Ryan Rastok is the Rural Forester for District 1 in northeast Kansas. In his role as a District Forester, Ryan serves landowners in seven counties - lending technical service and guidance on how to manage their rural forests.

In his district, Ryan works with a variety of landowners that have a variety of goals for their property.

Ryan was drawn to forestry through his education as a forest entomologist and working as an arborist through college. He now combines his passion for entomology and forestry in his everyday work.

Wildlife management and recreation are the most prevalent topics Ryan assists landowners with – often working closely with biologists from the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism. Timber stand improvement is one of the most common practices implemented to improve habitat by improving creating a disturbance in the forest to create a desired affect – generally more space for oak, hickory and other desirable species to thrive.

Through his time with Kansas Forest Service, Ryan has experienced an evolution in satisfaction for his working. He finds the greatest satisfaction by working with dedicated landowners that have a mindset and philosophy for doing conservation work for the love of it.

While the greatest satisfaction for Ryan comes from building relationships with those dedicated landowners, the demands for his time from hundreds of landowners in his district often means that he isn’t able to revisit the individuals implementing conservation practices.

Implementing conservation practices can be complicated by implementing cost-share programs. A heavy paperwork load and a specific set of practices can be difficult to navigate. But Ryan works with landowners to help them understand the process and practices.

Many landowners Ryan works with in his district are retired. He often hears how those landowners lament about days when they had more strength and energy for project they would like to implement on the property. They continue to push on and have a future mindset for the generations to come.

He advises landowners, both old and young, to meditate on the concept of patience and to not take on more than they can.

As a forest entomologist at heart, Ryan would like to remind everyone to not move firewood! It is the simplest way to prevent the spread of emerald ash borer and other invasive and highly damaging pests.

After our conversation, we did a little research and discovered that there is indeed a mascot for not moving firewood. It is a truly terrifying mascot that will make you think twice before you head out with that pickup load of wood: https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/resources/pests-diseases/hungry-pests/meet-vin-vasive

You can even get a do-it-yourself mask to scare the neighborhood children: https://www.aphis.usda.gov/hungrypests/partner-tools/VinVasiveMask.pdf

To contact Ryan, feel free to email him at: [email protected]

Visit https://www.kansasforests.org/kansas_forest_services/district_offices/index.html and use the interactive map to find your District Forester.

This episode was originally published June 29, 2021 and was re-published on a new platform in 2022.