Maine
We’ve had 6 inches of rain in the past three weeks. Leaves are all curled up and some discoloration. This is going on over 500 yards along the road. Any ideas?
Our forest took a big hit from hurricane Helene in NC. I don’t know if we had a few of these before, but they have definitely taken the opportunity to start growing in some clearings. My concern after reading about them, and watching them, is how fast they grow and spread. I am afraid these are going to start taking over before some of the native trees have a chance.
I’ve read mixed reviews on how to deal with these. The root structures are huge, I don’t know if we can get a machine up there to get them out, due to the incline. Is the next best bet to cut them down and paint the stump with a systemic herbicide. I read one person cut theirs and they ended up having others pop up around it from the original root system (not sure if this actually happens).
I’m unfamiliar with these trees and appreciate any advice to get on top of them before they get out of control.
Thank you! 🌱
I am a few years post-grad working in the industry and I am looking to get out or move on to something with a different career trajectory within the industry. I have been working with a utility contractor and just can't stand it anymore, and I know going back into the woods full time as a field tech is not gonna sit well with me either.
I'm wondering if anyone has made a pivot to get into more work related to international development, climate change research, policy, etc. Those are the things that interested me the most when I was a student, and I miss actively talking and working with people on those issues. I want to be able to travel more and have high upward mobility. Any thoughts on how this could be done? I am getting the feeling that forestry is becoming a bit of a dead-end career. I hope that isn't true but any insight on how to get "unstuck" from menial work or low-paying managerial jobs would be appreciated.
See also: The publication in Nature Sustainability
I started a few months ago as a resource analyst at a forestry consulting firm here in Canada, and somewhere along the way the engagement and consultation piece landed on my desk. A lot of our work is on Crown land that overlaps First Nations traditional territory, so it matters and I want to get it right.
Right now we don't really document any of it consistently. Meetings happen, commitments get made, someone remembers most of it, and then when it's time to write a report showing what we did and what we actually followed through on, we're scrambling to reconstruct it from emails and memory.
I'd like to track this properly as we go, both for the reporting side and so we're not leaning on one person's memory. I'm a bit out of my depth on how to set that up though.
How do you all keep record of consultation and the commitments that come out of it?
Fire has long been an ecological force on Alabama’s landscape. Historically, lightning-ignited fires and indigenous land-management practices maintained open, park-like forests dominated by fire-tolerant species, such as longleaf pine, yaupon, and rivercane. Read more about growing season prescribed burns here: https://www.aces.edu/blog/topics/fire/prescribed-fire-burning-during-the-growing-season/
When I get bit by a black fly I will get swelling at the bite site. Usually if it’s on arm or leg or torso it’s okay but when they get at my neck and face it’s a whole different story.
I use a buff under my bug net and have a good on at all times when I’m working (silvi surveys). But the other day they were just horrible! Like big swarms everywhere and so ofc I had some wiggle their way in.
I had the worst swelling yet on my face and had to sit back a day in order to see as my eyes were almost closed. I take anti histamines and they don’t really help.
(TLDR:) I’m just wondering if anyone else is like me and pretty allergic to these annoying things and what they do. Do you have to carry an epi pen? Are you prescribed anything? Tips for getting through it?
I’m a bit nervous of it getting worse and hopefully I don’t have to leave the field anytime soon…
Some context: I’m a service forester with a state agency in north-central Appalachia. I’m also a 5’1” woman and have been in this position for about a year. Before this, I worked for the feds in R8 and honestly, the only major issues I ever had were with some Amish logging operations. even those eventually got sorted out.
Overall, I have a great relationship with my loggers. If I ask 95% of them for something, they usually get it to me pretty quickly, and our interactions are respectful and professional. Then there’s this one drama queen. I’m doing an initial inspection and I noticed that on the forum the state received there’s some errors on location and there’s also some adjacent land clearing happening right next to the job. So much that it’s hard to delineate what’s the operation or the clearing. Because of highway permits and other logistics, I need to know if the logger decides to move his landing to a different spot along the road as well as job boundaries and updating his form. Pretty standard stuff.
So today I gave him a call, introduced myself, and asked that he let me know if the landing location changes and if he could get back to me as soon as he could.
Apparently, this was a grave violation of his constitutional rights.
Instead of a minute long conversation, I got a five-minute lecture on how I had wronged him as a sovereign citizen, how I had no authority to bother him while he was on vacation with his wife (who was apparently sitting next to him and shaking her head at me on speakerphone), and how the State now owes him compensation for this inconvenience. I’ve cut down a lot of the screaming and language used but I think y’all can get the picture. The situation was interesting enough that my supervisor ended up spending 30 minutes on the phone with him afterward.
Now, I’m still pretty green, but I’ve already been offered meth, dealt with Amish 12-year-olds running equipment, and a decent amount of wtfs. According to the person whose position I overtook, he’s requested Forester changes so many times that it’s an inconvenience for the state to deal with him and send a new service forester out, so I’m most likely gonna be dealing with him again; I have a meeting with my supervisor and a higher up tomorrow about the situation, plus they knew what happened the second I got off the phone with the drama queen, so truly idk what’s going to go on with that. I’ve been told verbally by my supervisors that they believe my account.
I can honestly say this is the first time I’ve apparently incurred a state debt by asking someone to let me know if they move a landing.
For those of yall’ve been doing this longer than I have: how do you handle drama queen loggers? I’d love to hear your stories because I have a feeling this won’t be my last.
Hello, I am a student using a DBH tape for a project I’m doing, specifically the one from forestry suppliers, and my tape is broken very strangely. When wound the correct direction, this is tightening down the screw holding it together, eventually to the point where it can no longer be wound anymore. When wound the opposite way, it quickly becomes too loose and then completely falls apart. Any advice or insight into this would be great as I am unable figure out what the issue is since it just happened out of nowhere. Attached is a video of the issue
Hi everyone! I am looking to connect with people who are passionate about restoring our native Philippine forests. I am planning to start a Rainforestation project on a plot of land in northern Leyte and I want to do it right.
Instead of a typical monoculture tree planting, the goal is to use the VSU/GTZ methodology: planting exclusively native and endemic species (like Lauan, Narra, Yakal, and native fruit trees) to create a self-sustaining, multi-layered forest ecosystem.
I am looking for people who want to collaborate on:
🌲 Sourcing & Seedlings: Finding local mother trees, collecting wildlings, or sourcing from native nurseries.
🗺️** Site Pl**anning: Designing the three-storied canopy layout and clearing aggressive weeds.
🤝 Community/Hands-on Help: Getting dirty on the ground when planting season starts.
Whether you are a professional forester, an environmental student, a local landowner, or just someone tired of seeing greenwashed commercial tree-plantings, I would love to chat!
If you’re interested, drop a comment below or send me a DM with:
- Your general location or background.
- Any experience you have with native trees (beginners are absolutely welcome too!).
- How you'd like to get involved.
Let’s bring back the native Philippine rainforests together! 🌦️🌳✨
Eastern North Carolina Coastal Plain.
I nearly stepped on it and it never even sang to me and barely moved it's head to look at me. I suspect it may be a female in the process of laying eggs.
I have had a large one give me the alarm right as my foot was about to land on it. If you haven't heard it in person before it sounds an awful lot like air rushing out of a small hole in an aerosol can. But in my experiences rattlesnakes are typically pretty docile and just want to get away from you. Copperheads and especially Cottonmouths are typically more aggressive from what I've seen.
I'd honestly pay pretty good money to know exactly how many venomous snakes I've come within 10 feet of and was none the wiser.
And yes, I wear snake gaiters every single day in the warm seasons. Be safe out there folks!
I painted this piece ''Hiking accident'', because people kept telling me that going into nature alone is dangerous, so I figured this is the worst case scenario, that some unknown beast is trying to lick your butt while you are climbing a tree!
Hi all,
My best friend is an environmental researcher and she talks about how she badly wants an increment borer but cannot find one for an affordable price. After some digging, I found one for a price I can afford.
Are there lots of legal issues that can/will arise from this? I'm not saying we will go sample a bunch of tree from a NP, but like is there a place that says where we can do this?
How often do you have to sharpen it? I know that this part is inevitable, but I don't want to give her a gift that has a second financial burden. At least not one that is immediate and often.
Edit:
Also, out of curiosity, is there a way to display the cores or like how do you keep them? Can you keep them?
Thanks for any help!
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has moved to rescind protection for nearly 45 million acres of roadless areas, justifying the move in part as being necessary to “reduce wildfire risk and help protect surrounding communities and infrastructure,” despite the existing rule’s exception that allows for the removal of small diameter trees in roadless areas.
Rescinding roadless area protections is not the answer. Roadless areas do not burn at significantly higher rates than other areas of national forests. Since wildfires in national forests are more likely to start in proximity to roads than in roadless areas, building more roads could increase human-caused wildfire ignitions. And, as this story map shows, roadless areas have accounted for only 1% of all significant wildfires in the lower 48 states since 2010.
i can successfully get to the interview stage for many many forest manager roles and my previous forestry operative/tree planting experience combined with my newly aquired degree seems to get many bites but i seem to fall flat post interview and the application is never successful (despite very good feedback for the interviews!) which leads me to believe 2 things:
current grad schemes are too competitive for most “normal” graduates (and many are not willing to help relocate and choose closer applicants!)
the market for forest managers must be overstaturated (despite what ive been told countless times!!)
i have even been invited up to inverness for a site visit after a good interview (they paid for everything room, fuel, food) and i thought for SURE i had that one? I was one of 3!!! Applicants to the job?!
im at my wits end. any ideas? Thanks