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The New Hampshire Sustainable Forestry Initiative Implementation Committee supports summer chainsaw training/landowner tractor workshops and Forests of NH Teacher Tour

NHTOA, UNH Cooperative Extension, Women Owning Woodlands/Forest Stewards Guild, and the Society for the Protection of NH Forests partnered to provide a two-day workshop; “Women’s Chainsaw Safety and Maintenance.” Held on June 5 & 6, 2021, the workshop was well received by the 15 participants despite 93-degree heat. Great spirit, enthusiasm, humor, and the utmost attention to safety from instructors made this a fun, educational, and empowering workshop for all!

Instructors Tish Carr, Karin Bothwell, and Wendy Weisiger with participants showing off tree cookies and certificates at the completion of workshop.

Cooler temperatures were welcomed by participants in “Ladies Logging with Farm Tractors” on June 19, 2021, in Bridgewater, NH. Last year’s Tree Farmer of the Year award winner, Jon Martin, was joined by instructors Wendy Weisiger, Managing Forester, Society for the Protection of NH Forests, and Steve Snow, Snow Conservation Group. Rebecca DiGirolomo, UNH Cooperative Extension, did a fantastic job pulling everything together, from creating pre- and post-class surveys, helping to arrange planning meetings, to logistics of the day. Thank you to Rebecca and to Wendy Scribner, UNH Cooperative Extension, for her input and advice for this workshop and for her observations and notes during the Women’s Chainsaw Safety Class.

July brings the long-awaited and highly anticipated multi-day professional development program for teachers. The “Forests of NH Teacher Tour” has a full roster of registrants eager to tour northern New Hampshire forestry venues, which include an Eastern White Pine sawmill (Madison Lumber, hosted by Ed Witt), the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Bartlett Experimental Forest (hosted by wildlife biologist Mariko Yamasaki and silviculturalist Bill Leak), a pulp wood processing facility (RJ Chipping, hosted by Steve Pinkham), a forester from Nine Dragons Paper, a working community forest (Randolph Community Forest, hosted by John Scarinza, President), and an active timber harvest on a property professionally managed by Wagner Forest Management. This tour will be led by Gordon Gamble and Scott Rineer, foresters with Wagner Forest Management.

This program is funded by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) Community Grant Program and by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative Implementation Committee in New Hampshire (SIC). NH educators and Project Learning Tree (PLT) facilitators Susan Cox, USDA Forest Service, Anjali Longan, educator, and Mary Ann McGarry, Plymouth State University, will join us to present PLT curriculum, lessons, and activities. Leo Maslan, SIC chairman and forester with Finch Paper, will welcome the group and share information about SFI. Other speakers include SIC committee member Charles Levesque, president and forester with INRS, LLC, who will provide a special presentation on Forest Carbon. We also want to acknowledge the contributions from several other forestry professionals, including Wendy Weisiger, managing forester for the Society for the Protection of N.H.; forests and chairwoman of New Hampshire PLT, Michael Simmons, a forestry professor with the UNH Thompson School of Applied Sciences; and Craig Birch, a forester and co-owner, Proctor Hill Forestry and Logging.

State-owned land certification and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative Lancaster, N.H.

State-owned land certification and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative
Lancaster, N.H.
September 22, 2016

The New Hampshire SFI Implementation Committee (NHSIC) invites you to a field day about public land certification on Sept. 22 in Lancaster, N.H. Field day participants will learn about the certification of public lands and how the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) standard applies to recreation, fisheries, and forest management on public and private land.

The day starts at 8:30 a.m. with registration at the N.H. Division of Forest and Land’s North Country Resource Center located at 629B Main Street in Lancaster, N.H.  The program begins at 9 a.m. with news and updates from SFI Inc. and news and updates from the NHSIC provided by Kevin McCarthy, chairman. Following the updates, participants will learn about the recreation, forestry, and fisheries management work the New Hampshire Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, and New Hampshire Fish and Game Department are doing on the Nash Stream Forest. At 39,619 acres, this multiple use forest is the largest single tract of land the state of New Hampshire owns.

Starting with lunch, the rest of the day will be a series field tours on Nash Stream Forest to observe recent recreation, fisheries, and forestry management work. Charlie Levesque, partner at Innovative Natural Resources Solutions, LLC will provide “an auditor’s perspective” at the field visits. He will talk about how the SFI standard would apply to resource management occurring.

8:30 a.m. Registration

9 a.m. Introductions – NH SFI State Implementation Committee coordinator, Jasen Stock

9:05 – 10:45 a.m. Indoor updates and presentations

  • SFI Inc. update
  • NH SFI Implementation Committee update from the NHSIC chairman, Kevin McCarthy
  • NH Division of Forest and Lands overview from Brad Simpkins, NH state forester
  • Nash Stream management overview and background from Maggie Machinist, forester, NH Division of Forest and Lands
  • Trout restoration project overview from John Magee, biologist, NH Fish and Game

10:45 – 11:30 p.m. travel to first field tour and lunch location

11:30 – 12:30 p.m. Lunch and field tour (recreation) led by Chris Gamache from NH Division of Parks and Recreation. This tour will discuss the recreational goals for the Nash Stream Forest and the challenges of balancing motorized and non-motorized recreational interests.

12:30 – 4 p.m. Multiple field tours of a trout restoration project on Nash Stream, and two silvicultural projects. The trout restoration tour will be led by John Magee and the two silviculture tours will be led by Maggie Machinist and Will Guinn.

**The morning presentation and afternoon tours have been assigned 4.5 category 1-CFE credits by the Society of American Foresters, and 8.0 continuing education credits for the New Hampshire Professional Loggers Program logger certification program.

Please RSVP to the NHTOA office at 603-224-9699 or email at info@nhtoa.org

Questions or concerns about forest practices in New Hampshire or Maine?
Call the SFI Hotline: 888-SFI-GOAL
(888-734-4625)

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NHTOA certified logger list.

Find a Certified Product 
SFI certified products database