By Leslie Robertson NASF Photo Fellow Today was all about seeing the aftermath of a tornado outbreak from April. First stop: A logging site salvaging timber that had been damaged by storms. Along with Russell of the Mississippi Forestry Commission (MFC), I met with Justin Gentry, John Moore, and Buck Buchanan to conduct a logging inspection [read more]
By Leslie Robertson NASF Photo Fellow This morning I met Russell Bozeman, director of forest protection and forest information with the Mississippi Forestry Commission (MFC). Russell and I headed to Warren County to see one of the state’s 16th Section Lands, which is part of 480,000 acres of forested school trust lands managed by the Mississippi Forestry Commission. We stopped at [read more]
By Leslie Robertson NASF Photo Fellow After a quick lunch at a local barbeque, we headed to the Ralph E. Simmons Memorial State Forest where the Florida Forest Service was conducting a prescribed burn of a small area of a turkey oak and longleaf pine stand. I donned the necessary safety equipment then was escorted [read more]
By Leslie Robertson NASF Photo Fellow Today was another busy day, full of variety. We left our bed and breakfast to head over to the RockTenn mill in Fernandina Beach, where we toured around the exterior of the mill, focusing on procurement of raw materials to use in the mill. The mill specializes in making [read more]
We began the day at Tate’s Hell State Forest by viewing some dwarf cypress trees from boardwalk and an observation deck. Although the trees are more than 150 years old, they only reach a height of 15 or so feet due to soil content. We were able to take a look at some of the cones on [read more]
Guest post by Leslie Robertson, NASF Photo Fellow Chelsea and I spent the morning with Hannah Anderson, a wildfire mitigation specialist. Shane McGowan, forest area supervisor for the team, explained that they were pretty short-handed at the moment; many of the firefighters were sent to California to fight wildfires there. We drove to a private [read more]
By Leslie Robertson NASF Photo Fellow This afternoon we headed over to Scenic Hills Country Club to see a "challenger tree" for the Florida Champion Tree Register, which records the largest tree of each species in Florida. Many of these trees are also national champions in the National Register of Big Trees, published every two [read more]
By Leslie Robertson NASF Photo Fellow Today was an extremely full, productive day. Chelsea Ealum, communications and public relations coordinator (and my companion for the week), and I headed over to the Blackwater River Florida Forest Service (FFS) headquarters. We met with Tabatha Kelly Merkley, FFS Forestry Resource Administrator, who went over what we would [read more]
By Leslie Robertson NASF Photo Fellow I spent today going around Harrisburg and wrapping up the week in the office. Ellen Roane, an urban forester, was my companion for the morning and early afternoon. As we revisited sites that had been planted a few years ago, she explained the great things and the challenges that [read more]
By Leslie Robertson NASF Photo Fellow I started today with a tour of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) main office, meeting many friendly new faces and learning a little bit more about the organization. I then met with Dave Schmidt of the communications department and we drove to the Tiadaghton [read more]
