Audubon’s Healthy Forests Guide is Now Available!

Audubon Mid-Atlantic's newest resource for Pennsylvania is here, along with two updated companion publications. Designed for industry professionals, including consulting and public-lands foresters, Healthy Forests: A Bird-based Silvicultural Guide for Forestry Professionals, is chock full of silviculture guidance, management scenarios, and ideas for successful bird-friendly forestry.  

The guide weaves together effective, traditional forest management techniques with bird-friendly practices that support multiple objectives, including wildlife habitat enhancement/creation, timber production, forest regeneration, and recreation. Understanding that every forest property, client, and situation is unique, the guide includes sections like 'Selling Silviculture' with tips for engaging landowners. The ‘Silvicultural Options and Scenarios’ section describes effective management solutions for common forest conditions and issues found across the Mid-Atlantic region.

Available alongside the Healthy Forests Guide are two companion pieces: the Forest Birds Pocket Guide and the Healthy Forests Quick Start Guide.   

The Forest Birds Pocket Guide includes detailed descriptions of the habitat and forest conditions needed by 18 priority bird species in Pennsylvania. It’s an easy-to-use companion to the Healthy Forests Guide with supplemental material to help inform management decisions for priority birds.  

The Healthy Forests Quick Start Guide is the perfect tool for those of you who are already familiar with incorporating bird-friendly practices into forest management prescriptions. It’s concise, relevant, and easy to use, with everything you need on just a single page.     

Audubon’s Healthy Forests Guide benefitted from critical funding and partnerships with Natural Resources Conservation Service, Hamer Foundation, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Ruffed Grouse Society, PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Pennsylvania Game Commission, The Nature Conservancy, Penn State Extension, American Forest Foundation, U.S. Forest Service, and the Appalachian Mountains Joint Venture. Each was instrumental in helping to develop this guide so that it would be useful and relevant to foresters across the commonwealth.  

Learn more and download the guides here.

Bees Are Essential

The USDA Forest Service and the Pollinator Partnership have teamed up to produce an excellent 40-page full color publication entitled Bee Basics: An Introduction to Our Native Bees. It is authored by Beatriz Moisset, Ph.D. and Stephen Buchmann, Ph.D. with Illustrations by Steve Buchanan. This publication shares a close up look at this treasure of native bees. They provide an invaluable ecosystem service, pollination, to 80 percent of flowering plants. Bees pollinate approximately 75 percent of the fruits, nuts, and vegetables grown in this country.

Native bees are a hidden treasure, they can be found anywhere in North America, where flowers bloom. Native pollinators have been pollinating the continent’s flowering plants since long before the arrival of honey bees. Even in today’s altered landscapes, native pollinators continue to do the yeomen’s share of pollination, especially when it comes to native plants. The world as we know it would not exist if there were no bees to pollinate the earth’s 250,000 flowering plants.

Some native bees and other pollinators are experiencing population declines and range reductions. Many of the same factors affecting honey bee health are also affecting native bee species health as well. A number of government agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and private individuals are creating pollinator gardens throughout the country that will benefit native bees and other pollinators. Helping native bees is essential to our continued survival, health, and well-being. These animals benefit us all because of the invaluable ecosystem services they provide to the environment and to our farms, forests, and gardens.

Get involved, observe bees with close focusing binoculars; plant a small pollinator garden; or help a neighbor, student, or family member drill small holes in scrap lumber to create a bee house. Do your share to make sure this precious legacy continues. Click here to read the full publication. 

Timber sales publication will serve as a guide for landowners

Timber harvesting is an important management tool. When conducted with care and planning, it allows owners to manage forests to meet multiple objectives. Landowners choose to conduct timber sales for a variety of reasons. The decision to harvest may be recommended in a management plan or it may be unexpected.

Regardless of the reason, a successful timber harvest that meets landowner goals begins with a forest resource professional developing a plan. Timber harvesting is a time when landowners can improve their woods for what they value, such as enhancing wildlife habitat, or cause real damage from which the woods might not recover for generations.

A new publication from Penn State Extension titled, “Timber Sales: A Guide to Selling Timber,” is available to help landowners understand how timber sales are conducted. This 12-page publication outlines a seven-step process. “It will assist forest landowners in understanding how a timber sale is conducted and how to retain the services of a forestry professional,” said Dave Jackson, forestry educator and publication co-author. “It is not a definitive how-to guide as much of the process will depend on each specific situation.”

Timber harvesting is not a process to be entered into lightly. Harvests involve complex decisions across many issues, including ecology, forest operations, business, law, taxes, marketing and negotiation. Harvests have both short- and long-term consequences for the landowner and the forest. This publication is a first step in helping landowners understand some of these consequences and how they can ensure a successful outcome.

Selling timber is complicated and requires substantial investments in time and a thorough understanding of the industry. Timber sales have the potential to impact site productivity, wildlife habitat, water quality, aesthetics, income, taxes, estate planning — the list goes on. Those lacking the proper level of experience should use this publication as a reference to understand how foresters can help and what they strive to accomplish on the landowner’s behalf.

A satisfactory harvest experience is no accident; it is the result of thoughtful planning and hard work. Planning is critical to ensuring a positive outcome, one that meets landowner objectives and sustainability guidelines. To ensure a successful timber sale, landowners must have a clear understanding of the process, this new Extension publication can help.

The publication, “Timber Sales: A Guide to Selling Timber,” is available as a free downloadable PDF; printed copies are available for purchase. To view the full publication, visit https://extension.psu.edu/timber-sales-a-guide-to-selling-timber or call 877-345-0691.

Learning Among Forest Landowners and Professionals

Join us for this interactive webinar, presented in partnership with Penn State Extension, PA DCNR William Penn State Forest District, and the Brandywine Conservancy. It will explore some of the common perceptions (both true and false) held by Pennsylvania's private forest (woodland) landowners. Statements commonly made by landowners about their woods, wildlife, forest pests, timber management, and the intersection between forest management and conservation easement protections will be used to facilitate sharing and learning. Using a collaborative learning approach, the presenters will ask participants what they think about several statements presented to them. Participants will be encouraged to write in their responses and share personal thoughts and experiences during the webinar. The presenters will then respond and share their own comments and knowledge. Questions and further discussion will be encouraged after each statement is covered.  

Sanford Smith and David Jackson of Penn State Extension will lead the discussion with input from Steve Wacker, PA DCNR William Penn State Forest District Manager, and Stephanie Armpriester and Kristen Frentzel of the Brandywine Conservancy.

The webinar will be presented on Thursday, May 13th from 7:00 - 8:30 PM (EDT) online via Zoom. Pre-registration is required.  You can register here.