Webinar series offered on using herbicides to manage unwanted forest vegetation

Out of necessity, forest landowners and resource managers are increasingly turning to herbicides to manage undesirable vegetation. A number of factors are increasing the need for vegetation management including; vegetation interfering with forest regeneration, poorly planned and executed timber harvesting practices, a profusion of invasive plant species, and over-browsing by deer shifting species composition.

The Herbicides and Forest Vegetation Management Webinar Series will teach participants how to use herbicides safely and effectively to manage problem vegetation through a series of three one hour “live” online lectures that can be viewed from the convenience of your home or work computer. Sessions run for three weeks on Wednesdays, January 2, 9, and 16, 2019 from 2:00-3:00 PM. All lectures will be recorded and can be viewed later if “live” sessions are missed. The series is brought to you by Penn State Extension and Arborchem Products.

These live online sessions will examine the use of herbicides to manage forest vegetation and provide information to address some misconceptions concerning herbicide use in forests. Forestry labeled herbicides are effective and environmentally sound; however, their use remains controversial.

Topics covered include:

•  Personal and environmental safety of forestry herbicides

•  Herbicide application equipment and techniques

•  Managing competing and invasive plants in forests and fields

Forestry labeled herbicides are a low risk, economical, and effective means of controlling undesirable vegetation in forests. They can be used for achieving many objectives. Listen in on the live sessions and learn from the experts. Pesticide recertification credits will be available for all sessions.

For more information and to register go to: https://extension.psu.edu/introduction-to-herbicides-and-forest-vegetation-management-webinar-series or call 1-877-345-0691. Registration deadline is Friday, December 28, 2018. For questions contact Dave Jackson at drj11@psu.edu or call 814-574-1132.

The Pennsylvania State University encourages qualified persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact Dave Jackson at 814-355-4897 in advance of your participation or visit.

Warbler Habitat to Hardwood Floors

allaboutbirds.org

I wanted to share a "neat" story about one of our local Pennsylvania landowners, Mark Ott.  Mark is one of our Pennsylvania Forest Stewards and well as a certified Tree Farmer.  He has been involved with many forestry activities over the years, including the Woodland Owners of Centre County and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative of Pennsylvania.  I recently had a chance to visit Mark's property where he was getting ready to have a section harvested to create habitat for golden-winged warblers. Golden-winged populations have been declining in numbers for quite some time now and have one of the smallest populations of any bird NOT on the endangered species list.  For more information on golden-winged warbler click here.

Mark was able to add an interesting twist to his story, he was able to find a wood products company to make flooring from the trees harvested from his property. To create golden-winged warbler habitat a specific kind of forest condition needs to be created, one with a few mature trees in the overstory and young tree regeneration in the understory.  By using the harvested trees to make hardwood flooring Mark was able to take a little piece of his woodland and incorporate it into his home at the same time he was creating habitat for a declining songbird species, great story.

You can view his story on You Tube.

Steller Flooring: Mark Ott's Inspirational Hardwood Flooring

We are thrilled to be a part of Mark's journey to incorporate trees from his property into his own hardwood floor. Mark harvested the trees earlier this year for a Golden-winged Warbler conservation project in central Pennsylvania, and he's going the extra mile for sustainable land management. Check out our hike, Mark's site, and why he decided on Steller Flooring!
Subscribe to keep up with our projects! Our site: https://www.stellerinnovations.com
More information on Golden-winged Warblers: http://www.birds.cornell.edu/page.asp...

The Science Behind the Whitetail Rut

I thought I would share another fitting article about deer.  This one is from our local outdoors writer, Mark Nale.  Very appropriate, I was out archery hunting this morning and experienced the rut in full swing.  Just a couple more days to fill your archery tag in the early season, it ends on Monday, November 12th.

Why knowing the science behind the rut can help bow hunters this season

By Mark Nale

November 03, 2018

The rut, the mating period for white-tailed deer, is upon us. It is the time of year that bow hunters look forward to, beginning in late October and lasting about a month. The rut signals an increased activity period for bucks as they patrol their scrapes with hormonal hankering in their eyes and search for does with which to breed. For hunters, it means that new bucks might move into the area where they are hunting.

Conversely, it is also possible that bucks that have been scouted and/or patterned earlier in the archery season have broadened their territories and are now looking for does elsewhere. At this time of year, most experts agree that if you find the does and hunt there, the bucks will come.

Although some hunters claim otherwise, the rut in Pennsylvania has little, if anything, to do with the weather or the phases of the moon. According to Quality Deer Management Association biologist, Kip Adams, it has everything to do with photoperiod -- the hours of daylight and darkness within a 24-hour period. The hours of daylight have been getting shorter since June 21.

By summer’s end, those shortening hours trigger the death and hardening of a buck’s antlers, velvet shedding, rubbing, scraping, and sparring activity -- and finally the onset of the rut. The rut is timed appropriately so that most fawns are born during a period with good vegetation for cover and ample food for the lactating does. Although some are born earlier and some later, in Pennsylvania, optimum survival benefits occur for fawns born the last week of May and the first week of June. “The bottom line is northern whitetails have a narrow breeding window to optimize doe and fawn health and survival,” Adams said.

In Pennsylvania, the rut peaks in mid-November so that most fawns are born during the days surrounding June 1. Duane Diefenbach, Leader of the Pennsylvania Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit stationed at Penn State, recently explored the effect of the pre-rut and rut on deer movement in the popular Deer-Forest Study Blog.

“’In like a lion and out like a lamb,’ is often used to describe March weather. For deer, October could be described as, ‘in like a lamb, and out like a lion,’ with regard to breeding behavior,” Diefenbach stated. “It starts out slow, but by the end of the month things are roaring. At least for males.

“We know that about 20 percent of the females are bred during the last week of October,” Diefenbach wrote. Half are bred by November 13. According to data obtained by tracking radio-collared bucks, Diefenbach noted that buck movement, as measured by their average hourly speed, stayed about the same from mid-September until the rut began the last week of October. Once the rut started, buck activity greatly increased during the day as well as at night. Although bucks do not move much faster, they were found to move during more hours throughout the day.

The same was true for the sizes of their home ranges. Using fall 2017 data from the adult bucks being tracked (all at least 2.5 years old), Diefenbach estimated their weekly home range size. “Beginning in late September the home ranges of these bucks steadily increased -- from about a square mile to almost four square miles,” Diefenbach reported.

Bucks are more active, but what about the does? Pennsylvania research data show that does decrease their movements slightly in October and then they stay about the same even during the rut. The size of their home range also stays about the same throughout the rut as compared with the October pre-rut period.

“During the rut, bucks are looking for females,” Diefenbach wrote in the blog. “If you are a female, you want to be found. The best strategy is to stay put.”

The statewide archery deer season began on September 29, and ends on November 12. The winter archery season runs from December 26 through January 12, 2019.

Mark Nale lives in the Bald Eagle Valley. He is a member of the Pennsylvania Outdoor Writers Association and can be reached at markangler@aol.com.