At the Center: Looking Back at the 2023 Forest Landowners Conference

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

     After a four-year hiatus, instead of the usual two, the 2023 Forest Landowners Conference returned to great success. For two days in March, over 430 forest landowners, natural resources professionals, and others interested in forest stewardship came together to learn, network, get help with questions, and build the community of people who care about the woods.
     With a day and a half of presentations, plus tours and workshops, keynote speakers, and access to professionals who could provide advice and technical services, the goals of the conference were to inform, educate, and connect. Based on evaluations, we more than met those goals.
     On Friday morning, over 140 participants took part in pre-conference in-depth field tours and workshops. Field trips to the Penn State Deer Research Center and a winter tree identification session were well-attended, with many others taking trips to learn about biochar application, woods safety, and timber harvesting aesthetics. Back at the conference venue, other participants spent time in workshops around wood identification, things landowners should know about carbon and carbon contracts, and conservation-based estate planning.
     Dr. Jennie Stephens, Executive Director of the Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation, opened the conference on Friday with a keynote on the work of her Center and the challenges of management and legacy planning on properties without clear title. Akiva Silver, author and tree farm operator, closed out the conference on Saturday afternoon with a talk about his approach to stewarding and improving a property in western New York. On Friday night, almost 200 conference participants joined Scott Weidensaul, ornithologist and author, for a banquet and keynote about birds, bird habitat, and challenges to their systems as caused by human impacts on the land.
     Between keynotes, participants had their choices of 74 different presentations to attend to learn more about the various topics that most captured their interests and needs. Popular talks included autumn olive, forest forensics, pollinator plantings, restoring degraded forests, wildlife habitat, cost share assistance programs, surveying, forest resilience, and many more. And once attendees had learned about a new idea or resource in a learning session, they could then go to the exhibit hall to find someone from the 34 exhibitors present to help them make those things happen.
     We are so grateful for all the partners who made this event successful for so many—from the presenters sharing their expertise, the planning committee helping to structure the event to be most useful, the exhibitors sharing their resources to assist woodland owners, to the 34 sponsors who shared resources to reduce costs for attendees. We couldn’t have made this event happen without you!
     Thank you to all who joined us, and we hope to see you in two years’ time at the 6th Biennial Forest Landowners Conference.

Opening keynote speaker Jennie
Stephens shared about the challenges of
managing properties without clear title.

Landowners found conversation
and resources at the 34 exhibits in Exhibit
Hall

The popular
winter tree ID field tour drew 25 participants

A Saturday morning presentation on habitat
management projects for small woodlots was
a favorite