NSWOOA Update Newsletter 50
February 25, 2012
WWW.nswooa.ca
nswooa@gmail.com
902 633 2108
In this Issue:
- Hello Woodlot Owners- Participation and Input
- AGM News
- We Have Questions
- We Get Answers
- Free Workshop in March
- Paying Up
- Input Requested
- How To Contact Us
Hello Woodlot Owners- Participation and Input
How many Annual General Meetings (AGM’s) have you attended? Whatever the answer is, did you get a chance to have your say, to provide advice, to share experience or to give direction? It seems that the meetings are always full of output like reports, guest speakers, and even some times politicians, and that is probably a reasonably good thing. There is always much to tell of what has been done and what is in progress.
With a little luck, this year’s AGM will be a bit less full. There are still house-keeping reports, awards, and topics to cover, but there are two differences: first, that there is more time for informal interaction between members, guests and directors; secondly, a stress on resolutions from the floor.
What are resolutions from the floor? During the business portion of the meeting time is set aside for members of the Association to propose resolutions and to have them debated. Motions passed provide direction and focus for the next year’s activities. This your strongest way of having an impact on what we do and how we do it, and the Board of Director’s best way of knowing that it is doing what the membership desires. Please take the time to write out, to formulate any resolutions that the membership should consider and vote on.
Finally, input to the board also comes from new members elected by the membership. This year we are seeking several new members, and there are several areas where we could use particular skill sets, such as running our website, taking on the challenge of membership co-ordinator, and so on. If you have an interest in our Association’s work and goals, please step forward for nomination by volunteering, or having a fellow member nominate you. Alternately, if you know someone who could be a good director, ask them to accept a nomination.
AGM News
Where: Old Barns
When: April 14
What: All the regular reports, plus Jamie Simpson on clearcutting
Dale Prest on soil testing, community forests
New Outreach Program
Friend of the Acadian Forest Award
Membership Market- sell your services, products
Door prizes
Cost: $10 for members,$20 for non members (Includes meal).
Also: Renew memberships, subscribe to Atlantic Forestry Review
Tentative Agenda and all the details to follow, next issue.
We Get Questions
This issue has two questions and they are difficult. What makes them difficult is that they seem so easy. In its new forest management strategy the Government of Nova Scotia has decided to restrict the amount of clearcutting done in Nova Scotia. Indeed, industry and some others now have backed away from the term clearcut, preferring “intensive harvest,” or such euphemism, as if using another name means that the same things are not going on. Now all we need to know is what qualifies as a clear cut. If a harvest sight is cleaned of every stick of merchantable wood, but the alders and grey birch left to grow, is it a clear cut? Is a shelterwood a clear cut? Is it a clear cut if most of the trees left behind blow down? The government simply has to have a simple, practical and easily applied method to determine what is allowed, and if the standards are too easily achieved, has anything changed at all.
This issue’s questions then are: What is a clearcut? and , What is not a clearcut?
We Get Answers.
Last issue’s question was :
What is so special about Oak leaves compared to others, or even to needles?
I have a gardening book called The Vegetable Gardeners Bible by Ed Smith, which speaks about Oak leaves as being especially good for garden soil. No reason about why specifically, but he states that "they contain micronutrients drawn from the depths of the earth." Perhaps the deep tap roots of oaks provide more of these nutrients from a greater depth?
Softwood needles make for a more acidic soil than leaves, thus a lower soil pH. Don't put the needles or softwood bark, for that matter on your garden for this reason.
I learned at Ranger School that our best forest soils are under the hardwoods. Softwood forest soils are acidic. Probably good for growing softwood, but soil quality is not a good overall.
Dr. Wilfred Creighton stated that the Germans had concluded that perhaps the best forest overall was a mixedwood. Makes sense, greater diversity and the all important leaf litter effect.
Tom Miller
Greenhill, NS
Free Workshop Offered- Practical Information
March 10 & 17
Learn how to manage the natural forest
from “start (what) to finish (how)”!
You are invited to join Picea Forestry Consulting and North Nova Forest Owners Co-Op Ltd. on woodlot walks for an “on-the ground” learning experience focused on identifying vegetation in the Acadian Forest to help you become more familiar with what your forest contains and how selection harvesting can help achieve multiple forest values. From 12:30 pm to 4:30 pm on Saturday March 10 and Saturday March 17, we will take a small group of woodlot owners and silviculture contractors to visit woodlots in the Tatamagouche area of Colchester County and in the Pugwash area of Cumberland County. We hope you will be interested in attending.
The walks will help build an understanding of the natural Acadian Forest—its structure, composition, and functions. They will also show how basic understanding of the ecology of the Acadian Forest helps forest managers improve forest health, growth, and diversity and how to implement appropriate methods in an ecologically responsible manner.
The woodlot walks are free and are being presented with funding from the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources. As compared to the last series of walks held in the Fall 2011, these walks will be of similar content but will be offered in different locations on different woodlots.
These two woodlot walks held on March 10 and 17 will introduce woodlot owners and contractors to woodlot ecology and ecosystem-based forest management (EBFM). However this time around there will be more emphasis on common tree and shrub identification to help woodlot owners identify what their forest contains and how to use the FEC vegetation type guide. In addition to identification of common tree, shrubs and other plants during winter months these walks will also aim to answer such questions as:
What are site indicator species? What species are known as indicator species on certain site and soil conditions?
What species are commonly found in association with one another?
What does this mean in terms of site and soil conditions (productivity), natural succession patterns and stages of development?
How do I know what species are suitable to grow on certain sites?
How do I recognize growth potential?
How do forests succeed from early to late stages of development?
How do I recognize past human-caused and natural disturbances?
How can natural disturbance patterns and processes of natural mortality be mimicked through partial harvesting activities? How can you increase site productivity over time?
What are regenerating and tending and what activities are aimed at regenerating and tending?
How can I take advantage of available silviculture subsidies to help meet management objectives?
To register, or for additional information on these programs, please call 902-527-1222 or email piceaeducation@gmail.com. We will be limiting participation in order to ensure plenty of time for interaction among the participants. So if you would like to come, please register right away and please specify which woodlot walk you wish to attend. Spaces will be given out on first-come, first-served basis. Thank you
Paying Up
NSWOOA - 2012 Membership Application/
Renewal of Membership Form
( ) Renewal ( ) New
Name: ____________________________________________________________
Business Name: ____________________________________________________
Mailing Address: ___________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
Telephone Number: ________________ Email Address:_____________________
1. ______I am a woodlot owner / operator? County: ____________________
All woodlot owners and operators become Regular Members (see below), with full voting rights in both the NSWOOA and in the NSWOOA – Otter Ponds Demonstration Forest Division.
______I want to join NSWOOA as an Affiliate or Associate Member (see below) in support of the Otter Ponds Demonstration Forest Division. My membership fees will primarily be directed to support the NSWOOA – OPDF Division. An Associate member has full voting rights in the OPDF Division only.
______ Student Associate membership
Regular Membership: open to anyone owning, leasing, renting or controlling woodland or to anyone who is a producer, and who supports the NSWOOA Mission Statement.
Affiliate and Associate Membership: open to organizations and individuals having similar aims and objects as the NSWOOA, and who support the NSWOOA Mission Statement.
_____Membership Cost- $30/year Student membership $10/year.
_____Subscription to Atlantic Forestry Review - $15/ year (special rate)
Please mail applications and cheques to: NSWOOA
PO Box 823
Truro, NS B2N 5G6
Mission Statement
NSWOOA is an independent organization of woodlot owners and operators achieving prosperity, stewardship, and solidarity through the practice of ecologically, socially, and economically sustainable forestry. Truly sustainable forest management means that all values of our woodlands -- ecological, social, cultural and economic -- must be preserved for future generations. The NSWOOA supports woodlot owners and operators in sustainable forestry through education, demonstration, marketing, and cooperation.
I support the aims, goals, and Mission Statement of NSWOOA:
Signature_____________________________________________________
Lines of Communication
Members are encouraged to contact the Board of Directors, the Executive and other members through our email address (nswooa@gmail.com) or by phone (902-633-2108). Please feel free to use these methods to keep us informed of what is going on in your woodlot or in your community or area. We try to keep you informed through these updates, newsletters and mail outs, our column in Atlantic Forestry Review, the Annual General Meeting, and the website: http://www.nswooa.ca
