Latest News

Throughout the month we receive notice of interesting and relevant research and items. These items come from partner organizations. We'll use this space to share these items with you.

Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn announced that the plan that will chart the course of Pennsylvania's future state forests has been finalized and is now available on the DCNR website.

Ferns, low growing shrubs and trees, and canopy trees all change the quantity of light, but they also change the quality of light.

Pennsylvania was one of 17 state teams that competed in the 37th annual National 4-H Forestry Invitational from Sunday, July 31, through Thursday, August 4.

Throughout the month we receive notice of interesting and relevant research and items. These items come from partner organizations. We'll use this space to share these items with you.

Poison Hemlock is aggressively spreading in many regions of Pennsylvania.

Looking around the places where we live and work, it does not take long to find at least one sign of trees that are stressed by a shortage of rainfall across Pennsylvania.

Editor’s Note: Bill Paxton passed away on April 22, 2016. In his many years crafting the dendrology column, he covered myriad species naturally occurring in the state. He was always working ahead on his writing and drawings so this piece represents the second to last we have in hand to share with you. We will miss Bill’s passion and curiosity for plants and his willingness to share his enthusiasm with others in an engaging and welcoming manner. Please keep his family in your thoughts and send a quiet thank you to Bill for all that he shared over the years.

Penn State Forest Resources Extension has just released the third in a series of Forest Science Fact Sheets. The latest in the series, entitled Controlling Understory Fern Competition for Regeneration Success, provides in-depth practical information on issues surrounding understory fern abundance.

Well educated and prepared timber harvesters are critical to the management of Pennsylvania’s forests.

US Green Building Council Announces New Pathway to Encourage Environmentally Responsible Forest Management in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design

Second Quarter updates from the Pennsylvania Tree Farm Committee.

Penn State Extension is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Kimberly Bohn to the position of Extension Forestry Educator based in McKean County.

The Center for Private Forests at Penn State is pleased to introduce our newly-published Woodland Nature Journal-Tracking Changes Through the Seasons.

Last Stand is a rare three-in-one book that works. It is an excellent biography of an important American scientist and conservationist (George Bird Grinnell), a thoughtful history book about the decimation of North America’s buffalo herds, and an interesting exploration into the human psyche concerning the tragedy of the commons, in this case why people were willing to kill off the last few buffaloes even though they knew the next one they killed might well be the last.

Throughout the month we receive notice of interesting and relevant research and items. These items come from partner organizations. We'll use this space to share these items with you.

Throughout the month we receive notice of interesting and relevant research and items. These items come from partner organizations. We'll use this space to share these items with you.

From a sustainability perspective, there are right ways and wrong ways to cut trees. A well-planned and executed timber sale focuses on two outcomes: What are you leaving to manage in the future (the residual)? Or, what will or have you done to establish or release regeneration (the next forest)?

Driving around Pennsylvania this time of year, we’ve seen or are starting to see leaf bud break on many trees. Leaf out gives a good idea of what should be happening, but maybe isn’t.

High-graded acreage is a primary driver impeding movement toward sustained yield. Once a woodlot is high-graded, poor quality timber will occupy the site for generations before another harvest producing high-quality products can occur.