Web tools for woodlot owners

Pete Smallidge of Cornell Cooperative Extension brought a couple of really nice web sites to my attention recently.  They may be useful and informative to a number of my readers.
Forest and Range .Org
This site has on-line learning modules for woodland owners and interactive resources for educators.  The modules span a variety of topics including forestry, wildlife, and rangeland.  The forestry modules are excellent and include timber sales and contracts, certification, inventorying your woods, estate planning, woody plant identification and more.  Most of the modules have activities and video clips that will assist the user in learning the content of the module. The site is managed by the University of TN with individual modules created by specialists from throughout the land grant university system.

Forest A Syst
The goal of this site is to encourage landowners to manage their land for recreational activities, wildife habitat, and timber production while protecting the quality of water resources.  The site provides general information on timber and wildlife management, recreation, forest health, and management planning.  The site will also assyst landowners from throughout the US collect baseline information about the location of their property, soils information, and connect them with agency / extension specialists in their region. It is possible to view and print soils maps and aerial photos.  The site was developed by the University of Georgia.

Osage-orange for Bioenergy?

Penn State Investigating This Promising Option

Is Osage-orange (Maclura pomifera) an alternative woody crop to produce biofuel? That is what Penn State Extension Educators Dave Jackson and Craig Altemose are trying to determine. Osage-orange, a small tree native to Oklahoma and east Texas, has been widely planted and is now naturalized from the Mid-West to New England and south to Georgia. It was used widely as a field hedge, before barbed wire was available, and then as a windbreak and component of shelterbelts.

There are a number of characteristics that make this tree a potential candidate for fuel production, the first being the density of its wood. Valued for making bows, the wood is noted for its hardness, flexibility, durability, and resistance to rot. The wood of Osage-orange is twice as strong and harder than hickory. The heartwood is the most decay resistant wood of all North American hardwoods and has more BTU's than any other dried wood.

Another characteristic that makes this tree particularly useful for biofuels production is the fact that it only has to be planted once. Following harvest this tree will sprout prolifically from the stump, a process called coppicing. In a coppiced wood trees are repeatedly cut down, new shoots emerge, and after a number of years the coppiced trees are ready to be harvested, and the cycle begins again.

Finally, researchers looked at the seed of Osage-orange and found it to be similar in size to that of a grain of wheat. This size allowed it to be easily planted from seed at high populations using a conventional no-till agricultural drill. The idea being that agricultural producers would have this type of equipment on hand and could easily plant marginal or highly erodible lands to a woody biofuels crop that could potentially provide periodic income.

In the spring of 2010, an open field, high density, planting using a conventional agronomic no till drill was established at the Rock Springs Ag Progress Days research farm. The area had been site prepared using multiple herbicide treatments the previous summer. Three planting rates were established on a one acre site. By mid-May germination was noted and by late June looked very good. It appeared the no-till planter was successful at planting the seed. Now researchers are waiting to see how the trees handle the weed competition which has become quite severe even with the excellent site preparation work.

No further work is planned for the remainder of the growing season in 2010. A dormant season weed control treatment is planned for spring 2011. At that time seedling growth and survival will be assessed in late winter 2011. Stay tuned, there will be more to come as researchers harvest and evaluate this interesting energy crop possibility.

Dave Jackson, Penn State Cooperative Extension-Centre County

New USDA Report on the Role of Ag in Reducing GHG Emissions

A new report entitled The Role of Agriculture in Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions, EB-15, has recently been released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.  The report was prepared by by John Horowitz and Jessica Gottlieb, September 2010.  The document also includes forestry activities.

Agriculture could play a prominent role in U.S. efforts to address climate change if farms and ranches undertake activities that reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions or take greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. These activities may include shifting to conservation tillage, reducing the amount of nitrogen fertilizer applied to crops, changing livestock and manure management practices, and planting trees or grass. The Federal Government is considering offering carbon offsets and incentive payments to encourage rural landowners to pursue these climate-friendly activities as part of a broader effort to combat climate change. The extent to which farmers adopt such activities would depend on their costs, potential revenues, and other economic incentives created by climate policy. Existing Federal conservation programs provide preliminary estimates of the costs of agricultural carbon sequestration.

Naturalist Marcia Bonta to Speak in State College

Marcia Bonta, author of nine books, over 300 magazine articles, and writer of the “Naturalist’s Eye” column for the Pennsylvania Game News,  will be presenting a program in State College at the Foxdale Village Auditorium on Wednesday, October 6th beginning at 7:00 PM.  Marcia will be joined by her son Dave Bonta as they share their photographs, beliefs and knowledge of the natural world around them.  The program is free and open to the public.

The Bonta’s live on a 648 acre mountaintop property outside of Tyrone, Pennsylvania, called Plummers Hollow, where she gets most of the inspiration for her writing.  Their over-all goal for the property is to preserve as many elements of biodiversity as possible, and to recover currently extirpated species.  They feel the proper environmental stewardship of two keystone species: white-tailed deer and human beings is critical for achieving property ownership objectives.

Marcia began her writing career based on her daily explorations of the natural world. She had written weekly columns for local newspapers for ten years before changing her career emphasis to books, magazine articles, lecturing and slide shows on nature and natural history topics. Her work has been reproduced in a number of anthologies, and she has received several awards for her writing. She treasures most the letters, calls and conversations with people who have been moved by her writing or slide shows.  You can follow Marcia's writings on her web log site.

PA DEP Revises E&S Plans for Timber Harvesting Operations

Timber harvesters and practitioners will see requirements for additional information in timber harvesting Erosion & Sedimentation plans as early as November of this year. The changes are part of a significant revision to Pennsylvania’s Chapter 102 Erosion and Sediment Control and Stormwater Management regulations, which were recently finalized and take effect on November 9, 2010.

Additions to E&S plans includes additional information on the location of surface waters, the location of riparian forest buffers, geologic features and certain thermal information. It is the intent of DEP that this information and the E&S plans for timber harvests can still be completed by trained loggers and practitioners. The PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has invited PA Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) and the Pennsylvania Forest Products Association (PFPA) to participate in the necessary revision of the Timber Harvesters Action Packet. This new information and any associated revisions to Best Management Practices (BMPs) will be incorporated into PA SFI training courses.

To read the full story go to the SFI of PA Summer 2010 newsletter.

Click here for the PA DEP booklet entitled Timber Harvest OperationsField Guide for Waterways, Wetlands, and Erosion Control.

American Chestnut Web Seminar

The PA Forest Web Seminar Center sponsored by Penn State Cooperative Extension and the School of Forest Resources is back from summer break!

The PA Forests Web Seminar Center ( http://rnrext.cas.psu.edu/PAForestWeb/) is pleased to announce the September on-line program. Sara Fitzsimmons, Northern Appalachian Region Science Coordinator, The American Chestnut Foundation, will be presenting on the American Chestnut, Tuesday, September 14th at noon and again at 7 p.m. Each seminar lasts approximately one hour.

Efforts to breed blight-resistance into American chestnut appear to be successful and attempts to study reintroduction to its original range have now begun. From the prior dominance of American chestnut to current efforts to restore the species, the seminar will follow Castanea dentata over its history in North America. The seminar will also cover what it will take to re-introduce a new variety of American chestnut into the Appalachian forests and beyond. Through this presentation, learn about the basic requirements for planting and maintenance that should ensure a healthy grove of American chestnuts in the near future.

Live seminars are scheduled for the second Tuesday of every month at noon and 7 p.m. Each session is recorded and loaded onto the "Previous Seminars" page along with a copy of the presentation and any handout materials. So, if you are unable to participate in the "live" session, a recording of it will be available for you to view at your convenience. Of course, none of the interactive elements will be available when watching the recording.

To participate in the live seminars you must register and have a "Friend of Penn State" user ID. The "Register Now" page on the website will walk you through this process. Participation in the web seminar does not require any special software. To view live and previously recorded seminars all you need is a high-speed Internet connection and sound.

Upcoming PA Forests Web Seminars:

October 12
Acquiring Property Maps, Boundaries and Attributes for Properties Using GIS and GPS, Brent Harding, Senior Forester, Penn State School of Forest Resources, Noon and 7 p.m.

November 9
Forest Access Road BMPs for Forest Landowners, Tony Quadro, Assistant Manager, Technical Programs Director, and Forester, Westmoreland Conservation District, Noon and 7 p.m.

December 14
Ruffed Grouse and Woodcock, Mark Banker, Senior Biologist, The Ruffed Grouse Society, Noon and 7 p.m.