Spring 99

The Michigan Forester On-Line
A Publication of the Michigan Society of American Foresters

New Editor !! Melissa Halsted edited this edition of the "Michigan Forester". Please send articles and submissions to her. Deadline for the next issue in 25 June, 1999 !!

"What Are My Rights?"
Private and Public Environmental Law and
Their Impact on the Future of Our Forest

Michigan SAF Spring 1999 Meeting
March 25 and 26, 1999
Treetops Sylvan Resort, Gaylord

The 1999 Spring Meeting will focus on the rights of landowners, both private and public. This is a very timely topic, as Michigan is experiencing statewide fragmentation and urban sprawl, as well as more interfacing between private and public lands. People from all walks of life are moving away from the cities and purchasing small tracts of land and building homes on them. There still remain large land holdings, and together with public lands, many conflicts and issues are surfacing. These include, but are not limited to, timber trespassing, boundary lines, wetland regulations, threatened and endangered species regulations, management by prescribed fire, timber rights, logging operations, expert witnesses…the list goes on and on.

On March 25 and 26, the SAF will address some of these issues. We are extremely fortunate to have Victor Merullo, a senior law partner at Merullo, Reister & Swinford Co., L.P.A. located in Columbus, Ohio, address our membership on the afternoon of Thursday, March 25. Mr. Merullo has been in the public and private practice of law for over 20 years.

During his public practice, he worked for the Ohio Attorney General, assigned primarily to the Ohio Department of Agriculture. In his private practice, Victor has handled cases in various aspects of the law including numerous matters relating to tree-related problems. He has been a featured speaker on legal issues relating to the law of trees across the United States. Mr. Merullo is considered a leading expert in the law of trees, and has spoken at many seminars sponsored by the National Arbor Day Foundation. You are sure to learn something from his presentation.

Friday, March 26, will feature landowners with varying viewpoints about government assistance and environmental laws, experts on the threatened and endangered laws, and wetlands regulations. In addition to this, Dr. Maureen McDonough from the MSU Forestry Department will give our membership some clue as to where the landowner is coming from. This meeting should be a golden opportunity to increase our knowledge in environmental laws and other legal issues that will assist us in practicing forestry at a whole new level!

Don't forget to contact new and transferred members within one to two months after they join your state society, division, or chapter. Did you know that members who choose not to renew their SAF membership have belonged to the Society for one or two years? When contacting a new or transferred member,

2. Make sure they are receiving The Forestry Source, Journal of Forestry, and unit newsletter.

3. Extend a personal invitation to the next local meeting and offer to have a fellow member drive them to the meeting. Also, introduce him/her to other members at the meeting.

4. Explain the local unit's current projects and activities. Ask the new/transferred member if they would like to volunteer on any projects or activities.

Don't Forget - Promote this "Growing Idea" to your division and chapter leaders. Check in with them to see if new and transferring members are being contacted by local members on a regular basis including student members!

Lower Peninsula Chapter
MSU-Lindsay Towne
MSU-David Johns
MSU-Kari Rozmarek
UofM-John Syring
Christopher Anderson-Boyne Falls
Andrew Londo-Houghton
Karen Cox-Iron Mountain
Paul Heil-Detour Village
Peter Villas-Munising
MISAF-Louise Murgia

Transferred-in
Thomas Crow-Ann Arbor
Brenda Goodwin-Oscoda
Mark Hitzeman-Clio
Robert Lockhart-Cadillac
Steven Rudell-Rockford
Clara Klung-Ann Arbor
Michele Laskowski-West Bloomfield

Upper Peninsula Chapter
John Witherspoon-Iron Mountain
Amy Tesluck-Newberry
Michael Young-Iron Mountain
Donald Grant-Nisula
Frank Laurence-Gaylord
David Lemmien-Newberry
Kevin Swanson-Newberry

The 1999 SAF National Convention, Oregon Convention Center, Portland Oregon, September 11-15. Contact: Dianna Perl, SAF National Office, 5400 Grosvenor Lane, Bethesda, MD 20814; www.safnet.org/conv/main.html.
For local information contact Lori Rasnor, SAF Northwest Office, 4033 SW Canyon Road, Portland OR 97221; www.forestry.org/convention/convention.html

The Great Lakes Leadership Conference was held at Tree Haven in Wisconsin on January 14-16. Over sixty participants from Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin came together to gain a better understanding of leadership and SAF. On the topic of

football and wrestling the folks from Minnesota were the most vocal. They even boasted that their governor could beat the governors from Michigan and Wisconsin. But after the introductions were over, all soon agreed that combining forces for this training opportunity was a great idea. From start to finish the conference lasted less than 48 hours. During this brief time attendees gained a tremendous amount of information about themselves, leadership, ethics, effective teams, managing group process, team development, collaboration, SAF structure, policy development, and success stories that were shared by each state society. And while most of the participants were SAF members taking on a new leadership role in their state, many recognized forestry leaders including Bill Banzhaf, Mike Moore, Karen Potter-Witter, Bill Rockwell, Jerry Rose, Lynn Jackson, and Wendy Hinrich-Sanders attended to share their experience. Thanks go to John Grosman for spearheading this conference along with Rick Dahlman, Bruce Schoenberg, Mark Heyde, Karen Potter-Witter, Bill O’Neill, and Mike Lanasa.

The new year brings on new leadership in many SAF roles. This year, the U.P. Chapter Chair is Bill Cook and the first chair (next year’s chair) is Kevin Burns. Bill is the MSU Extension forester based out of Escanaba and Kevin is the vice-president of Burns Forestry Services out of Iron Mountain.

As a chapter, several projects will be active, some are possibilities, and most are yet to be heard about. We are committed to four business meetings, two of which happen at the state meetings. The other two happen at chapter meetings, for which topics/tours need to be established. Suggestions? Call Bill at 786-1575.

We, as a chapter, are also committed to planning the fall state meeting. This year, that meeting will be association with the Canadian Institute of Forestry and will occur in Sault Ste. Marie (both Michigan and Ontario). The topic will be "Ecosystem/Landscape Management: A Canadian Perspective". We’ll explore some of the recent trends, research, and field applications in Ontario. Next year, we plan to reciprocate by working with the Canadians to demonstrate some of the things going on in the Upper Peninsula.

Our six sub-chapters will be variously busy depending upon activities the members can get excited about. Some ideas that have been floated include: increase connections with local decision-makers; volunteering availability to speak with schools; Arbor Week projects, establishing ties with Habitat for Humanity projects; and helping develop the management of school forests. Of course, there are lots of other ideas, too. Leadership and coordination for the six sub-chapters are provided by Elizabeth Atkinson (Alger, Delta, Schoolcraft), Mark Sherman (Baraga, Houghton, Keweenaw), Lloyd Martindale (Chippewa, Luce, Mackinac), Bill Hasse (Dickinson, Menominee), Ken Salo (Marquette), and Mark Bale (Gogebic, Iron, Ontonagon). Let’s bring some of those ideas to the table for the benefit of the profession (official reason) and to work on something fun (the real reason?).

A few other notes . . . Bill Cook is assembling an email roster of those members with addresses. If you haven’t let him know yours, or are not sure if he has yours, contact him at cookwi@pilot.msu.edu. This will assist in better communication and may save on mailing costs. If you haven’t checked out the MSAF web site . . . try it at http://forestry.msu.edu/msaf. It’s pretty cool but there’s plenty of room for suggestions and new ideas. Also, there will soon be a new link to a ID key for trees of the Upper Peninsula. We know our trees, of course, but if anyone asks for a resource tool to ID trees . . . here’s one that you might want to suggest.

Habitat for Humanity
Habitat Gets What is Called "First Timber Gift in Nation"
Robert Franklin / Star Tribune - Published Saturday, January 23, 1999

HILLMAN, MINN. -- When people think about houses, logger Don Petty was saying, it's important that they "understand where the wood comes from." It comes from such places as the Morrison County tree farm, where Petty was standing amid logging equipment last week at the end of a day of timber cutting and celebration.

The celebration was for what was billed as the first gift of timber nationally for Habitat for Humanity, the charity that helps build and repair housing for the working poor. Landowners, loggers, truckers, a forest-products company and the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) combined to turn a gift of 36 cords of aspen into about $12,000 worth of wood sheeting, enough for nine Habitat homes.

"We've always believed in sharing with other people who are less fortunate, and this was just kind of a unique way to do that," said Nancy Ferche. She and her husband, Bob, own the 1,600 acres of timber and hunting land where the wood was cut, about 2 miles east of Hillman.

Bob Ferche, retired owner of Ferche Millwork in Rice, Minn., echoed Petty’s thoughts: "We want people to realize that, if you want homes, this is where it’s going to have to come from."

The idea for the donation came from the Society of American Foresters, which hopes that its Forests for Humanity program will spread across the United States.

The Ferches, who live in St. Stephen, Minn., bought the woodland about 10 years ago and have begun to manage its timber. They readily agreed when DNR foresters asked if they wanted to participate in the Habitat for Humanity program.

A Wahkon logging company owned by Petty's father, Paul, donated its services to cut the trees. Three trucking companies -- Al's Hauling and LCL Hauling of Mora and S&M Trucking of Wahkon -- donated the hauling for three semitrailer loads of logs to the Potlatch Corp. mill in Grand Rapids.

Potlatch contributed its processing costs and traded the logs for 18 pallets of oriented strand board, wood sheeting used for flooring, roofing and walls.

Four pallets of finished wood have been shipped to Little Falls. It will be used when the fledgling Habitat for Humanity of Morrison County builds its second house later this year. The rest of the wood will be used for other Habitat for Humanity projects around the state.

As part of Habitat for Humanity's sweat-equity requirement, they will plant trees "so we can complete the cycle of forest to lumber to home, back to trees," said Sheri Bengtson, president of Morrison County Habitat for Humanity. "It's a wonderful program."

Ron Sanow, DNR forestry supervisor in Little Falls and a member of the Society of American Foresters, said other homeowners might work with school groups on forestry projects or cap the buds of young white pines to protect them from deer browsing.

The Ferches said they have planted 150,000 pine trees on their property and have clear-cut aspen that should have been logged a decade earlier.

"We're managing . . . for the next generation," Bob Ferche said. "[At some point] we'll be able to log about 40 acres a year forever. That's what good management does, is [produce] a constant supply of timber."

At last week's cutting site, Petty looked across the logging road at some of Ferche’s land that had been clear-cut a year earlier.

"See how the trees are growing up after one year?" he said. "It's good for the habitat, the deer herd, the grouse and rabbits."

We are sad to report that Harold Kollmeyer died January 13 in Lansing. He was 79.

Mr. Kollmeyer attended the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee before graduating from the University of Michigan with a degree in forestry.

Mr. Kollmeyer was employed as a survey forester and silviculturalist for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources for 37 years. He was also a Michigan tree farmer and operated his own forestry business in Wexford County.

In September, he celebrated 50 years as a member of SAF in which he served in various local chapter offices.

SAF: Growing our Way
By: Bill Rockwell, SAF Council Representative for Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin

As our first century draws to a close, SAF has a unique opportunity to position ourselves for our second century. This is an exciting time to be a forester, and I am grateful for the role that you have given me in representing you on Council at this special time.

One hundred years ago, a small group of pioneering foresters established a new vision for a new profession in America. Their vision was a strong one, and it brought us to a position that we should not take for granted. Based on scientific dialogue and open public debate, foresters regenerated a continent and provided abundantly for our nation’s many needs.

We need to remember that broad vision as we examine the particular ways in which we face today’s challenges. To do this:

- All of SAF is preparing for our centennial celebration in 2000, with Arbor Day and Habitat for Humanity as major partners in the endeavor.

- Council is reviewing SAF’s Mission Statement to make sure that we tell the world clearly who we are and what we stand for.

- The Ethics Committee is revising our Code of Ethics to make it clearer and more consistent.

- Council has approved a set of five-year Strategic Objectives and will review it annually.

- Council is wrestling to define the "broad field of forestry" both in concept and to help clarify the membership categories that we adopted in membership referendum.

-issuing a ground-breaking report on the perennially important topic of federal land management,

- reviewing the rapidly developing topic of forest management certification, in part (I hope) to help us "break new ground" for SAF’s Certified Forester program, and

In all these ways, SAF is strengthening our sense and our story of who we are and why, and finding new ways to project our profession into the future — our way.

Look for more on SAF Strategic Objectives in the next issue of the Michigan Forester.

Thanks for reading this, both my article and our Michigan Forester. With all the information there is for us to digest, I appreciate your choice. I think it says something about what you value and as I, we value our professional society’s local publication.

This is my first article as chair so bear with me and I would appreciate a little slack in judgement. I tried to sit down for fifteen minutes and produce an outline of what I wanted to say. There is much I would like to talk about but given a limited chance, the choice can be difficult. As I neared the end of my time, I had corrected a wayward son, apologized to my wife for chores not done (they’re still not done), slipped a treat to the dog but was still unsure of what I wanted to say. In my last few minutes I decided to write about your executive team and how they go about doing our work.

It then occurred to me these thoughts have a parallel within MSAF (scary). This year, like each in the past, we have an opportunity to do some good things within our forestry community and our success in part, will depend on how successful we are in identifying what specifically we want to do. We have a limited amount of time and resources to put toward our goals so we better have a very good idea just what it is we want to accomplish. After attending our Executive team meeting and yearly team planning session, I am feeling better about our state society’s success that I am about this article.

February 4 & 5 we held our first executive team meeting and planning session for 1999. I found the executive team meeting quite interesting. I have been going to these meetings for the past five or six years and can’t remember seeing so many new faces at the table. I am sure there were a number of folks there who had met each other for the first time.

Over the next 12-24 months these people will meet and do the business of our state society while at the same time providing the leadership and energy to accomplish objectives. If I were an employer or a landowner looking for a consultant, I would be encouraged to see someone with the courage and self-confidence to accept and jump into a challenging role with a team they have little experience with. Their participation says a great deal about their confidence and abilities. It is also another example of MSAF success, one we may need to better recognize. To watch people increase their professional roles, learn and develop new skills and expand themselves as a result of their MSAF participation, is a success we need to remember.

February 5’s planning meeting was yet another experience in this year’s short journey. We attempted to update our strategic planning endeavor of a few years ago. Specifically, our goal was to identify just what our state society would focus on in the next 12-24 months. My goal was to keep the number of initiatives manageable, especially in light of the fact many members just completed a huge task, the national convention.

Sounds simple enough on the surface but believe me it was more difficult in reality. We had a very talented group brimming with great ideas and willing to back it up with work and effort. I heard more ideas than I thought possible but after taking stock, I may have to readjust my initial thoughts.

I listened to folks like Bill Cook, current U.P. Chapter Chair. He outlined a number of website possibilities, and if you have visited MSAF’s web page recently, you know he "walks the walk" and delivers on his ideas. I heard Bob Hyde discuss and wrestle with how he can work to improve the internal and external communication process we use in our society. He knows we can do a better job and I sure had a good feeling, knowing Bob’s talents were working toward a solution.

Mike Lanasa demonstrated his commitment when stepping down as state chair and into the membership coordinator position. His plan to expand membership is developing and will yield results. I enjoyed working with Jodi Kaiser and the policy team, and if you haven’t had the pleasure of working with Jodi, she is high energy and competence rolled into one. This group wants to have a legislative function to explain forestry issues to the new Michigan legislature. It also wants to be more pro-active on policy statements, both great ideas and needed functions.

Loren Ford and our Science and Technology group want to try a research initiative that provides a forum for members to discuss forestry issues and explore some of the latest research with universities, science labs and experts in their field. This would give our members the ability to explore his or her latest forestry challenge with those in the know around the state and throughout the Great Lakes region. Discussions regarding continuing our great meetings, awards programs and other annual functions were also a part of the day.

Initially I was concerned after leaving the meeting; I was expecting one or two initiatives to surface and we could plan details and move toward completion. Instead, as you can see, we have many more ideas complete with a great team to move them into action.

If you would like to be a part of any of these teams or would like to work on any of the above initiatives please give me a call and I will put you in touch with those involved. These are important projects that will enhance forestry in Michigan as well as improve our professional society. I will guarantee that if you participate, you will gain far more than you give.

I am proud of this group and thank them for showing me more enthusiasm and creativity than I expected. This is going to be an interesting and successful year. Watching this group grow and develop could be one of the most interesting and successful endeavors MSAF undertakes this year. I am lucky to be a part of the team.

The Michigan Chapter of the Society of American Foresters thanks you for the skillful leadership, thoughtful improvements and dedicated service.

One of the true benefits of MSAF membership is the opportunity to work with fellow professionals, often filling a different niche throughout the forestry community.

You accepted the State Chair with a quiet confidence we have since grown to respect and admire. To you, our Society’s National Convention was viewed as an opportunity to test new partnerships. Your subtle and strong leadership was a big part of this success.

At the same time, you accepted an additional opportunity - our partnership with Habitat for Humanity. Together, you, Bill Sterrett and the rest of your competent crew struck out on a new course which brought a deep satisfaction to all those who participated, while making the great professional connection of land, forest and products. Every member of our State Society and National Convention can take pride in this wonderful accomplishment and the accompanying video that highlights our profession.

While working toward these goals you also nurtured and developed the relationships within our State Society that are the ties that bind us. We watched as we grew in strength, due in part to your thoughtful and caring encouragement.

Today our State Society is strong and poised for a successful future. You should be as proud of these accomplishments as we are thankful for your efforts. From all who had the pleasure of working with you, a sincere thanks and best wishes.

As part of the Executive Team meeting in St. Ignace on February 5, 1999, Rita Hodgins, MSU Extension, facilitated our strategic planning session. For openers, she asked that we list our chapter’s accomplishments since the last strategic planning session held four years ago. The following items are the list resulting from brainstorming among the attendees. When you look at what we have accomplished as a state chapter, it is really quite impressive. It is hard to see this on a day-to-day basis, but looking back it shows what a dynamic group we are.

Michigan SAF Research Initiative
By: Loren Ford, Research Liaison, Michigan SAF Science & Technology Team

Ideas from all Michigan SAF members are needed to tailor a research initiative conceived to help find solutions to forest management problems encountered while practicing forestry. The objective of Michigan SAF’s Research Initiative is to enhance the competency of Michigan SAF members and to advance the science and technology of forestry to ensure the continued health and use of Michigan’s forest ecosystems and the present and future availability of Michigan’s forest resources to benefit society. These objectives should sound familiar; they’re taken from SAF’s mission statement.

The initiative will attempt to facilitate the connection between practicing foresters and researchers at Michigan’s universities and the USDA Forest Service North Central Forest Experiment Station. Michigan SAF’s web page and e-mail are expected to be important tools to promote communication. Hopefully, practicing foresters will communicate their management problems and the research community will help to resolve them.

Most likely, many problems encountered by practicing foresters have been experienced previously in Michigan or elsewhere and have been addressed though research. Results from such research and technology to provide solutions might be located in technical literature. Given the advances in information technology, members might be able to search out their own solutions by accessing bibliographic databases over the Internet. Alternatively, if many members experience certain problems, then training courses might be organized to disseminate solutions at State Society or Chapter meetings.

Under the initiative, new forest management problems that haven’t been addressed by formal research would be communicated to the research community in hopes that research programs could be developed to seek solutions. The initiative has the potential to inform forest industries and agencies of emerging problems so that funding for research to solve them can be allocated.

The final component of the Research Initiative is to promote the dissemination of recent research results to practicing foresters. This might involve improved links to existing dissemination media. An example from National Headquarters is the Working Group page on the Members Only area in SAF’s web page at www.safnet.org. A username and password for the Members Only area are printed on your 1999 dues statement. Increased involvement of the research community in SAF affairs will also help to disseminate research results, through contributions to the Michigan Forester and participation in State Society and Chapter meetings. The Michigan SAF web page promises to be a useful technology dissemination medium.

Anyone with ideas or comments on the proposed Michigan SAF Research Initiative is invited to send them to Loren B. Ford, Research Liaison, Michigan SAF Science & Technology Team, by e-mail at lford@voyager.net or lford/r9_huronmanistee@fs.fed.us, by fax at (517) 826-6073, or by post at USDA Forest Service, 401 N. Court Street, Mio, MI 48647.

If you are a landowner in the south with any type of drainage on your land, chances are you have experienced the havoc caused by beavers. In no time at all, beavers can dam a drainage area, allowing standing water to choke the life out of any trees in the area.

"If you have beavers you are going to have dead timber," says Richard Boinott, manager, wildlife ecology, International Paper Mid-South Region. "Sometimes this isn’t all bad depending on the landowners objective. Landowners may want to keep that area as a wetlands and waterfowl habitat." Even then the beaver population must be controlled.

While researchers in Mississippi have actually noted a 25 percent decrease in beaver ponds in the state, Boinott believes they may be increasing in other areas. "The market demand for beaver pelts has decreased significantly because of the anti-fur movement. Where once people would trap beaver and sell the fur, now you have to pay them to do it. International Paper spends tens of thousands of dollars each year contracting with professional trappers to harvest beavers, " Boinott says.

According to a Mississippi State Extension survey, 55 percent of surveyed landowners claimed most of their economic losses came from flooded timber. About 24 percent of the landowners said direct timber damage accounted for most of their economic loss.

Dean Stewart, extension wildlife specialist at Mississippi State University, said knowledge of the population is important in regulating hunting efforts. Currently there are no restrictions on harvest numbers or hunting hours.

"We don’t want to eliminate beavers from our state, but we do want to make sure they are restricted to appropriate areas where they are not damaging timber or causing unwanted flooding," Stewart said. "There are some places where beaver activity serves a purpose, such as creating waterfowl habitats."

Boinott agrees. "You’re not going to get rid of them and we shouldn’t because they are a part of the ecosystem. But you can control them."

A look back at 1998 is kinda satisfying. Formally, members of the U.P. Chapter were involved in a lot of activities, in addition to their regular duties of practicing forestry.

We hosted the well-attended Lowland Conifer state spring meeting about a year ago. Technical binders are still available through Mark Bale and the MSAF website has a pictorial review. We also provided a July chapter tour of the Sawyer Mill and the Marquette County Forest.

Of course, the big event was the National Convention, which the entire Michigan Society hosted. There seems to a general consensus, nation-wide, that the 1998 Convention was one of the best in many years. The planning efforts were enormous and consolidated much of our membership.

The U.P. Auto Tour was expanded by 52 sites and a new brochure was printed. During the year, about 30,000 copies were distributed to Visitor Centers, Chambers of Commerce, and Tourist Bureaus. The Michigan Auto Tours have drawn national attention.

Many U.P. Chapter members have also been heavily involved in statewide activities, particularly with the Michigan Forester and the MSAF website.

Lastly, many foresters, both SAF members and non-members, have been involved with community activities related to forestry, resource management issues, and education efforts. These accomplishments largely go unnoticed and are not necessarily associated directly with SAF. However, this sort of grass-roots involvement is among the most important things we do as professional foresters. After all, you don’t always have to form a committee to do what needs to be done.

You’re a forester. You know stuff about trees and forests. Have you ever been asked to identify trees for someone? Or asked how you identify trees? A new Internet tool will soon be out that you can use yourself or pass on to others.

Michigan State University has developed a tree identification key for the Upper Peninsula. It will be initially attached to the MSAF website and U.P. Forestry website. Three separate keys feature a total of 54 species. Species description pages feature a total of 73 species. One key is for conifers and two keys are for hardwoods, a summer and a winter key.

In addition to the keys and descriptions, there are range maps; species abundance lists for each county, an interactive glossary, a page on identification characteristics, and a couple taxonomy lists. The site is cleverly linked to provide ease of use for upper elementary school kids.

Take a peek at the site. Maybe you can clue-in groups and individuals who might benefit from a tool like this.

Highlights: FCN is designed to deliver information on national level policy developments of consequence to people of rural forested communities. To subscribe to FCN, send an e-mail to the address above. Leave the subject blank and include the following statement in the body of your message:

If you have a web site/listserve you would like to see highlighted here, e-mail me the information at dcdbill@up.net

Please direct questions, comments, and suggestions to Bill Cook, cookwi@pilot.msu.edu or 906-786-1575.
Editorial issues can be addressed to Eric Thompson.