At the Center: Biennial Forest Landowners Conferences

By Allyson Muth, James C. Finley Center for Private Forests Director

For the fifth time, the Biennial Forest Landowners Conference is set to occur this March 2023. For each conference since the first in 2013, hundreds of landowners and forest stewardship professionals have gathered for learning and networking opportunities to care well for the woods. Since the inception of the idea in early 2012, soon after the Center for Private Forests was founded, the goal was to bring people together to learn about and celebrate all things forest stewardship. While numerous organization-based events or professional events were common in our state, we wanted to create an event to which everyone felt comfortable coming. Celebration of the efforts of private forest landowners was central to our vision of the conference, combined with learning and access to resources to help others take care of their woods. While the Center organized the event, its success was directly tied to the commitment and participation of dozens of partner organizations and hundreds of volunteers—both resource professionals and landowners—who shared the vision and wanted to help make it happen. We crafted a full day and a half agenda with 99 concurrent session offerings over nine time slots, brought in renowned keynote speakers to inspire us, added intensive learning events through field tours and workshops, and welcomed dozens of partner organizations and resource providers to be conduits for landowners, from learning to action. The overall structure of the event hasn’t changed since the first one. It remains a time of engagement and enthusiasm, a time of connection and celebration, a time of learning and listening. And every two years, hundreds of landowners, professionals, and interested members of the public have joined in. Now, after a hiatus in 2021 due to COVID, the James C. Finley Center for Private Forests at Penn State and its myriad partners are glad to be able to hold this event again. We’re excited to once again invite you to join us for the 5th Biennial Forest Landowners Conference March 24 and 25, 2023 at the Penn Stater Hotel and Conference Center in State College. As in the previous four conferences, these two days are filled with learning opportunities ranging from novice woodland owner topics of interest to more advanced, from learning about management strategies to improve forest health to creating habitat for small wildlife, from overstory removal to forest regeneration, and everything in between and off to the sides. The biennial conferences were created to enhance your relationship with trees and forests and expand your network of resources and link you to a community that shares a connection to forests. Your deep connection to your woods, your love of your land, your pride in your accomplishments, and your collective efforts to confront challenges are the reasons for this gathering. Our goal is to help good things happen on those woods through informed decision-making and actions, with the result that we all have healthier, resilient, and more sustainable forests. We hope you’ll join us and hundreds of your fellow landowners to learn about and celebrate how and why we take care of the woods.