Category Archives: events

Events to kick off Fall

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Here are a couple of upcoming events for small acreage owners, or for those who have multiple activities (farm, livestock, forest) on their land. Click on the program headers for more information.

Small Farms School – Sept. 8th – at Clackamas Community College. An all-day event for beginning farmers and small acreage landowners. Field and classroom workshops will address small farm topics such as crop and livestock production, direct marketing, small-scale equipment, and soil and water conservation.

Rural Living Field Day – Oct. 13 – Echo Glen Farms, North Plains. A fun event for rural landowners with educational topics including wildlife and pollinator habitat, invasive weeds, small scale agriculture, woodland management, livestock and pasture management, and more. Sponsored by West Multnomah, Tualatin and Columbia Soil and Water Conservation Districts.

And also, a bit further afield but sounds like a fun and interesting program…

Family Forest Fair and BBQ – Sept. 15th – near Brownsville. The Oregon Woodland Cooperative invites you to celebrate the Co-op’s recent accomplishments and learn about their latest projects to help small woodland owners diversify their income. Free! Hands-on demonstrations including bundled firewood, specialty milling, medicinals, truffles, figured wood, walking tours and more.

July 28th Tour: Managing Woodland Roads

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The annual OSU Extension/Columbia County Small Woodlands Association summer tour is coming up. This year’s tour happens on Saturday, July 28th at Rod Nastrom’s place in Warren and the program for the day is “Woodland Roads: Best Management Practices”. Two of my Forestry Extension colleagues, Paul Adams and Steve Bowers, will be joining us as instructors for the program. Paul Adams is our Extension Watershed Management Specialist and he has had a long history of working on issues related to forest roads and streams. Steve Bowers, better known to many as the “Treeman”, is our Extension Agent in Douglas County and he brings to this topic his own practical experience as a logger and woodland owner. The two of them will no doubt have plenty of valuable insight to share.

(And, here’s a link to a newly revised Extension publication on the subject of road design for small woodland properties.)

On the tour, we will look at a variety of road designs, surface types, stream crossings, and slopes, and talk about the pros and cons of each. Following the tour will be a picnic lunch graciously provided by CCSWA, and then a firewood processor demonstration in the afternoon. I hope to see many of you there. Click here for a flyer with all the details.

June 23rd “Forest Walk, Talk and Learn”

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Washington County Small Woodlands Association, Build Local Alliance, and OSU Extension are teaming up for a fun and educational forest tour on Saturday, June 23rd in Timber. Spend a day in the coast range at Hyla Woods, owned and managed Peter and Pam Hayes, learning about their family’s approach to caring for their forests, maintaining a healthy ecosystem, and producing high quality wood products for local markets.

Some of the day’s planned highlights:

  • interactive walking tour featuring forest management, wood marketing and connecting to the consumer, monitoring forest and ecosystem changes, and more;
  • Barbecue lunch;
  • “Goods From the Woods” display of products that originate from family owned forests;
  • “Iron Builder” competition!

Thanks to support from the abovementioned sponsors and the Oregon Forest Resources Institute, there’s no charge for this event (although a cash donation to cover the food is suggested).  However, you must RSVP for the cooks’ and volunteers’ sake. Since parking will be tight, you can catch a bus shuttle to the event from Forest Grove with the OSWA Annual Meeting contingent. Details on that when you RSVP (did I mention you must RSVP?).

I have been working with the Hayes family, Washington County Small Woodlands Association leaders, and folks from the Build Local Alliance to plan this event and I am really excited about it. I think it is going to be an outstanding day filled with learning for forest owners, users of wood, or those who are simply interested in learning about their local forests. Download a flyer here.

Bat Chat at the World Forestry Center

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Oregon Forest Resources Institute is sponsoring a “Bat Chat”, Saturday May 5th at 1 pm at the World Forestry Center in Portland. The speakers will feature how wildlife biologists, researchers and land managers can work together to leave and create bat habitat on the landscape. Of interest to those interested in enhancing bat habitat on their land and to bat lovers in general. Click here for the details.

Forest Weed Management Field Day – April 7

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Here’s an announcement for what looks to be a great field tour in Clackamas County on Saturday, April 7th.

“This field tour will cover principles and practices of vegetation management for establishing and maintaining trees in forestry and forest restoration. Key topics include vegetation management with herbicides, nonchemical methods and integrated pest management approaches for selecting and combining methods. Field sites will feature common situations and important weeds that compete for site resources.”
For more information or questions, call Jean at the Clackamas County Extension office, 503-655-8631.

March/April Women Owning Woodlands Network events

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The Oregon Women Owning Woodlands Network has a full schedule of events coming up including a couple locally. These programs are a great way to meet other land owners and get tips for your own property, all in a friendly and informal setting. To learn more about WOWnet, visit the Facebook page. To RSVP for any of the events listed below, contact Anne Walton at anne_zenafarms@yahoo.com.

  • Trail Building – Saturday, March 10, 9 – noon. 3940 NW Owl Drive, Forest Grove
    Hosts: Joan Moss/Peter Bours with Jerri O’Brien
    See the work done by these landowners in building walking and access trails throughout their property. Jerri O’Brien, Master Woodland Manager, Benton County, will share her training and tools in trail building as well.
  • Truffle/Sustainability Tour, Friday, March 30, 9 am – 1 pm, Left Coast Cellars, 4225 N. Pacific Hwy, Rickreall
    Host: Luke McCollum, Farm manager/winemaker, Left Coast Cellars
    Take a hike with Luke through the beautiful property at Left Coast Cellars and see their sustainable management practices in action, their oak savanna restoration area, plus their unique trials in growing the European Black truffle. Enjoy additional information and a delicious lunch/tasting, with the chance to network with our group in their lovely cafe. We filled this tour in February so are offering it again! Husbands and friends are welcome. Make a day of visiting the beautiful Eola-Amity Hills area. $15/lunch/tasting flight offered.
  • Interpreting a Timber Cruise, Saturday, April 14, 9 am – noon, 30151 NW Timber Rd., Timber
    Hosts: Pam and Peter Hayes with Curt Rogers and Todd Balsiger, of Coastline Forestry Consultants
    We will gather in the cabin at Hyla Woods to learn what a cruise report tells you about your timber. We will tour the property to compare what is in a cruise report to what you see on the ground. This is a follow up field trip to our January class.
  • Managing your Property for Wildlife, Thursday April 26, 9 am – noon, Douglas County location TBA
    Program by Nicole Strong, OSU Extension Service

Learn about native turtle conservation Feb. 8

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Native turtle conservation is the subject of a presentation on Feb. 8 in Portland

Oregon Wildlife (Oregon Wildlife Heritage Foundation) invites you to learn about Oregon’s native turtles― the western pond and western painted― at a free presentation by Dan Rosenberg of the Oregon Wildlife Institute. The presentation will be held at the Ecotrust Building in Portland’s Pearl District. A reception begins at 6 p.m. The lecture at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free; registration is required. Register online at the Foundation’s website, www.owhf.org/discoveringwildlife.

Attendees will learn about the state’s two native turtle species and efforts to protect and enhance populations in the Portland area.  The presentation includes information for landowners about voluntary conservation actions that can help native turtles.  Like many of the world’s freshwater turtles, Oregon’s turtle populations are declining due to habitat loss, degradation of nesting areas by invasive plants, competition from invasive turtles, nest predation, and predation on young turtles by invasive aquatic species.

Both the western painted and western pond turtle are listed in the Oregon Conservation Strategy as species in need of help.

For more information or questions, contact the Foundation at (503) 255-6059. The talk will be held at the Billy Frank Jr. Conference Center of the Ecotrust Building in Portland’s Pearl District, 721 NW Ninth Avenue, Portland.

Demystifying a Timber Cruise

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Join the Oregon Women Owning Woodland Network on Saturday, January 21st for a program on “How to Interpret Your Timber Cruise“. Learn how to understand what a cruise report tells you about your timber, when is the right time to have a cruise done, and options for updating an old one. If you have a cruise report from your own property, bring it along to work with.

Date: Saturday, Jan. 21st, 2012
Time: 9 am to noon (brown bag lunch optional)
Location: Hyla Woods, Timber (owned by the Hayes family) – see flyer for directions

Woodland Management 101 – coming in February

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Time to pull out the 2012 calendars! For the 3rd consecutive year, I’ll be teaching a winter shortcourse, Woodland Management 101. If you are  new to owning or managing forested land, this is a great place to start learning about taking care of your property. We’ll cover a little bit of everything, from tree identification to tax issues, over the course of five evenings and one field session. Here’s a flyer with all the details.

Course dates/location: Wednesday evenings, Feb. 1st – 29th, 2012 (Saturday field session Feb. 25); Columbia County Extension office in St. Helens.

Sign up by sending in the registration form or calling the Extension office, (503) 397-3462.