Category: Events & Activities

2022 NHSFI, NH Project Learning Tree, AV Roy Foundation Forests of N.H. Teacher Tour.

In the steamy heat of the third week of July, fourteen educators from northern New England and Massachusetts got an introduction to the world of forest-products. They visited two tree farms, an active timber harvest, a sawmill, and a modern wood-heating system. These teachers went to school too: at the UNH educational sawmill and the USDA Forest Service facility. This was an immersive experience to which many experts contributed.

Presentations on the first afternoon varied from poetry and “forest bathing” with Prof. Mary Ann McGarry of Plymouth State University to an analysis of the carbon cycle with Matt Kelly of UNH Cooperative Extension.

On the second day, these 14 teachers went to Durham to hear about invasive species, vernal pools, and the role of forests in global carbon management from UNH staff Mike Simmons and Steve Eisenhaure. Their visit to the pollinator gardens and the GLOBE soil tent was stewarded by USDA staff Angie Hammond and Haley Wiklein. At Brentwood they were hosted by Jude Gates, the director of the Rockingham County wood-heat facility. Finally, owner Jerry Langdon showed them around his Twin Pines Tree Farm in Epping with Greg Jordan of UNH Cooperative Extension.

The third day was just as rigorous and diverse. They began at HHP sawmill in Henniker with HHP staff George Davenport and Christine Pefine, and then got outside again for another tree farm tour, this time with Tom and Ginny Chrisenton of High Ridge Tree Farm in Lyndeborough. They stayed in the fresh (but warm) air to walk through the timber harvest in Hollis at Beaver Brook with natural resources manager Brandon Rackcliff and logger Dick Hazen.

It was a lot to take in and the teachers spent their final morning translating what they had learned into curriculum plans using Project Learning Tree and assembling final presentations.

The teachers’ home for three nights was the Bear Hill cabins at Beaver Brook State Park, where they enjoyed several meals and even a night of live music from the Green Heron Band.

NHTOA received considerable help in the planning, funding, and execution of this event from Sustainable Forestry Initiative’s (SFI) NH Committee; A.V. Roy Foundation; UNH Thompson School; UNH Cooperative Extension; an SFI Education grant; Project Learning Tree; N.H. Division of Forest and Lands; and the U.S. Forest Service.

Direct questions to:

New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association (NHTOA)

54 Portsmouth Street

Concord, NH 03301

(603) 224-9699

info@nhtoa.org

2021 SFI-NH Project Learning Tree-NHTOA “Forests of NH Teacher Tour.”

This week, teachers from several New Hampshire schools are enjoying time in the woods and at sawmills as they learn about the vital roles forest ecology and the forest products industry play in the environment and economy of the Granite State. The tour, co-sponsored by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), NH Project Learning Tree, the U.S. Forest Service, and the New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association, builds on Project Learning Tree’s nationally acclaimed pre-K through high school environmental education curriculum, and combines math, science, technology, art, language arts and social studies with current information about forest practices, up-to-date technology, and research into new products. 
Visits have included tours of Madison Lumber, the Bartlett Experimental Forest, and an active timber sale. The Teacher Tour is funded, in part, by a Community Grant provided by SFI Inc.

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.

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

Find a Trained Logger
NHTOA certified logger list.

Find a Certified Product 
SFI certified products database