastern deciduous forests of North America. Affected trees exhibit symptoms including atypical leaf color and texture, reproductive abnormalities, canopy dieback, and mortality. The causal agent of BLD is as yet undetermined; however, given the rapid spread of BLD and variability in environmental conditions across its known geographic range,
scientists suspect a microbe, particularly a virus or phytoplasma. BLD was discovered in 2012 in northeast Ohio, and has since infected beech stands in Pennsylvania, Ontario, and New York. BLD may also impact forests globally; specimens of European (F. sylvatica) and Oriental (F. orientalis) beech in Ohio nurseries have exhibited BLD symptoms. Widespread and on-going detection efforts for BLD will aid researchers and forest managers in understanding and potentially limiting the impact of this emerging forest threat. Join us to hear the latest news on BLD, learn how to identify it, and understand how it may affect forests locally, regionally, and globally.

Guild Gathering in the Appalachian Mountain Club's Maine forestlands
2019-08-15 14:00 - 2019-08-16 16:00 | AMC Gorman Chairback Lodge and Cabins, Chairback Road T7 R9, Greenville, ME, 04441
Register today!
Join us for a Guild Gathering, in the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Maine forestlands.
Full agenda
Thursday
We encourage you to check out a hike on your own in scenic Gulf Hagas during the day (or let Amanda know at amanda@forestguild.org if you’d like to gather with other forestry tour participants to hike this).
2:00 p.m. Meet at Gorman-Chairback Lodge
2:00 – 3:30 Compare two contrasting fish passage sites. Visit a nice hardwood site recently harvested to facilitate glad skiing.
4:30-5:30 Presentation by Dave Publicover and Steve Tatko on ecological management of AMC’s forests.
6:00 Dinner (provided if you are staying at the AMC Gorman-Chairback Lodge. Otherwise, you may bring your own and join us).
Friday
7:00 Breakfast (provided if you are staying at the AMC Gorman-Chairback Lodge. Otherwise, you may bring your own and join us or meet the rest of the group at Katahdin Ironworks).
8:00 Drive to Katahdin Ironworks checkpoint (Google location for Katahdin Ironworks State Historic Site).
9:00 Convene at Katahdin Ironworks checkpoint, gather all participants, head to Stop 1.
9:45 Stop 1 – Visit plantation, 1st entry thinning in a softwood stand as part of an uneven age conversion.
11:00 Stop 2 – Explore a past high-graded hardwood site currently running heavy to beech. Discuss management options and long-term objectives.
Noon – 1:00 Lunch stop at Caribou bog bridge. Discuss landscape-scale history. Explore settlement remains. (field lunch provided if you lodged at AMC Gorman-Chairback Lodge. Others please bring your own lunch.)
1:00 Stop 3 – Depart for active harvest off Caribou Pitt Rd. Discuss changing harvest history, including revisiting the slot harvesting method popularized in the early 2000s.
2:15 Stop 4 – Visit a fresh harvest in a hardwood to mixedwood transitional forest, some of which is a first entry for AMC.
3:15 Drive out to the Katahdin Ironworks checkpoint.
4:00 Optional tour of Katahdin Ironworks and charcoal ironworks.

Continuing education credits: This event has been assigned 5.0 Category 1 CFE credits by the Society of American Foresters.
Lodging info: Lodging is full. Please check directly with AMC for any last-minute openings at 603-466-2727, Mon-Sat, 9 am to 5 pm.
Travel info:
Gorman-Chairback Lodge is a 2.5-hour drive from Augusta, ME and a 1.5-hour drive from Bangor, ME. Limited spaces on this field tour are available for individuals participating Friday only. If you plan to attend only on Friday, breakfast and lunch are on your own, and there is no additional cost to register. If you plan to attend only the Friday field tour, please plan to meet the group at the Katahdin Ironworks Historic Site (KI gate) at 8:45 a.m.
Pickup trucks or four-wheel drive vehicles are recommended, as well as spare tires. During the Friday field tour, we will carpool from site to site, beginning and ending at the Katahdin Ironworks gate.
Thank you to Steve Tatko for the photos on this event page.

Creative Silviculture
2019-08-05 09:30 - 2019-08-06 11:30 | Kemp Natural Resources Station, 9161 Kemp Rd, Woodruff, Wisconsin, 54568
Registration closed
Kemp Natural Resources Station (9161 Kemp Road, Woodruff, WI 54568)
We often refer to silviculture as the “art and science of growing healthy forests.” For this meeting the Forest Stewards Guild welcomes you to northern Wisconsin to discuss some of the creative ways people are stitching together the art with science to improve the stewardship of our forests.
View the full agenda
Registration covers venue costs and all meals; field tour transportation will be via carpooling.

Event: $55.00 (Monday box lunch and BBQ dinner, plus Tuesday morning pastries included)
Student: $25.00
Lodging Monday at Kemp: Add $50 – includes linens

Lodging is limited at Kemp Station, so we strongly encourage you to register early.
Please be aware that Kemp offers dormitory style lodging and private rooms are not available. If you would like private lodging, we encourage you to look into the wide variety of hotels in and around Minocqua – note however that this is peak tourism season in this area and availability may be limited. There are also a series of State Forest campgrounds in the vicinity; Clear Lake and Indian Mounds are the closest to Kemp Station (http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/StateForests/nhal/camping.html).
We added a ‘dinner guest’ option if you have someone traveling with you that will be enjoying Northwoods camping, fishing, sightseeing, etc during the meeting but would like to join for dinner.

Thank you to The Forestland Group for their financial assistance with this event. Please consider joining them in sponsoring this or other 2019 Guild Gatherings.
Continuing education credits will be available from this meeting.

Wisconsin Cooperating Forester: 8 hours
The Wildlife Society: 6 credits
Society of American Foresters credit total is under review.

Event Sponsors: Contact mike@forestguild.org to sponsor this or another Guild event!

Presentations in PDF (full list coming soon…)
Engaging Women Landowners in Discussions of Silviculture – Angela Gupta, University of Minnesota Extension
Silvicultural Decisions in an Age of Climate Change – Maria Janowiak, USDA Forest Service

Ash and Forestry Forum 2: Management within the Context of EAB
2019-07-10 08:00 - 15:00 | 1958 Room, Sterling College, 16 Sterling Drive, Craftsbury Common, VT, 05827
Register today! Cost includes lunch.
This forum will offer a fresh approach to ash management in light of EAB. Our goal is to facilitate a discussion on the appropriate silvicultural responses to EAB in Vermont. We will look at the role of ash in our forests and how to manage for the forest, not the bug, but will also delve into the economic implications of ash management in the face of EAB. Guests from outside Vermont who have already dealt with managing ash stands as EAB moves through will be there to share their personal experiences and recommendations.
Sponsored by the Vermont Land Trust; Vermont Woodlands Association; Vermont Coverts; Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation; and the Forest Stewards Guild.

Forestry for Maine Birds Walk
2019-06-22 09:00 - 12:00 | Somerset County Cooperative Extension, 7 County Dr., Skowhegan, ME, 04976
Register today by contacting Jennifer Brockway, Somerset District Outreach Coordinator.
Location: Somerset County Cooperative Extension, 7 County Dr.Skowhegan, ME 04976
Join us for a morning woods walk that introduces Forestry for Maine Birds. This approach integrates bird conservation into forest management and planning. You will learn how to:

Improve habitat for priority forest birds and a variety of other wildlife species
Take care of your woodland
Work with other forest management goals
Enhance the value and enjoyment of Maine woodlands

This event is approved for 2.5 Category 1 CFE credits.
Co-hosted by Somerset County SWCD and Piscataquis County SWCD in partnership with Forest Stewards Guild, Maine Audubon, Maine Forest Service and Maine Woodland Owners – Upper Kennebec Valley Chapter.

Multiage Forestry Group Spring Field Tour
2019-06-13 13:00 - 2019-06-14 13:00 | Camp Twenty Recreation Area, See agenda for address, California
Register by June 6!
Location: Meet at Camp Twenty Recreation Area on Highway 20, Fort Bragg, CA (see itinerary for details)
Hosted by UC Cooperative Extension
Event flyer to share with itinerary/agenda
Join this field tour of current research at Jackson Demonstration State Forest, and some time for discussion over dinner and drinks on June 13. The tour focuses on recent and on-going multiage redwood forestry research at CAL FIRE’s demonstration forest. Jackson Demonstration State forest silviculture experiments have been ongoing since 1960.
The long-term studies have answered fundamental questions about thinning. Both old and new studies have addressed questions relevant to uneven or multi- age silviculture in particular regeneration of new cohorts and stand density index as it relates to stocking.
Pascal Berrill, PhD, Professor of Forestry from the University of Maine and recently from Humboldt State University and Lynn Webb, Research Forester at JDSF will be leading the tour.

Stone Fence Farm Guild Gathering
2019-06-07 16:00 - 2019-06-08 16:00 | Stone Fence Farm, Unity, New Hampshire
Registration closed. Did you miss the deadline? Contact Colleen@forestguild.org if you’d still like to register…there may be a few spots left!
We are getting very excited about this not-to-be-missed Forest Stewards Guild New England Guild Gathering! Hosts Jeremy Turner and Laura French welcome fellow Guild members and friends for a spectacular field event. Stone Fence Farm is a 300-acre working forest and farm in the heart of Guild country, a well-managed woodland in a landscape of continuous forest. Come learn in this “playground” and share your own forest wisdom on adaptive forest management!
Stone_Fence_Farm_Draft_Agenda

Ash and Forestry Forum: Management within the Context of EAB
2019-06-06 08:00 - 15:00 | The Old Gray Barn, 1582 Vermont Route 30, Rupert, VT, 05768

Corvallis region Foresters for the Birds Demonstration at McDonald-Dunn Forest
2019-05-31 08:00 - 14:00 | Near Oregon State University – address coming soon, Oregon
Register today!
This event is free of charge. Please bring your own lunch, snacks and water.
Address for our meeting place coming soon! The forest is 15 minutes from Oregon State University.
Join this event in McDonald-Dunn Forest, north of Corvallis, with Dr. Joan Hagar of the US Geological Survey (USGS). The McDonald-Dunn Research Forest is owned and managed by Oregon State University and consists of 11,000 acres of mostly forested lands at the junction of the Willamette Valley and the eastern foothills of the coast range. The forest features a variety of forest types and management themes (even-aged, two-storied, and uneven aged, as well as a number of stands of old growth) allow for side-by-side comparisons of forest management practices. The location provides a rare opportunity to contrast forest management approaches with an eye toward how avian communities use the resulting habitat features.
Agenda topics and discussion will include:

history of the McDonald Dunn forest and its management practices
the aims of the Foresters for the Birds program in the Pacific Northwest
identify approximately 20 focal bird species (by sight, sound, and habitat features)
run mist-nets to provide opportunities to see many of the bird species up close.

Over lunch, we’ll facilitate informal discussions and talk about how people can get involved in the program as it grows.
Logistics:
We will meet at one spot (address and directions coming soon) and walk or carpool to our field sites from there. When we have details about the specific field sites we will share them. It is possible that we will encounter uneven terrain, poison oak, and up to 1/4 mile of walking. We will share a short list of suggested items to bring, which may include a camp chair. Stay tuned!
Thank you to USGS and USFWS for the photos in this event promotion.

Society of American Foresters state meeting - Wisconsin
2019-05-22 08:00 - 17:00 | Holiday Inn Hotel and Convention Center, Stevens Point, WI
Save the date!
“Boards, Cords and Beyond: Managing Your Woods for Maximum Value.”
The Wisconsin Society of American Foresters State Meeting program will include quality speakers covering a variety of topics providing up to date information on markets affecting timber products and alternative forest-based products. More information on registration and agenda items will follow.

Learn and Burn - Controlled Burning for Wildlife Habitat, Sewanee
2019-04-06 08:30 - 16:00 | University of the South Forest, Sewanee, Tennessee
Event Flyer_UOS_LearnBurn
The Forest Stewards Guild, Tennessee Wildlife Federation, and University of the South invite you to learn how to restore native habitat and promote wildlife species through the application of controlled fire in your woodland.
We welcome you….this event is intended for participants with no fire experience to moderate levels of experience.
The event will include presentations and a tour, including an opportunity to observe a demonstration prescribed burn. Detailed agenda coming soon.
Topics include:
Cost-share assistance programs
Other resources available to landowners
Shortleaf pine restoration
Woodland health benefits of prescribed burns
Wildlife habitat enhancement
Human safety during prescribed burns
Tools, techniques, and training
Please save the dates and tell your friends!
Download and share an event flyer, or for more information, contact Nick Biemiller.
Thank you to R.E. Evans and climate.audubon.org for photos used in this event promotion, and for our partners and event sponsors who help make all of this possible.
