SilviCast

Necessity is the mother of invention, even in silviculture.  Foresters in the eastern US often struggle with regenerating trees due to severe deer browse.  Yet mitigating solutions, like fencing and tree shelters, are costly and problematic.  What if you could use a resource that is abundant, on-site, and cheap to keep the deer out?  On this episode of SilviCast we explore the innovative strategy of "slash walls," or the use of logging residues to form deer barriers around regenerating stands.  Join us as we explore the ins and outs of slash walls with Peter Smallidge - New York State Extension Forester, Brett Chedzoy - Regional Extension Forester at Cornell, and Jason Hennes – Forest Ranger with the Wisconsin DNR. 

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Fine hardwood veneer logs represent the pinnacle of log quality and timber value, with prices up to 10 times the price of grade 1 sawlogs.  However, trees of this quality can be rare as hens' teeth!  Are there practices foresters can use to improve the odds of producing veneer quality logs?  Are there mistakes we make while managing stands with veneer potential?  Join us on this episode of SilviCast as we explore the silviculture of managing veneer with Dr. Jan Wiedenbeck, recently retired Research Project Leader and Forest Products Technologist with the US Forest Service's Northern Research Station.

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Savannas, woodlands, and other open forest systems once occupied vast areas of North America where fire disturbance, at least in part, shaped their structure and composition. Many of those acres have been lost since the advent of fire exclusion and other land use changes.  Resource managers and landowners are trying to restore some of these systems for their ecological and economic value.  Foresters have a lot to offer.  But these are not your average silviculture prescriptions!  In this episode of SilviCast we explore the challenges of restoring and managing savanna and woodland systems with John Kabrick, Ph.D., Research Forester with the USFS Northern Research Station.

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A conversation with Dr. Susan Stout, Emeritus Research Forester and Project Leader at the USFS Northern Research Station, who has conducted applied silvicultural research in forests of the eastern United States for over 30 years.  One constant has run through Dr. Stout's research; collaboration between field managers and scientists holds the key to unlocking challenging problems and finding practical solutions.  Join us in this episode of SilviCast as we explore with Dr. Stout the things she has learned on topics ranging from stocking charts to deer.

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Silviculture is important work!  Nobody has all the answers.  So that is why each month on SilviCast we try to bring you a diverse set of guests, from the perspective of researchers and field foresters.  Besides our guests, however, we receive great insights from you, the listeners.  Join us on this Season 2 finale as we find out what's on your mind and discuss some of the most intriguing questions we have received in the Dropbox.

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When it comes to climate change, we all have questions.  As foresters some of our most fundamental climate change questions deal with how trees will respond.  What species are projected to do well or not so well?  What species will find new habitat where I work?  How do I make informed management decisions in the face of change?  On this episode of SilviCast, we dig into one tool that helps with these and other questions, The Climate Change Tree Atlas.   Our guests this episode, Louis Iverson, USDA-FS Northern Research Station (retired), and Stephen Handler, USDA-FS Northern Research Station, Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science (NIACS), walk through The Climate Change Tree Atlas and discuss how we can use it to make better management decisions.

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For many of us, one of our first experiences handling a paint gun is while learning to tend a pine plantation.  It all seems very straight forward… thin from below, a little thin from above, hit the target BA and move on.  But sometimes it helps to step back and think about the forest products we are attempting to produce.  And one of the most valuable products in a pine plantation can be a utility pole.  What does it take to grow and tend utility poles in our stands?  In this episode of SilviCast, we dive into the silviculture around utility pole management with Jim Bauer, a Resource Manager with Stella-Jones.

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What is a forester to do when your soils are almost always dry and sandy and low in nutrients?  Skip the black walnut for sure and embrace the sand… or perhaps the pine barrens!  Pine barrens were once an expansive natural community is Wisconsin's northwest, northeast and central sands, but today occupy a limited area due to past management and changes in fire disturbance.  These savanna communities were characterized by a variable density of jack pine and oak, with a ground layer of  prairie grasses, forbs, and heath species.  To restore and maintain these disturbance-driven communities, foresters and ecologists are joining forces to find creative silvicultural solutions. Join us on this episode of SilviCast while we talk to Jennifer Boice, Forester for the Black River State Forest, and Armund Bartz, WDNR Regional Ecologist, about the challenges and fun of managing jack pine barrens.

Guests: Armund Bartz and Jennifer Boice

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Forest practitioners and researchers recently “gathered” virtually for the Northern Hardwood Conference 2021 (NHC 2021), the first range-wide conference dedicated to northern hardwood forests in over 30 years.  In this special episode of SilviCast we hear from conference attendees themselves in a conference roundtable as they discuss challenges facing the sustainable management of northern hardwood forests.  The challenges and potential solutions they offer have a lot to say about silviculture in every forest type!  

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Lowland forests have always been a bit of a mystery to us foresters and silviculturists, at least here in the Lake States.  Disturbance regimes are not well understood, and effective silvicultural systems not well developed.  The swamps and floodplains can also be difficult places to actively manage when access is limited, and timber values are low.  But increasing research and management attention is being paid to these important forests as invasive species, such as Emerald Ash Borer, and the impacts of climate change threaten ecosystem function and productivity.  Today on SilviCast we talk with Marcella Windmuller-Campione, Assistant Professor of Silviculture at the University of Minnesota about her research in the swamps and floodplains of Minnesota and Wisconsin.  Can we find silviculture’s secret sauce to help us restore these complicated forest systems.

For more information and resources visit https://www.uwsp.edu/cnr-ap/WFC/Pages/WFC/Research-and-Development/SilviculturesSecretSauce.aspx. 

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