Hello folks-
As usual, things have been busy here at NEFF. Tomorrow, May 30th, is the dedication of the Persons' Farm, now owned by the Ramblin’ Vewe Farm Trust in Gilford, NH. NEFF holds the easement on this property, and both NEFF and the RVFT Board of Trustees wish to thank Dick and Betty Persons for their deep commitment to land conservation. Following the dedication, Andy Fast, UNH Extension Forester, will present a program titled “Thinning Your Woodlot”, to help teach participants how to thin their woodlot both for timber production and sugarbush development.
I am also in the preliminary planning stages for a landowner outreach forum later this summer in Groton, MA and Hollis, NH as part of the EPA Watershed Initiative. Tentatively scheduled for mid to late August, this forum would provide landowners with introductory information on a variety of topics (i.e. green certification, easement donations, land conservation options, federal tax breaks, ice storm damage, etc), and allow them time to be introduced to forestry professionals. They should be great sessions, and I will keep you tuned in as plans develop.
Our Annual Meeting is also approaching. This year, we are holding the meeting in Groton, MA at Lawrence Academy. Weather permitting (fingers crossed!), the morning will kick off with concurrent nature walks in two of our Groton forests—Groton Place and Wharton Plantation. These walks will be led by two of our own staff, Whit Beals (Director of Land Protection) and Si Balch (Chief Forester and Director of Forest Stewardship). Concurrently, we are also offering an opportunity to participate in a canoe ride on the Nashua River. We will paddle a short ways down the river, and get an up-close view of Groton Place and the history and ecology of additional conservation land in the area. Diane, owner of Nashoba Paddlers, will guide us on this ride, and both myself and Chris Pryor (NEFF’s Conservation Easement Coordinator & Forester) will be attending. After the outdoor activities wrap up, we will head to MacNeil Lounge for a buffet lunch, speaker and awards session (including a brand new award for “Forest Steward of the Year”). If you can make it, we would love to see you there!
Additionally, I am working to put the details together for the upcoming Discovery Days, and I am in the preliminary planning stages for the upcoming Forester CEU workshops. Your fellow steward, Ingeborg Hegemann, will be presenting three workshops to licensed foresters for CEU credits in three different locations this September. Ingeborg is a professional wetland biologist, and she will present a workshop on Wetland Ecology & Function, which will cover a variety of topics in characteristics, classification, regulations, and more. I look forward to this workshop, and based on the success of the first round of workshops this spring, I expect that they will be a big success! FYI, as a sidenote, she will also present a wetland program at our Mary A. Herrick Forest this August as part of our Discovery Day series. If you are interested in the topic, let me know if you’d like to sign up.
I will sign off for now, and hope to keep the updates for those of you who check in on occasion. I thought it was an easier way of keeping our volunteers “in the know” every couple of weeks about what’s been happening here at NEFF. I am still working to meet many of you face to face, if I haven’t already, and look forward to putting a face with each of your names.
Best,
Sonya
Friday, May 29, 2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Updates from NEFF!
Hello Stewards-
Sorry for the delay in posting another blog. Things have been busy here at NEFF over the past few weeks! There’s so much to report, so I’ll try to hit the highlights!
I attended the Keystone Cooperators program at the Harvard Forest in Petersham, MA from April 23-26. This program is put on by Paul Catanzaro and Dave Kittredge with the UMass Extension Service. It’s a great program for folks interested in reaching landowners and helping them make decisions about their land. It also helps you promote wildlife conservation and forest stewardship in your own community. Though I attended the Massachusetts program, programs exist in other states as well. Here are the websites, if you are interested in exploring whether this program would work for you (I don’t believe that ME has a coverts program…?):
MA Keystone (formerly Coverts): http://masskeystone.net/
NH Coverts: http://extension.unh.edu/Wildlife/NHCovrts/AboutCov.htm
VT Coverts: http://www.vtcoverts.org/education.php
CT Coverts: http://www.canr.uconn.edu/ces/forest/coverts.htm
Also, as I mentioned before, I have finished planning the Discovery Days for this summer and fall. The first walk is scheduled this Saturday, May 9th at 7am. An early call, no doubt about it! But it will be a great opportunity to get out and refresh your memory (or learn how to identify) our common local songbirds. Grant Marley, an expert local birder, will guide us and help participants learn to identify some of the local birds that call New England their summer home.
We are also gearing up for our 2009 Annual Meeting, which will be held in Groton, MA this year on June 13. We have two nature walks and one guided canoe ride planned, as well as a luncheon and speaker session. Your invitation (postcards) should arrive soon. If you don’t receive yours, please let me know.
I’m also putting the finishing touches on our Forest Steward Trainings for this summer/fall. I have two scheduled currently, with two more in the works but not yet finalized. The first training will occur on Saturday, September 19th on Big Squam Lake in Holderness, NH. NEFF has partnered with the Squam Lakes Natural Science Center to offer our Stewards a “Nature of the Lakes” cruise, which will cover the general ecology of the lake, the surrounding forest, its wildlife, and even give you a chance to see our Chamberlain-Reynolds forest from the water. If we’re lucky, we may be able to see some eagles and loons as well. It should be a great time, and I have arranged to cover all fees so that it will remain free of charge to all of you.
I’ve also coordinated with the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in North Woodstock, NH to offer our stewards a free tour of their forest. They only offer these tours on weekdays, and I have scheduled a tour for Thursday, October 1st. The time with be TBD, but likely beginning mid-morning and running through early afternoon. Again, this program will be free to all stewards. Please send me an email if you would like to attend, as we need a minimum of 5 people for them to offer the tour.
As I mentioned to the Vermont stewards, I have coordinated with a local wildlife education organization known as Outreach for Earth Stewardship to make available to our stewards the Vermont Centurion Birding Challenge. It requires the identification and documentation of 100 bird species in Vermont (no small feat!), and for your efforts, you are rewarded with an awesome patch that signifies your completion of the challenging program. Not only that, but it’s a great way to help support our knowledge base of birds in our forests! Let me know if you are interested in participating.
I’ve also been involved in a variety of other planning efforts, including landowner outreach in the Nashua River Watershed and in Maine, and organizing our training workshops for licensed foresters. NEFF is a very busy place these days, and we couldn’t do all that we do without all of you! I consistently hear from staff and Board members how important our volunteer program is to this organization, and I couldn’t agree more. It is still in the process of growing and evolving, but a huge thanks to all of you who generously give us your time and energy.
Cheerio,
Sonya
Sorry for the delay in posting another blog. Things have been busy here at NEFF over the past few weeks! There’s so much to report, so I’ll try to hit the highlights!
I attended the Keystone Cooperators program at the Harvard Forest in Petersham, MA from April 23-26. This program is put on by Paul Catanzaro and Dave Kittredge with the UMass Extension Service. It’s a great program for folks interested in reaching landowners and helping them make decisions about their land. It also helps you promote wildlife conservation and forest stewardship in your own community. Though I attended the Massachusetts program, programs exist in other states as well. Here are the websites, if you are interested in exploring whether this program would work for you (I don’t believe that ME has a coverts program…?):
MA Keystone (formerly Coverts): http://masskeystone.net/
NH Coverts: http://extension.unh.edu/Wildlife/NHCovrts/AboutCov.htm
VT Coverts: http://www.vtcoverts.org/education.php
CT Coverts: http://www.canr.uconn.edu/ces/forest/coverts.htm
Also, as I mentioned before, I have finished planning the Discovery Days for this summer and fall. The first walk is scheduled this Saturday, May 9th at 7am. An early call, no doubt about it! But it will be a great opportunity to get out and refresh your memory (or learn how to identify) our common local songbirds. Grant Marley, an expert local birder, will guide us and help participants learn to identify some of the local birds that call New England their summer home.
We are also gearing up for our 2009 Annual Meeting, which will be held in Groton, MA this year on June 13. We have two nature walks and one guided canoe ride planned, as well as a luncheon and speaker session. Your invitation (postcards) should arrive soon. If you don’t receive yours, please let me know.
I’m also putting the finishing touches on our Forest Steward Trainings for this summer/fall. I have two scheduled currently, with two more in the works but not yet finalized. The first training will occur on Saturday, September 19th on Big Squam Lake in Holderness, NH. NEFF has partnered with the Squam Lakes Natural Science Center to offer our Stewards a “Nature of the Lakes” cruise, which will cover the general ecology of the lake, the surrounding forest, its wildlife, and even give you a chance to see our Chamberlain-Reynolds forest from the water. If we’re lucky, we may be able to see some eagles and loons as well. It should be a great time, and I have arranged to cover all fees so that it will remain free of charge to all of you.
I’ve also coordinated with the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in North Woodstock, NH to offer our stewards a free tour of their forest. They only offer these tours on weekdays, and I have scheduled a tour for Thursday, October 1st. The time with be TBD, but likely beginning mid-morning and running through early afternoon. Again, this program will be free to all stewards. Please send me an email if you would like to attend, as we need a minimum of 5 people for them to offer the tour.
As I mentioned to the Vermont stewards, I have coordinated with a local wildlife education organization known as Outreach for Earth Stewardship to make available to our stewards the Vermont Centurion Birding Challenge. It requires the identification and documentation of 100 bird species in Vermont (no small feat!), and for your efforts, you are rewarded with an awesome patch that signifies your completion of the challenging program. Not only that, but it’s a great way to help support our knowledge base of birds in our forests! Let me know if you are interested in participating.
I’ve also been involved in a variety of other planning efforts, including landowner outreach in the Nashua River Watershed and in Maine, and organizing our training workshops for licensed foresters. NEFF is a very busy place these days, and we couldn’t do all that we do without all of you! I consistently hear from staff and Board members how important our volunteer program is to this organization, and I couldn’t agree more. It is still in the process of growing and evolving, but a huge thanks to all of you who generously give us your time and energy.
Cheerio,
Sonya
Friday, April 17, 2009
Great books recommendations
Hello Stewards-
I wanted to take the opportunity to pass on some tips on great books that myself or other staff members have read here that are great reads in ecology, wildlife, forestry, etc. These books are just the beginning...I hope to post more over time. For those of you interested in learning more about various topics, I thought it might be a good guide based on our experiences and schooling. Also, feel free to leave a post if you have a suggestion to share with everyone. I'm including links (hope they work) so you can read more about them if you like. Amazon seemed like the easiest link, because it lets you peek inside occasionally, but feel free to Google them if you want to learn more or read other reviews.
-Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival by Bernd Heinrich
http://www.amazon.com/Winter-World-Ingenuity-Animal-Survival/dp/0060957379
(I'm a big Bernd Heinrich fan, as some of you may know. I'd recommend most of his books, but this book was a really interesting look at how animals survive in even the harshest of winters, even when the odds are stacked against them.)
-Manual of Ornithology: Avian Structure & Function by Proctor & Lynch
http://www.amazon.com/Manual-Ornithology-Avian-Structure-Function/dp/0300076193/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239989668&sr=1-1
(Great book for learning about exactly what the title suggests...avian structure and function! It's specific, but also a great learning tool that I've used over time.)
-Ornithology by Frank Gill
http://www.amazon.com/Ornithology-Frank-B-Gill/dp/0716749831/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239989750&sr=1-1
(For most folks, this book is THE text on ornithology. I used an earlier version of it during my time at UVM, and I still use it as a reference. Can't overemphasize how much I love it ! It is pricey, as it is a textbook, but a great reference if you happen to see it in the library or if you are a bird enthusiast.)
-The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise by Michael Grunwald
http://www.amazon.com/Swamp-Everglades-Florida-Politics-Paradise/dp/0743251075/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239989896&sr=1-1
(Falling back on my Florida roots, this book provides an interesting insight into the eco-political struggle and story of Florida's Everglades.)
-Brush Cat: On Trees, the Wood Economy, and the Most Dangerous Job in America
http://www.amazon.com/Brush-Cat-Economy-Dangerous-America/dp/0312368917/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239990391&sr=1-1
(I have not yet read this book, but veteran Forest Steward Dave Dimmick recently spoke with me and gave it a very good review).
Cheers!
Sonya
I wanted to take the opportunity to pass on some tips on great books that myself or other staff members have read here that are great reads in ecology, wildlife, forestry, etc. These books are just the beginning...I hope to post more over time. For those of you interested in learning more about various topics, I thought it might be a good guide based on our experiences and schooling. Also, feel free to leave a post if you have a suggestion to share with everyone. I'm including links (hope they work) so you can read more about them if you like. Amazon seemed like the easiest link, because it lets you peek inside occasionally, but feel free to Google them if you want to learn more or read other reviews.
-Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival by Bernd Heinrich
http://www.amazon.com/Winter-World-Ingenuity-Animal-Survival/dp/0060957379
(I'm a big Bernd Heinrich fan, as some of you may know. I'd recommend most of his books, but this book was a really interesting look at how animals survive in even the harshest of winters, even when the odds are stacked against them.)
-Manual of Ornithology: Avian Structure & Function by Proctor & Lynch
http://www.amazon.com/Manual-Ornithology-Avian-Structure-Function/dp/0300076193/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239989668&sr=1-1
(Great book for learning about exactly what the title suggests...avian structure and function! It's specific, but also a great learning tool that I've used over time.)
-Ornithology by Frank Gill
http://www.amazon.com/Ornithology-Frank-B-Gill/dp/0716749831/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239989750&sr=1-1
(For most folks, this book is THE text on ornithology. I used an earlier version of it during my time at UVM, and I still use it as a reference. Can't overemphasize how much I love it ! It is pricey, as it is a textbook, but a great reference if you happen to see it in the library or if you are a bird enthusiast.)
-The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise by Michael Grunwald
http://www.amazon.com/Swamp-Everglades-Florida-Politics-Paradise/dp/0743251075/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239989896&sr=1-1
(Falling back on my Florida roots, this book provides an interesting insight into the eco-political struggle and story of Florida's Everglades.)
-Brush Cat: On Trees, the Wood Economy, and the Most Dangerous Job in America
http://www.amazon.com/Brush-Cat-Economy-Dangerous-America/dp/0312368917/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239990391&sr=1-1
(I have not yet read this book, but veteran Forest Steward Dave Dimmick recently spoke with me and gave it a very good review).
Cheers!
Sonya
Welcome!
This new blog is a way for us to keep in touch with volunteers, members and other folks interested in the goings-on at NEFF. I will do my best to update it regularly, and keep you up-to-date on things I've been working on, educational topics, interesting books, events, etc. I hope you will check back regularly and keep in touch!
This new blog is a way for us to keep in touch with volunteers, members and other folks interested in the goings-on at NEFF. I will do my best to update it regularly, and keep you up-to-date on things I've been working on, educational topics, interesting books, events, etc. I hope you will check back regularly and keep in touch!
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