2024 Tri-State Forest Stewardship Conference

The 2024 Tri-State Forest Stewardship Conference is scheduled for Saturday, March 2, 2024, and will be held at the Highland Community College Student Conference Center (Building H, Parking Lot A), 2998 W. Pearl City Road, Freeport, IL. Registration will be from 8 to 9 a.m. that morning. The conference begins promptly at 9 a.m.

The White Oak Initiative - Jason Meyer, Executive Director, White Oak Initiative   

The White Oak Initiative is a coalition of conservation nonprofits, universities, landowners, government agencies, and representatives from the forest products industries that rely on white oak. The Initiative serves as an advocate and catalyst for sustainable upland oak forest management, with a focus on white oak regeneration. It accomplishes this through convening, connecting, and collaborating with stakeholders to increase the economic, social, and ecological benefits that white oak provides. 

A: Can an Ugly Harvest Make a Healthy Forest? – Mike Woolery, Greenwood Forestry Consulting  

Can we use the impact of a timber harvest to help us achieve management goals in the woods?  Is it possible to expand upon the disturbance from a normal logging operation into a broader silvicultural treatment?  Can the use of increased disturbance be beneficial for the future of oaks in our region?   

Trees are incredible organisms capable of living for centuries; however, oftentimes, tree health can decline well before a tree has reached its full potential, impacting the overall forest ecosystem. Factors that contribute to tree decline are numerous but can generally be lumped into two categories: abiotic and biotic factors, the latter including plant diseases and insect pests. In this presentation, Chelsea will discuss often overlooked factors that contribute to tree health and longevity, including but not limited to drought, increased frequency of high-intensity weather events, plant diseases, and more. She’ll provide her do’s and don’ts for monitoring tree health and best practices for tree health problem diagnoses. 

Physiology of woody plants is a big topic, and you can find yourself diving into countless rabbit holes. Let’s start with some of the basics. What are the different parts of the tree, and how do they function to support it? How does water move in a tree? How do trees deal with wounds? We’ll discuss some of these common questions to provide you with a good basic understanding of tree physiology, which can also guide management decisions when working with trees. 

In addition to lower biodiversity of our forests, invasive plants can reduce productivity, limit tree regeneration, and increase management costs.  Controlling invasive species is an important practice for forest landowners but can often be overwhelming.  This presentation will discuss what to consider and what questions to answer when deciding priorities for invasive plant management. 

B:  Nuances of Planning Prescribed Fire for Managing Oak Woodlands – Ryan Harr, Iowa Department of Natural Resources 

Modern oak woodlands face many threats from succession, invasive species, overharvest, and low-recruitment of next-generation seedlings. Timber Stand Improvement (TSI) plans and other management recommendations often include prescribed burning, but using fire in woodlands is a more nuanced practice not only in terms of needed environmental conditions, but also seasonal timing and combination with other disturbance practices. Restoration-phase versus maintenance-phase fire should be considered and may require different considerations when planning. Ultimately, a well-managed woodland including periodic prescribed fire is not just a nicety, but perhaps a must for both forest and wildlife health. 

C: Thinking Outside the Fence: Wildlife Habitat Mechanics – Greg Schmitt, Iowa Department of Natural Resources  

Wildlife don't know boundaries. What can landowners do together, as neighbors, to increase habitat for a diversity of wildlife. 

A:  Basic Tree Identification  – Mark Vitosh, Iowa Department of Natural Resources  

Tree identification is key to making the right management decisions and identifying potential tree health issues in your woodland.  Learning to identify trees takes time and patience, and this class will teach you some basic characteristics needed plus the characteristics of some common midwest woodland species to get you off to a good start. 

Understanding taxes is an important part of managing forested property. This talk will explore the different types of taxes that forest landowners need to consider, including harvesting, income and property taxes. Examples will be used to better understand certain tax situations. 

The Midwest is blessed with the largest river floodplain in the North American continent, the Upper Mississippi River. A host of factors currently stress the floodplain forest communities in the Mississippi and its tributaries. Together, we will identify these stressors and discuss forest management strategies to combat them to ensure that our bottomland forests continue to be healthy, and productive, and provide quality habitat conditions for wildlife.

Streambank erosion is a complex, and fascinating, process driven by a range of on-site and watershed factors. We'll explore causes, impacts, and realistic control - the latter being achievable through understanding of watershed drivers, as well as on-site management practices. 

Loss of hardwood savannah and woodland habitat is prevalent due to shifts in land management practices over the past 300 years. To encourage private land owners to engage in active management of their wooded lands, we propose that reintegration of livestock into woodlands can provide an incentivized and productive solution for restoring degraded or abandoned sites. Our research focuses on approaching the development of a grazable space using restoration ecology techniques to cultivate a silvopasture that functionally imitates the open-canopy savannahs and woodlands we’ve lost. 

This presentation will discuss why forest soils are unique, how to obtain soil information, and soil conservation strategies. We will also discuss the role forest soil play in improving environmental quality. 

Using a panel discussion and question-and-answer format, extension professionals from all three states will discuss the trends, challenges, and opportunities in forestry in the tri-state area.  Topics covered will include new initiatives available to forest landowners, changes in forest landowner objectives, generational land transfers, forest health threats, and much more. 

 
Pre-registration is required to attend. Registration can be completed by filling out the form below or calling University of Illinois Extension at (815) 235-4125. Registration fee is $40 on or before Feb. 23. After that, the fee increases to $50.