Welcome to the Talking Forests Podcast ~ REBOOTED

This is a new overview of Candra's roots and forest background. Watch out for more episodes!

I’m your host, Candra Burns.  

We explore the critical connections between forestry, sustainability, & digital innovation.  

Whether you're a professional in the industry, a passionate conservationist, or just someone curious about the future of our forests, you're in the right place.  

We talk about all forest types. 

Here on Talking Forests, we’re on a mission to share forest history and to elevate the voices of people managing one of our most vital resources — forests.  

From the latest trends in forest management to breakthroughs in mass timber construction  

We dive deep into the issues that shape our forests future. 

Bridging two worlds that do not always go hand in hand, forestry and digital marketing.  

Join me as I bring you inspiring stories from forestry professionals, cutting-edge innovators, and sustainability leaders who are creating real change.  

Let’s explore how we can make a lasting impact on our forests and work together to keep our forests for generations to come. 

This is a special in-person episode located in Enfield, North Carolina just off the I-95 with Tyrone and Edna Williams of Fourtee Acres. They lease out land for farming, own certified trees, and garden for local markets. They are proud of their legacy and have a great family to lean on at their multiple-use farm. We start our conversation off by talking about landowner assistance and how they are able to operate. They have diversified and become a well-known farmer's market treat from their gardening which Edna spearheads. Edna is also a member of the landowner group called ForestHer NC and we have some great resources available to women landowners that Edna enjoys.  

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fourteeacresfarm and ForestHer NC https://www.facebook.com/foresthernc

Edna Williams: It is her main goal, over the years and at her present professional retirement time, is to provide a supportive environment for those she comes in contact with. Informing the community about nutritional value and practices is important to her as it also enrich her life and others with learning while providing excitement.  As an educator it is most memorable and exciting to see the sparks in the eyes of the community and children as they are exposed to living on a farm and growing diverse vegetables not common to the area. Edna feels blessed and thankful for the opportunity to be in a position where new challenges present themselves every day.  

Happily transplanted from the city limits of Enfield, NC, to the beautiful county side of Enfield, Edna lives with her husband, her better half, Tyrone Williams.  They have three young adult, single, handsome sons, Trevelyn, Tremaine, and Tyron.  All of whom have artistic aspirations and existential careers in music, computer science and computer game design.  Edna is a member of the New Bethel Baptist Church in Enfield, where you will find her on any given day working in one of the family three gardens and on Sunday, singing in the choir. 

Tyrone Williams spent 30 years with the Employment Security Commission, and what is now the North Carolina Department of Commerce in local, regional and state office positions. He ended his career as the Workforce Relations Manager in the Employment Service (ES) Section of the Division of Workforce Solutions in the Raleigh state office. Additionally, in 2011 he was awarded the Governor’s Award for Outstanding State Government Service from Governor Beverly Perdue. 

In December 2013, he was awarded the Order of the Long Leaf Pine by Governor Pat McCrory for his outstanding state government service and longevity of service to his community and the state on various boards and other civic activities, one of the most prestigious conferred by the governor.   

Since retirement, he has spent time reading, traveling, and learning the “real aspects “of the land that he loves to enhance sustainability, create successional and generational wealth for his family legacy and the land that has been in his family for over 100 years!   

He is married, to the former Edna Mills, and they have three grown sons, Trevelyn, Tremaine and Tyron all of whom are a part of Fourtee Acres, LLC a forestry, tenant farming and natural gardening operation. 

Voice By Gordon Collier in Introduction: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jgordoncollier/

Spring by Ikson  www.soundcloud.com/ikson

Music promoted by Audio Library  www.youtu.be/5WPnrvEMIdo

Elaine and I had a conversation about global forestry challenges. I was impressed by her experience in the sector and global knowledge. She launched ForYP the only global forestry young professionals group at the World Forest Congress in Korea this year and I asked her what that is all about and how to get involved. 

Elaine Springgay is FAO’s Agroforestry Officer and has more than 12 years of experience working in international development on integrated natural resources management, community-based forest management and climate-smart agriculture. Prior to joining FAO in 2015, Elaine worked with NGOs or government agencies in Canada, Ghana, the Philippines and Uganda, primarily focused on community-based natural resource management, livelihoods and capacity development initiatives. She has a BSc in both Environmental Geography and History from the University of Toronto, and a Masters in Forestry from the Australian National University. She is also the Founder and Chair of the Global Network for Forestry Young Professionals, ForYP, creating a space for the forestry’s younger experts and future leaders to connect, share experiences and advocate for greater career development opportunities. In her spare time, Elaine loves to travel – she has been to over 50 countries and lived in 12! She is also a foodie, loves to hike and kayaking.

ForYP is a global community of young professionals in the forest sector who network, develop their professional skills, gain confidence, and feel empowered to engage and lead forestry through the 21st century.

See our website: https://www.foryp.org/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/forypnetwork

https://www.facebook.com/ForYPorg

https://www.linkedin.com/company/foryporg/

https://www.instagram.com/foryporg/

https://twitter.com/foryporg

https://youtu.be/lPZ9vtCWxjU

Voice By Gordon Collier in Introduction: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jgordoncollier/

Spring by Ikson  www.soundcloud.com/ikson

Music promoted by Audio Library  www.youtu.be/5WPnrvEMIdo

Alex and I sat down and had a conversation about being a consulting forester in his home state of Mississippi and some of the challenges that communities face. He was one of the foresters that began the Sustainable Forestry and African American Land Retention Program (www.sflrnetwork.org) by developing and piloting it and he has worked with minoritized communities to help them keep their land and legacy. I am proud to work with him on this episode, he is #forestproud. 

Thank you for sponsoring this episode #forestproud https://forestproud.org/  

Alex Harvey owns Legacy Land Management read more on his website: https://www.legacylandmanagement.org/about 

You can reach him on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-harvey-509a2a8/

Alex holds a Bachelor of Science in the Forestry/Wildlife Management option from Mississippi State University’s College of Forest Resources (2005). His leadership development includes the Society of American Forester’s National Leadership Academy (2008). Leadership Development and Organizational Transformation (Dialogos/US Forest Service-2010). Alex is a graduate of the Mississippi Economic Council’s Leadership Mississippi Class of 2017 and is the Chairman of the Board of Community Works and Planning within the Kemetyu Global Economic Development Corporation in Pearland, Texas (currently).

Alex’s successful experiences have included the following:

· Providing and coordinating land/forest management technical services to private forest landowners.

· Planning, developing and implementing outreach programs to educate private landowners and resource professionals.

· Developing solutions through partnerships that address the disparity in economic development in rural communities.

· Working with private landowners to facilitate their access to land assistance programs administered through the U.S. Department of Agriculture by the Natural Resource Conservation Service and the Farm Service Agency.

Voice By Gordon Collier in Introduction: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jgordoncollier/

Spring by Ikson  www.soundcloud.com/ikson

Music promoted by Audio Library  www.youtu.be/5WPnrvEMIdo

Ted Dergousoff and I sat down together in Arizona and had a conversation about his company, NewLife, forest restoration efforts, and the role they play in the 4FRI Initiative with the U.S. Forest Service. "We think that with an effective forest reforestation program working in concert with the US Forest Service and the 4FRI group, we've got an effective plan as to be able to maximize the value to all the stakeholders." The overall goals of the Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI) are to restore the structure, pattern, composition, and health of fire-adapted ponderosa pine ecosystems, reduce fuels and the risk of unnaturally severe wildfires, and provide for wildlife and plant diversity in four national forests - the Kaibab, Coconino, Apache-Sitgreaves, and Tonto. Read more here: https://4fri.org/ 

The NewLife website is here: https://www.nlfpaz.com/

NewLife is the largest vertically integrated forest products business in the Southwest region with next-generation manufacturing facilities currently producing value-added wood products. NewLife works closely with an ecosystem of local industry partners including mechanical thinning crews and smaller forest products manufacturing facilities.

NewLife has developed a manufacturing system to extract value from the low-quality fiber removed from the forest as part of its restoration initiatives. The expansion program will dramatically increase the total industry processing capacity within the Four Forests Restoration Initiative (4FRI) operating area, enabling large-scale forest restoration efforts across Arizona. The company will restore 25,000 acres of forestland per year, dramatically expanding the capacity to proactively address the rising concerns of wildfire.

Through its subsidiary, NewLife is contracted by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) as part of the 4FRI. The landscape scale restoration project was designed to combat the impact of climate change and reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire by restoring the forests to a more natural state while protecting large healthy trees, wildlife and the watershed. Wildfires have devastated the western forests, endangering local towns, causing severe damage and unleashing huge quantities of greenhouse gases.

NewLife has managed Phase 1 of the 4FRI contract, the nation’s largest forest stewardship contract, since 2017 and partners with the USFS on mechanical thinning initiatives throughout Arizona, with plans to expand to neighboring states.

The company will use the proceeds of the bond to complete the build-out of its 425,000-square-foot industrial facility in Bellemont, Ariz., which will include a new high-speed sawmill, planer mill, and dry kilns. NewLife will also double the capacity of its Engineered Wood Products (EWP) plant and significantly expand the capacity of NewLife’s Lumberjack sawmill located near Heber, Arizona. 

Production from the new sawmill will commence in the next six months and scale to full capacity in 2023, in a multi-phase roll-out that will create hundreds of new jobs with opportunities in the sawmill, remanufacturing facilities, forest operations, and hauling operations.

Voice By Gordon Collier in Introduction: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jgordoncollier/

Spring by Ikson  www.soundcloud.com/ikson

Music promoted by Audio Library  www.youtu.be/5WPnrvEMIdo 

Danielle Atkins and I came together for a podcast episode and we talked about the importance of being an educated landowner. She has taken her past career and education to turn Land and ladies, her business, into a full suite of options to teach other people how to manage their forested land. She has provided workshops in person and is moving to a virtual model to be able to reach more people this time. Her husband is also a forester. After he landed the job first in Brunswick, Georgia, Danielle was also on the hunt for a job in the same field which was challenging. She ended up working with Georgia Forestry Commission (the state) for four and a half years before branching off and doing her own thing and creating Land and Ladies. She said " it allows me to take the traditional events and traditional workshops and repurpose them, restructure them into a new approach that isn't done in our industry. Providing the information women need." 

Her episode is sponsored by #forestproud www.forestproud.org We believe: Forests provide powerful climate solutions. Forest management is how we deliver those solutions. Forest markets and products are how we sustain those solutions.

Danielle can be reached at www.landandladies.com or https://www.linkedin.com/in/landandladies/

Land and Ladies owner Danielle Atkins is a double dawg from the University of Georgia Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources with her BSFR in wildlife sciences (2012) and Master of Forest Resources (2013).

Working for the Georgia Forestry Commission, she witnessed the struggles women landowners often had when abruptly inheriting their forestlands. Danielle has worked with the nationally awarded Sustainable Forestry and Land Retention Program, and has been developing women-focused workshops since 2016.

Having served in several leadership roles and being actively involved with the Georgia Forestry Association and Society of American Foresters, Danielle is very in tune and integrated within the forest industry as a whole, understanding the process from seed to stump for landowners. Danielle also practices as a registered forester in Georgia, required to maintain continuing education credits to keep up with state requirements to practice and advise forestry in Georgia.

Danielle is married and has three children: William, Elliott, and Rea, and resides on 43 acres in Brunswick, Georgia.

Fun and weird facts:

Danielle has worked on a wildland firefighting handcrew on western fire assignments; accidentally let loose black bears during a volunteer zookeeping position (no worries, they were tracked back to their enclosures and the sheriff’s office and animal control had a great time with this “incident”); was an avid crossfitter, and plans to return the local box.

Danielle's business sponsors are Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources - International Paper - Orbis Inc - Georgia Forestry Commission 

DS Smith - Interfor - The Westervelt Company and many more bronze level sponsors on www.landandladies.com 

Voice By Gordon Collier in Introduction: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jgordoncollier/

Spring by Ikson  www.soundcloud.com/ikson 

Music promoted by Audio Library  www.youtu.be/5WPnrvEMIdo

Maryland Forests Association "Faces of Forestry" features Senator Bailey this month. He grew up on his grandparent's 120-acre farm on the water in Southern Maryland. 

~From the crops, to horses, to time spent with his grandfather and father hunting and fishing, farm and forest land shaped Bailey's formative years and his conservationist mindset. He eventually purchased the 60-acre farm that adjoins his parents', making the family-farm connection even stronger by building the next generation of stewards and conservationists with his children.~

~His goal of sharing these natural resource wonders with his son and daughter and walking in the woods with them, comes as no surprise when considering how he grew up. The senator's father was an agronomist who went to the University of Maryland, while his mother was a 4H agent in Cecil County. Being connected to the soil beneath our feet and the farms and forest that spring from it is just part of the Bailey DNA.~ 

~"I felt at home" working in forestry, says Bailey, thoroughly enjoying the work of woodland management and seeing all the different parts of Maryland while meeting the hardworking loggers, foresters, and landowners across the varied terrain of the state. Working with property owners to improve their woodlands through a harvest and showing value to proper forest management was one of many rewarding parts of the senator's time in forestry. Helping a farmer with forest land know that they can have a harvest and that letting trees grow is "like having money in the bank" just re-enforced the idea of sustainable, regenerative land management and conservation for the future senator.~

~There were bigger things ahead for Bailey to make an even broader impact on our natural resources and protecting and conserving those resources. Beginning in 1987, the Department of Natural Resources Police became his home for 30 years, where he rose from cadet to supervisor of the Covert Operations Unit in 2007. During his time there, Bailey led game warden training for Maryland, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Virginia wardens. He trained his fellow officers in waterfowl ID and shared his insider tip of carrying the beans of the Kentucky coffeetree for good luck. Wouldn't you know it, he and his father — with coffeetree beans in their pockets — went on a turkey hunt, and both came home with a turkey.~

~Extending beyond the Natural Resources Police, that education and advocacy for protecting our land and its resources continued through his efforts with the International Conservation Chiefs Academy starting in 2017. "We all have a goal of protecting these resources and passing them on to the next generation," says Bailey. He passes those lessons on to natural resource officers from across the globe through the academy, working to educate and direct the funding and required action for depleted or endangered resources in the right way.~

~Bailey's advocacy work involves working with Hunters of MD and Maryland Legislative's Sportsmen Caucus much closer to home. He has been a member of the Southern Maryland Agricultural Development Commission (SMADC) since 2019, advocating for farmers and agriculture. Going from the natural resources realm to the General Assembly, Officer Bailey became Senator Bailey, representing District 29 for Calvert & St. Mary's Counties.~

Voice By Gordon Collier in Introduction: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jgordoncollier/

Spring by Ikson  www.soundcloud.com/ikson 

Music promoted by Audio Library www.youtu.be/5WPnrvEMIdo

October is National Forest Products Month and National Forest Products Week is October 18th - 22nd this year! We are celebrating with Oregon Women in Timber episodes. See them here: www.orwit.org ~ Our second guest is Quinn Allen. ~She said "I am a recent graduate of Southwestern Oregon Community College, with a certificate in Forest Technology. I currently work for the Coquille Watershed Association as a seasonal noxious weeds technician. I have also recently been hired as a timber cruiser for a timber consulting company and have already begun my training to start full-time after my season ends at the watershed, which I am beyond excited for.~

~I was born, raised, and still currently live, in a tiny coastal community on the southern Oregon coast. Growing up I enjoyed being outside as much as possible, whether it be making mud pies or exploring the beaches and mountains that surround me on my horse. Natural resources are what keep my community alive and I grew up fully immersed in it. From friends and family that worked on the ocean, on the land, and in the forests, there was no way I couldn’t have a passion to keep my surroundings beautiful and here long after I am gone.~

~I love Oregon with all of her rugged beauty and I am excited for the beginning of my career and to see where it takes me. Having my son around inspires me to want to make an impact in the Forest sector and have a hand in making it a better place for us all. From recreating in it, working in it, and educating people about it, I am forest proud.~

~Here are some pictures of me doing Quinn things. From pulling ivy, hanging with my emus and turkeys, to going for rides in the mountains with my little family, hiking, volunteering for OWIT at our country fair, and getting to experience logging in the Redwoods. This is the place I call home and I am excited to share it with others!"~

Southwestern Oregon Community College, Forestry Department

Coquille Watershed Association

Oregon Women in Timber

Quinn created: Infographic for Sudden Oak Death

~Voice By Gordon Collier in Introduction: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jgordoncollier/

Spring by Ikson  www.soundcloud.com/ikson 

Music promoted by Audio Library www.youtu.be/5WPnrvEMIdo~

October is National Forest Products Month and National Forest Products Week is October 18th - 22nd this year! We are celebrating with Oregon Women in Timber episodes. See them here: www.orwit.org ~ Our first guest is Corinne and she is an inspiration with an engineering background. We enjoyed learning more about her work and her love of the forestry field. Tune in today to hear more about her story! 

~Corinne Walters is a forester and engineer for a small, family-owned timber company in McMinnville, Oregon. She spends her workdays planning and laying out harvest units, designing new roads and culverts, and maintaining the mapping system. Her free time is spent with her husband Austin, helping him with his growing business and having fun – running, exploring, and spending time with family and friends. Corinne grew up in a family that cherished time spent outdoors and the natural resources that Oregon has to offer, and although she started college with civil engineering in mind, she ended up back at her roots in the College of Forestry at Oregon State University (www.forestry.oregonstate.edu). She joined Oregon Women in Timber when she was going to school and has remained involved due to the important outreach OWIT provides and the fun ladies she gets to spend time with.~

Voice By Gordon Collier in Introduction: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jgordoncollier/

Spring by Ikson  www.soundcloud.com/ikson 

Music promoted by Audio Library www.youtu.be/5WPnrvEMIdo

Molly Darr and I sat down to talk about the Women Owning Woodlands up-and-coming events. 

Janet Watt-Steele, Women Owning Woodlands – South Carolina

Janet is the founder of the South Carolina chapter of the national Women Owning Woodlands network. Janet works as an Area Forestry and Wildlife Extension Agent with the Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service. She also serves as Outreach and Education Chair of the South Carolina Tree Farm Committee, and Secretary/Treasurer for the South Carolina Division of the Society of American Foresters. She is a registered forester in North Carolina and South Carolina, and a South Carolina Prescribed Fire Manager.

https://www.clemson.edu/cafls/faculty_staff/profiles/jmwatt

Molly Darr, Women Owning Woodlands – South Carolina

Molly is the co-founder of the South Carolina chapter of the national Women Owning Woodlands network. Molly works as a post-doctoral research associate in the Forestry and Environmental Conservation Department at Clemson University. She directs and maintains the Southern Forest Health and Invasive Species Program, a regional forest health program which serves as a consistent source of forest health information for natural resource professionals throughout the southeastern U.S. region.

https://www.clemson.edu/cafls/faculty_staff/profiles/mndarr

https://www.facebook.com/southernforesthealth

http://southernforesthealth.net/

https://twitter.com/DarrMolly

Becky Barlow, Alabama ForestHER

Becky Barlow began the Alabama ForestHER program in 2016. She is the Harry Murphy Professor and a forestry extension specialist with Alabama Cooperative Extension System in the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences at Auburn University.  Her current extension efforts focus on educational opportunities to help forest landowners manage for multiple uses including traditional forest management, silvopasture, non-timber forest products, and forest aesthetics.  She is a registered forester in Mississippi and Alabama. She was also recently named the interim Associate Dean for Extension/Assistant Director for Agriculture, Forestry, and Natural Resource Extension Programs.

https://agriculture.auburn.edu/about/directory/faculty/becky-barlow/

https://www.aces.edu/blog/topics/forestry/foresther-workshops/

Aimee Tomcho, ForestHerNC

Aimee Tomcho has worked in the forestry and wildlife sector for the past 25 years, most recently as Audubon’s Conservation Biologist in North Carolina. Her work with Bird-friendly Forestry outreach and application paired with her own experiences led her to be a founding member of ForestHerNC with several other passionate representatives from a diversity of organizations. Together they built a community of more than 1400 people in just a couple years whose mission is to engage and empower women in woodland stewardship. 

https://www.facebook.com/foresthernc

https://www.instagram.com/foresthernc/

https://twitter.com/AudubonNC

Danielle Atkins, Land & Ladies

Danielle Atkins is the founder of Land & Ladies, a forestry company focused on educating and empowering women to tackle their landownership responsibilities and manage their forestlands across the Southeast.

www.landandladies.com 

www.facebook.com/landandladies

https://www.instagram.com/landandladies/

Voice By Gordon Collier in Introduction: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jgordoncollier/

Spring by Ikson  www.soundcloud.com/ikson 

Music promoted by Audio Library www.youtu.be/5WPnrvEMIdo