UPCOMING EVENTS:

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Pruning Your Woodlands.  Join Linn County Master Woodland Manager, Aaron White and Extension Forester, Rick Fletcher for a hands-on workshop designed to help you gain new skills at pruning your forest trees.  The group will meet at the White Tree Farm on North Ruby Loop, south of Scio at 9am.  Wear woods clothing, sturdy shoes and be prepared to get a bit pitchy!  The program will conclude by noon.  RSVP to Benton County Extension Service no later than Tuesday, September 7th if you want to ensure we have enough equipment and handouts available for you. 
For more information contact Aaron White at 503-510-1433 or the Benton County Extension Office at 541-766-6750.  The program is free and open to anyone interested.

Thursday, September 23, 2010. 

Management Plan Update Session.  Oregon Tree Farm System has mailed green postcards to remind and help certified landowners to update their management plans. The green card entitles you to a visit from a professional forester and/or help with your management plan from a Master Woodland Manager. So far 53 cards have been returned as well as many emails sent asking for assistance.  Why this flurry of activity? AFF has revised their standards and you may need to tweak your plan to incorporate several activities you may already be doing. Do you check for invasive species that need to be controlled? Well, we’ll help you put that into your plan. It’s that easy.  We’ll meet at 7 PM in Peavy Hall, Room 282 on the OSU Campus (College of Forestry Building). Parking should not be a problem at this time of year.
RSVP to OSU Extension Office, 541-766-6750, so we reserve a desk for you. Bring your management plan and get ready for 2011.

Saturday, September 25, 2010. 

Linn County Tree Farmer of the Year Tour.  Dale and Shirley Crocker have been named Linn County's 2010 Tree Farmers of the Year.  Join them for a tour of their forest on Saturday September 25th.  Crocker’s are well known for having high site land, and managing for a variety of timber products, as well as grazing their forests with cattle.  We will meet at 8:30 AM at Cascade Timber Consulting’s Annex Parking Lot in Sweet Home.   Cascade Timber’s offices are located at 3210 Hwy 20, just east of downtown Sweet Home.  We will carpool from the Annex, to Crocker's which is 6 miles up Hufford Ridge and maybe a half hour drive from the Annex.   The tour will start when we get there and end around noon with lunch provided by our hosts. 
Contact the Benton County Extension Service at 541-766-6750 to sign up no later than September 20th to preregister.  It is important to get a good headcount for this tour for lunch planning purposes.  For more information contact Dave Bateman at 541-302-7725.

Saturday, January 22, 2010.

The Annual Meeting of the Benton County Small Woodlands Association will be held at noon on Saturday, January 22nd, 2010, at the Beazell Forest center .  The program, menu, and cost are yet to be decided.

Ties to the Land for Farms and Forests
***Note date change from previous newsletters***

What will become of your farm or woodland property when your time of ownership comes to a close?  Will your children love it like you do?  What can you do to increase the chances your efforts will be sustained?  This workshop will teach you how to form “ties to the land” that will cross the generations of ownership.  During this first session we will examine how you can form a strategy to win the intergenerational land transfer battle.  You will leave with homework to do over the holidays in getting your family or others together to form your plan.  The group will meet again in early 2011 to share stories and discuss strategies. 

The first session will be held on Saturday, November 6, 9am-noon, at the Forestry Club Cabin, near Peavy Arboretum on McDonald Forest.  Cost for the workshop is $50 per family, and includes the national award winning Ties to the Land workbook.   To participate, you must preregister by contacting the OSU-Benton County Extension Service.  Registrations will be taken until the workshop is full, or until October 11th.   This workshop is sponsored by the Benton Soil and Water Conservation District and the Benton County Extension Service.  A map with location of the Forestry Club Cabin is available from the Benton County Extension Service at 541-766-6750.

Board of Directors