SilviCast

Garlic mustard blooms, panic ensues! Many foresters in the eastern hardwood forests of North America can appreciate this sentiment as they see yet another invasive plant, garlic mustard, colonize their woodlands and forests. Maybe they just make note of it on the inventory or maybe they prescribe an aggressive treatment plan of pulling and herbicides. But maybe there is a different approach… time. Join us on this episode of SilviCast as we talk with Dr. Bernd Blossey, Professor at Cornell University, about his interesting and innovative research on garlic mustard invasions. Send us a text To earn CEU/CFE credits, learn more, or interact with SilviCast, visit the uwsp.edu/SilviCast.

Buckthorn has been the bane of many foresters and forest landowners throughout eastern North America. This long-lived, woody plant is capable of forming dense thickets, degrading native understory plant communities and impeding tree regeneration. While herbicide control measures can be effective, managers have struggled for long-term control of this prolific plant. Join for this episode of SilviCast as we explore ways to disrupt the buckthorn cycle with Dr. Mike Schuster, Researcher at the Minnesota Invasive Terrestrial Plants and Pests Center. Send us a text To earn CEU/CFE credits, learn more, or interact with SilviCast, visit the uwsp.edu/SilviCast.

It’s hard to turn around these days without seeing or reading something about UAVs or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. Drones are becoming an increasingly important tool in many fields, including within the practice of silviculture. On this episode of SilviCast we explore the soaring use of drones for site preparation and release treatments. Join us for a conversation with Rick Hill, Regional Silviculturist and Reforestation Specialist with Michigan DNR and Kyle Schempp, Project Manager and Drone Pilot at Wildlife and Wetland Solutions. Send us a text To earn CEU/CFE credits, learn more, or interact with SilviCast, visit the uwsp.edu/SilviCast.

Foresters are increasingly aware of the importance of prescribed fire as a silvicultural tool in the maintenance and management of fire-adapted forest ecosystems.  At the same time concerns remain over the impact of those fires on the timber resource. Join us for a conversation with Mike Saunders, Professor of Silviculture in the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources at Purdue University, as we explore the effects of prescribed fire on tree wounding and timber quality in the oak-hickory forests of North America. Send us a text To earn CEU/CFE credits, learn more, or interact with SilviCast, visit the uwsp.edu/SilviCast.

German foresters sometimes named silvicultural systems after the region where the treatment was developed and practiced. So it is with the Acadian femelschlag, a locally developed gap-based system designed to restore species diversity and structure to the mixedwood Acadian forests of Maine and eastern Canada. Join us on this episode of SilviCast as we talk with Robert Seymour, Curtis Hutchins Professor Emeritus of Silviculture at the University of Maine, about what he has learned from over four decades of innovative silvicultural research and teaching in the Acadian forests. Send us a text To earn CEU/CFE credits, learn more, or interact with SilviCast, visit the uwsp.edu/SilviCast.

Foresters need to make decisions every day, and sometimes difficult decisions as we attempt to understand and address the diverse needs of the land, the landowner, and others. Similar to marking a tree, these decisions often require us to walk all the way around to see an issue from all sides. Join us on this season 5 finale of SilviCast as we talk with Marianne Patinelli-Dubay, Environmental Philosophy Program Coordinator at the State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry, about ethics and silviculture.Send us a text To earn CEU/CFE credits, learn more, or interact with SilviCast, visit the uwsp.edu/SilviCast.

We’ve all seen it in the field… Aldo Leopold alluded to it… parts of a forest ecosystem are missing or changed. Now the forest doesn’t respond the same to silvicultural treatments that worked in the past. The forest is less predictable. In other words, the forest has lost memory, specifically ecological memory. Join us on this episode of SilviCast as we explore the concept of ecological memory with Chris Webster, professor of quantitative ecology at Michigan Technological University. Learn how memory can get lost and how thoughtful silviculture can help restore these memories.Send us a text To earn CEU/CFE credits, learn more, or interact with SilviCast, visit the uwsp.edu/SilviCast.

The paint gun is a basic tool of the forestry trade. But what happens when we’re two forties into the woods and our paint gun goes down? This can put a major clog in our day. Maybe the problem with our paint gun is us? Join us on this episode of SilviCast as we talk with three experts in the field about Trecoder, Panama, and Nel-Spot paint guns. Ethan Tapper with Bear Island Forestry, John Freeman with Panama Forestry Equipment, and Ryan Holm with Nelson Paint give us tips to keep our paint guns flowing freely! Send us a text To earn CEU/CFE credits, learn more, or interact with SilviCast, visit the uwsp.edu/SilviCast.

Most of us enjoying a little on-the-job foraging… some blackberries here, some morels there. But how often do we think about intentionally managing non-timber forest products?  Forest farming is an agroforestry practice than involves the intentional stewardship of edible, medicinal, and decorative crops beneath a forest canopy. Join us as we discuss the integration of forest farming and silviculture with Eric Burkhart, Teaching Professor in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management at Penn State University. Send us a text To earn CEU/CFE credits, learn more, or interact with SilviCast, visit the uwsp.edu/SilviCast.

If you are a forest practitioner in the eastern forests of North America (and maybe elsewhere) at one time or another you have likely been frustrated by white-tailed deer. Browse impacts on forest vegetation are significant and long-lasting, but those impacts are not the same everywhere making deer browse a challenging issue to both understand and address. Join us on this episode of SilviCast as we seek to better understand how deer impact our forests and what clues the latest science holds for mitigating browse impacts through silviculture. We spoke with two leading researchers on deer-forest interactions, Alex Royo, Research Ecologist with the US Forest Service’s Northern Research Station, and Amanda McGraw, Research Scientist with the Wisconsin DNR. Send us a text To earn CEU/CFE credits, learn more, or interact with SilviCast, visit the uwsp.edu/SilviCast.