Pennsylvania Tree Farm: Committee Meeting News

By Susan Benedict, PA Tree Farm Committee Chair

In our August committee meeting, we began to look at how the PA Tree Farm Program can support the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) in their statewide forestry goals. The PA Forestry Association’s November Symposium will feature presentations and discussion of the PA DCNR Bureau of Forestry’s Strategic Plan, including their forestry goals for private landowners. This is very timely for our committee’s efforts and I encourage ALL to attend and ask questions so we can be clear on where we can focus efforts to help them meet their goals.

Monte Kapec made an excellent point during our meeting: in encouraging landowner engagement, especially in completing on-the-ground projects, mentorship is a key factor. This is where joint effort with the Pennsylvania Forest Stewards could be an exciting way to achieve the mentorship needed to begin to see real on-the-ground successes. Nancy Baker, PA Forest Stewards Steering Committee Chair, and I have had discussions on this and agreed to look at how we can increase mentorship among private landowners.

Committee members also discussed how the Tree Farm Program in Pennsylvania could work with the PA DCNR and the PA Forest Stewards program to identify opportunities for forest management activities which support DCNR’s goals and resources to accomplish the work, and then identify interested Tree Farmers—or other forest owners—to host the needed work on their land and connect them to the resources. It is a simple vision that will take a lot of work to implement, but the potential results are breathtaking, at least to me.

Our Outstanding Tree Farmer of the Year for 2022, Monte Kapec, has agreed to host a Tree Farm Field Day at his property on October 21. More details will follow; but all Tree Farmers should definitely save the date!

Our next Tree Farm Committee meeting is November 9 at 10 a.m. We encourage all interested to attend. Email me at ssb4295@gmail.com to be added to the meeting notice.

For more information about the PA Tree Farm program, visit their webpage at www.paforestry.org/treefarm.