 |
Technical Field WorkshopsSunday, October 29th – Six 1-day Field Tours – Choose One. Approximate time: 7 am – 7 pm T5 – History of Forests and Fire in Southwestern PennsylvaniaWorking Group sponsors - B1 NIPF, D4 Fire Fee - $70
The tour will focus on the issues of successful NIPF management by visiting two NIPF Tree Farms - the Arlyn Perkey Tree Farm and the Lloyd Casey Tree Farm. Both tree farms are owned and managed by retired foresters who formerly worked for the Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry. The tree farm visits will include demonstrations of crop tree management, hardwood and white pine plantation establishment and management, invasive species control work, incorporating gas and oil well extraction rights with land management, reclamation of gas well sites, low and high cost access roads, pasture conversion, and the use of easements and trusts for curtailing development. In between the two tree farms, the tour will visit Wilson Forest Products, a specialty mill located in a former Weyerhauser veneer plant that makes white oak barrel parts for wine and whiskey barrels and ships worldwide. Small quantities of veneer are produced as well.
The Army is concerned with stewardship and actively engaged in managing forest ecosystems and all natural and cultural resources. We don't just drive tanks everywhere and destroy the environment. People will leave the RTLS knowing that we do a lot of military training and that we have exceptional surface water quality, we have an unparalleled diversity of flora and fauna, we actively manage our forests to support training and to perpetuate the forest ecosystem, and that we do it with minimum staffing.
This DOD Foresters field tour has been opened up to any SAF convention attendees. Participate in this tour and get these questions answered: Sound like traditional forestry? No! This is Army Forestry. Come to the Ravenna Training and Logistics Site and observe Army forestry and view how military natural resource professionals incorporate forest management with the military mission.
Copyright © 2009 - Society of American Foresters |
The tour will visit the Meadowcroft Museum of Rural Life, a museum of the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania that preserves the history of life on the land in Western Pennsylvania over the past 16,000 years. Located in a sleepy hollow in the Western Pennsylvania countryside, Meadowcroft is home to a charming 19th century village and internationally-known archaeological dig at its Rockshelter site. The Meadowcroft Rockshelter is the oldest Native American archeological site in North America (16,000+ years). Discover how the prehistoric people of the Western Pennsylvania region lived and learn about the history of Native American fire use. The museum has a stewardship plan to manage its landscape for the 19th century rural life theme.
T6 – Western Maryland Forest Centennial
The tour will highlight the 100th anniversary of western Maryland state forests that is being celebrated in 2006. The first stop is Swallow Falls State Park, formerly the Swallow Falls State Forest Reserve, where woods wiled and working provide watershed protection, recreation, and old growth protection. A 1930’s forest ranger will be the tour host and give a history of the MD state forests. Old growth hemlock with serious hemlock woolly adelgid infestation will be visited and Maryland’s recently completely Old Growth survey and eastern old growth management implications. The next stop will visit Garrett State Forest, Kindness Demonstration Area, and the site of the first land grant state forest established in MD in 1906. The demonstration area is an educational opportunity for the public to learn about forest management practices. The MD-DE Division SAF will conduct a brief rededication ceremony to commemorate the MD Centennial celebration and all participates will receive a special memento created for the occasion. The third stop will be the Oakland, MD historic train station where lunch will occur. Railroad barons donated much of the land for the first state forests. After lunch, the group will visit the Garrett Co. Museum which is housing a special forestry exhibit on logging heritage and history and hear about the Appalachian Forest Heritage Area. The final stop will be a state-of-the-art Sawmill where value added forest product processing, going from stump to finished product occurs in a very high-speed operation. The Centennial mementos are from lumber cut in this mill from the Kindness Demo Area. The tour will depart from and return to Pittsburgh.
The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (WPC) manages Fallingwater, a national historical landmark designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and the Bear Run Reserve, the 5,000 acres of surrounding forestlands. WPC’s mission is to conserve natural resources that represent the special places in Pennsylvania, and increasingly it is striving to communicate the importance of managing working forests to promote economic development and community stability. The Bear Run Reserve offers interesting challenges to restore forest health, to address invasive plant issues, and to interpret management actions to the nearly 150,000 visitors who visit the site annually. This technical tour will introduce participants to the forest management challenges in a unique cultural setting. It will include a walking tour demonstrating the challenges of working on the Reserve forest, an introduction to the forest around Fallingwater, a tour of the house, and visit Ohiopyle, a rural community that derives opportunities from recreation and working forests.
The tour will focus on how various forest landowners use multiple-use management to meet a variety of objectives and how wild and working woods are used to fulfill those objectives. The first ownership will be the Forbes State Forest, Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of Forestry. The PA State Forests were green certified and are in their second certification period. Multiple use forest management as applied by the state will be presented. Other potential ownerships include Laurel Caverns, a commercial recreation enterprise located near the Forbes State Forest and Seven Springs Ski Resort, a large four-season recreation complex with a forest management plan and working forests located right in the complex. Linn Run State Park will finish out the tour with visits to an old growth remnant and railroad logging history of the area.