Illinois Forestry Association Events

Winnebago County: NWTF "Women in the Outdoors" Event and Habitat Field Day (05/19/2012)

Sat, 19 May 2012 11:45:00 GMT

The National Wild Turkey Federation will host this two simultaneous all-day events - one event for women in the outdoors and one event for land managers - ideal for couples to attend.

The Women in the Outdoors event includes expert instruction in eleven activities:
• archery
• shot gun / air rifle
• soap making
• jewelry making
• backyard habitat
• feather painting
• basic handgun
• self defense
• pressed flowers
• quilting
• container gardening
The $50 registration fee includes your choice of four activities with equipment usage, light breakfast, lunch and beverages, Women in the Outdoors membership, subscription to Turkey Country magazine, door prizes, raffles, and winetasting.

For more information on this event, contact Marcia Polhamus at mpolhms@aol.com or 815-222-5010.

The Habitat Field Day for land managers includes expert instruction in these areas:
• forest management
• food plots
• native warm season grass management
• wetlands
• several other topics
The $10 registration fee includes lunch. Attendees should dress for mild field hiking.

For more information and to register for this event, contact Kent Adams at kadamsrb@nwtf.net or 217-690-4950.

Jackson County: Field Day (05/19/2012)

Sat, 19 May 2012 13:00:00 GMT

Field Day to include:

Invasive species identification
Specifics of herbicide application
Live demonstrations of control techniques
Management techniques and ideas
NRCS conservation programs

Speakers:
Chris Evans, River to River Cooperative Weed Specialist
Ryan Pankau, NRCS Conservation Forester

This program is free and open to the public
No pre-registration necessary
For questions, call the Jackson County SWCD, 618-684-3064, ext. 3.

Rain or Shine
Please dress accordingly
Attendees will need to walk a forested trail of moderate difficulty to access demonstration sites.

Directions:
Take route 13 west from Carbondale. Turn left (south) at Silkworm onto Sezmore Dr. Follow Sezmore Dr. south for 0.3 miles around the Silkworm Building to Lee Lane. Turn left (east) onto Lee Lane. Continue on Lee Lane for approximately 300 ft. and turn right into the 3rd driveway on the right (south). Watch for signs.

Sponsors:
Jackson County SWCD
River-to-River Cooperative Wed Management Area
USDA NRCS

McHenry County: Threats to Forest Health Workshop (05/19/2012)

Sat, 19 May 2012 14:00:00 GMT

Come learn about invasive insects, diseases, and plants impacting your woods. As part of Illinois Invasive Species Awareness Month, this two hour workshop will discuss how to identify these invaders, steps to prevent them from invading your property, and management recommendations. The workshop has two segments: invasive plants, and invasive pests and diseases, both specific to northern Illinois.

Forest Invasive Plants on Your Property; Know How to Identify Them and What to Do About Them

Topics include how to identify forest invasive plants, both those that are wide spread and those that are new to the region. Learn how to control these species and about regional programs that bring many partners together to help limit the spread of new forest pests. Species to be discussed include bush honeysuckles, European buckthorn, multiflora roser, garlic mustard, oriental bittersweet, Chinese yam, Japanese stiltgrass, and lesser celandine. Participants will also be introduced to the New Invaders Watch Program.

Invasive Pests/Diseases

In conjunction with Invasive Species Awareness Month (ISAM), this roughly one hour segment will cover two invasive species in detail and touch on a few other pests of concern; Asian longhorn beetle, thousand cankers disease, Chinese longhorn beetle, sudden oak death and bur oak blight. All of these species pose a significant threat to Illinois' forests and urban areas. Basic identification and symptom information will be reviewed along with current range and State efforts at reducing species introduction and impact. New efforts for raising awareness across the State will be discussed. If time allows, a brief discussion regarding these efforts from the attendees will be encouraged.

The goal of this segment is to provide a refresher in ID and symptoms of potential threats and improve awareness of the critical programs which aim to help detect the presence of future invasive pests and diseases.

This workshop will be held at 10 am at the McHenry County Conservation District's Prairieview Education Center, 2nd floor, located at 2112 Behan Road, Crystal Lake, Illinois 60014. The workshop is free and open to the public.

Sponsors include the Illinois Forestry Association, River-to-River Cooperative Weed Management Area, Lake County Forest Preserves, McHenry County Conservation District, and the Morton Arboretum.

For more information, contact Andi Dierich at 630-725-2110.

Menard County: Tour of Starhill Aboretum (05/19/2012)

Sat, 19 May 2012 14:00:00 GMT

The Illinois Forestry Association invites you to attend a program entitled "Think Like A Tree" given by host Guy Sternberg at the Starhill Forest Arboretum, Petersburg, Illinois on Saturday, May 19, 2012 at 10 am, followed by a tour of the grounds. Guy is an arborist, tree consultant, lecturer and author of the book "Native Trees for North American Landscapes". Guy and his wife Edie have owned the Arboretum since 1976. Starhill is noted for its living collection of North American oak species. Attendance will be limited to the first 30 individuals who preregister on the www.ilforestry.org website, so make your plans and preregister.

No fee is required, but we would like to ask you to donate 2-3 hours of work at the arboretum immediately following the program (Pulling weeds around trees, spreading mulch, or picking up sticks on trails). An alternative could be to make a modest donation to Starhill or come out for a their work day on April 14th. For more details, you can visit the website at www.starhillforest.com or call Carol Bryant at 618/444-3864.

Jo Daviess County: Pruning/Thinning Demonstration (05/19/2012)

Sat, 19 May 2012 17:00:00 GMT

On Saturday, May 19th, at 1:00 pm, the Northwest Illinois Forestry Association will be sponsoring a tour of the Nasuh Khatib Farm, 4515 West Council Hill Rd., Scales Mound. Over the past 23 years, Mr. Khatib has planted several Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) plots to trees in various combinations of black walnut, cherry, and pine. The pine were used as trainers to grow the more valuable walnut and cherry into straight, merchantable lumber trees. This last winter, consulting forester Kevin Oetken of Woodland Forestry Consulting, Monmouth, IA, conducted a thinning of the stands by girdling selected trees. Mr. Oetken will be on hand to discuss the work performed and the goals Mr. Khatib is striving to accomplish. Anyone interested in woodland improvement should plan to attend this informative timber management event.

To get to the farm, head west on Stagecoach Trail from the Elizabeth-Scales Mound Rd. intersection for about one mile. Just past the “Jesus Saves” sign, turn north on West Council Hill Rd. and go approx. 2.5 miles to “4515”.

Webinar: Invasive Plants in Illinois Woodlands (05/21/2012)

Mon, 21 May 2012 23:00:00 GMT

Want to know how best to protect your woodlands from the worst plant invaders? Want to know how to get rid of them if you have them?

identify them
learn their lifecycle which gives clues to
attack them and stop their spread

This webinar will help you do these three things.

This one hour program will cover the common species invading forestlands in Illinois, including garlic mustard, bush honeysuckle, autumn olive, multiflora rose, Japanese honeysuckle, Japanese stiltgrass, Oriental bittersweet, and common buckthorn. Also, management techniques, planning, specific control recommendations, as well as tips for preventing the spread of invasive plants will be addressed.

The presenter is Chris Evans, Coordinator of the River-to-River Cooperative Weed Management Area, a partnership between 12 federal and state agencies, organizations, and universities aimed at coordinating efforts and programs for addressing the threat of invasive plants in eleven southern Illinois counties.

This is the first hour of a two-part program on invasive plants and pests threatening Illinois forests. This first hour will deal with the invasive plants. A second one-hour program will cover invasive insect pests on May 22nd.

Participants on a PC must be using
Windows 7, Vista, XP, or 2003Server.
Participants on a MacIntosh must be using
OS X 10.5 or later.

To register for this no-charge webinar, CLICK HERE.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Sponsors for this program are the Illinois Forestry Association, the River to River Cooperative Weed Management Area, and the Morton Arboretum.

Webinar: Invasive Pests & Diseases in Illinois Woodlands (05/22/2012)

Tue, 22 May 2012 23:00:00 GMT

Want to learn about the most serious pest and disease problems affecting Illinois woodlands?

This one-hour program will cover two invasive species in detail and touch on other serious pests of concern - Asian longhorn beetle, thousand cankers disease, Chinese longhorn beetle, sudden oak death and bur oak blight. All of these species pose a significant threat to Illinois' forests and urban areas. Basic identification and symptom information will be reviewed along with current range and State efforts at reducing species introduction and impact. New efforts for raising awareness across the State will be discussed. If time allows, a brief discussion regarding these efforts from the attendees will be encouraged.

The goal of this segment is to provide a refresher in ID and symptoms of potential threats and improve awareness of the critical programs which aim to help detect the presence of future invasive pests and diseases.

The presenter is Andi Dierich, Coordinator for the Forest Pest Outreach and Survey Program of the Morton's Arboretum, an internationally-recognized 1,700-acre institution with extensive educational programming for all ages, leading research on tree health and tree improvement, breeding and introduction hardy and disease-resistant trees and shrubs for distribution throughout the Midwest, and presenting nature-related activities year-round for people of all ages and interests.

This is the second of a two-part program on invasive plants and pests threatening Illinois forests. The first hour dealing with the invasive plants is offered on Monday, May 21st.

Participants on a PC must be using
Windows 7, Vista, XP, or 2003Server.
Participants on a MacIntosh must be using
OS X 10.5 or later.

To register for this no-charge webinar, CLICK HERE.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Sponsors for this program are the Illinois Forestry Association, the River to River Cooperative Weed Management Area, and the Morton Arboretum.

Jo Daviess County: Ties to the Land (06/09/2012)

Sat, 09 Jun 2012 17:00:00 GMT

This is a 4 hour workshop that addresses how to discuss passing land on to your children and heirs. While other seminars will discuss Trusts and LLCs and Corporations as vehicles to transfer the legal ownership of your land to your heirs, often the most difficult obstacle is how to broach the ways your estate is to be split among your children. A fee of $26.00 will cover the workbook needed for the workshop. Register here online using PayPal and your credit card or by mail to (check payable to) Northwest Illinois Forestry Association, 146 N. Apple River Road, Stockton, IL 61085. Registrations must be completed by May 24th to allow time to order the workbooks.

Kentucky: Northern Nut Growers Annual Meeting (07/22/2012)

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 21:00:00 GMT

When details about this conference are available, they will be posted on the Northern Nut Growers website.

Champaign County: Annual Walnut Council Meeting (07/29/2012)

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 21:00:00 GMT

The International Walnut Council's annual meeting will include a Monday field trip to Forest Glen Preserve near Danville for these discussions: crop tree release, density studies, HTIRC research plots, a "walk through" soil pit, butternuts, deer browse, a forest conversion area, invasive species ID and control, chestnut plantings, crown openings in a natural stand from storm damage. On Tuesday, attendees will tour Brownfield Woods, a virgin woodlot near Urbana, and see demonstrations by local woodworkers. The meeting will also include a chainsaw safety seminar by expert Joe Glenn and a dynamic Fossil Forest presentation.

The agenda will be finalized in early 2012.

Jo Daviess County: Annual Illinois Tree Farm Meeting (09/29/2012)

Sat, 29 Sep 2012 12:00:00 GMT

The Illinois Tree Farm Committee will hold its annual meeting at the tree farm owned by Illinois Tree Farmers of the Year for 2011, Jerry and Marge Misek. This will be an all-day event with lunch included and advance registration required.

Further details will be available later this year at the Illinois Tree Farm website.

Jo Daviess County: Regeneration of Harvest Sites (10/13/2012)

Sat, 13 Oct 2012 17:00:00 GMT

Tom Arnold will host a tour of timber harvest sites and forest regeneration on his Tree Farm northeast of Elizabeth. 15 acre hardwood clearcut in winter 2011/2012, selective walnut harvest in 2008 and 2010, 4 acre hardwood clear cut in 1995. Timber management goals and implementation will be discussed. The Arnold Farm is at 997 Salem Road, Elizabeth, Illinois.

Jo Daviess County: NIFA Planning Meeting (11/13/2012)

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT

NIFA business meeting focused on planning the 2013 meeting and tour agenda.

Jo Daviess County: NIFA Planning Meeting (12/11/2012)

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMT

NIFA business meeting focused on planning the 2013 meeting and tour agenda as well as the election of officers and directors.