CURRENT EVENTS
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WEST VIRGINIA WESTERN WILDFIRE MOBILIZATION
All interested personnel must complete the forms below and submit them to the pack test/refresher training administrator at the test site.
2013 Pack Test Schedule
WORK CAPACITY TESTING (PACK TEST) & REFRESHER TRAINING SCHEDULE Download the flier for directions, important notes and registration information.
April 13, 2013 - WVDOF Regional Office, Farmington
May 1, 2013 - Parkersburg South High School Football Field
May 11, 2013 - Riverwalk, behind West Virginia Wesleyan College, Buckhannon
May 11, 2013 - Cabell Midland High School, Milton
June 1, 2013 - Princeton High School Track, Princeton
June 9, 2013 - Percival Hall, WVU Evansdale Campus, Morgantown
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Save the Date(s)
Woodland Owners Association hosting educational tours throughout W.Va.
All events are free and include lunch. Bring a friend and make a day of it. Everyone welcome. RSVP required for planning purposes. Call Dan Magill at 304-293-9419 or email dmagill@wvu.edu. For more information, visit
www.woaofwv.org.
Saturday, May 18, 2013, 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Mason County
Landowner Bob Alexander shares key strategies for maintaining access roads, controlling invasive plants, harvesting timber, and planting oak and other tree species. Tour includes visits to wildlife food plots and habitat areas. Walking tour covers generally flat ground with a few relatively steep sections; sturdy walking shoes recommended. Following the walking tour, lunch is provided.
Tour sponsored by the West Virginia Woodland Owners Association, WVU Appalachian Hardwood Center/ Extension Service, West Virginia Forestry Association, West Virginia Tree Farm and West Virginia Stewardship Programs.
Saturday, May 25, 2013, 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Monroe County
Landowner Mike Patton shows practices for maintaining access roads, gypsy moth control, conducting a selection salvage timber harvest to maintain good crop trees and tree regeneration, and planting oak and other tree species. Tour includes visits to wildlife food and habitat areas, discussion of whitetail deer management and protection tree plantings along the banks of a trout stream, and a demonstration Christmas tree planting. Dan Magill, WVU AHC Forester, will assist Patton in leading the tour. Walking tour covers generally flat ground with a few relatively steep sections; sturdy walking shoes recommended. Following the walking tour, lunch will be provided. Tour is sponsored by the West Virginia Woodland Owners Association, WVU Appalachian Hardwood Center/ Extension Service, West Virginia Forestry Association, West Virginia Tree Farm and West Virginia Stewardship Programs.
Saturday, June 15, 2013, 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Berkeley County
Landowner Pat Keller leads this tour to share strategies for controlling invasive plants such as tree-of-heaven and multiflora rose; thinning trees, including crop tree release; controlling wild grapevine; planting oak, persimmon and other tree species; planting various berry species; and streamside land protection along a certified trout stream. Tour visits wildlife food and habitat areas. Walking tour covers generally flat ground with a few relatively steep sections; sturdy walking shoes recommended. Following the walking tour, lunch is provided.
Event is sponsored by the West Virginia Woodland Owners Association, West Virginia Soil Conservation District & Trout Unlimited, WVU Appalachian Hardwood Center/ Extension Service, West Virginia Forestry Association, the West Virginia Tree Farm, and the West Virginia Stewardship Programs.
Saturday, July 20, 2013, 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Pocahontas County
Landowner Jack Sturgill will lead this tour and will share with us the work he and his family have accomplished and how they did it. This “get together” is
Jack Sturgill leads this tour and shares key strategies in maintaining access roads, conducting tree thinning, crop tree release, grapevine control, harvesting timber, and growing Christmas trees. Tour includes visits to wildlife food plots and habitat areas, as well as a discussion of invasive plant control including Japanese stiltgrass. Walking tour covers generally flat ground with a few relatively steep sections; sturdy walking shoes recommended. Following the walking tour, lunch is provided.
Tour sponsored by the West Virginia Woodland Owners Association, WVU Appalachian Hardwood Center/ Extension Service, West Virginia Forestry Association, West Virginia Tree Farm, and West Virginia Stewardship Programs.
Saturday, August 17, 2013, 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Tucker-Randolph counties
Landowners Jim and Jeff Kochenderfer highlight and demonstrate various techniques to improve, increase and maintain the amount of desirable tree species in your woodlands, including the use of herbicide and cutting to reduce and control both native trees (American beech, for example) and other plant species that directly compete with the more desirable trees such as oak, yellow poplar, black cherry and hickory.
Supplemental tree plantings and protection cages, proper access road development and construction, and wildlife habitat management sites will be visited and discussed. One site in particular to be visited is a research plot where black cherry and yellow poplar trees were released from competing vegetation after a timber harvest. The growth rates of these trees have been monitored for the last 10 years.
Walking tour covers generally flat ground with a few relatively steep sections; sturdy walking shoes recommended. Following the walking tour, lunch is provided.
Tour is sponsored by the West Virginia Woodland Owners Association, WVU Appalachian Hardwood Center/ Extension Service, West Virginia Forestry Association, West Virginia Tree Farm, and West Virginia Stewardship Programs.
Saturday, September 21, 2013, 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Preston County
Landowner Bill Slagle, two-time Outstanding Tree Farmer of the Year, leads a tour of Walnut Meadows Farm near Bruceton Mills, where he raises black walnuts, ginseng, shitake mushrooms and other products. Slagle will discuss agroforestry practices such as these, and the intensive time required for this type of management.
Slagle’s Tree Farm activities include selective timber harvests, forest stand improvement thinning, pruning of veneer sawtimber trees, access road construction, a ten-acre walnut planting, a two-acre paulownia planting, cultivation of seven acres of ginseng, commercial shitake mushroom production, nature trail construction and collection of mosses and greenery for the floral industry.
Slagle also has a collection of antique farm machinery and a large and active woodshop, as well as a dry kiln and band sawmill operation. Native brook trout have recently returned to his stream and with the assistance of cost-share he has done stream side improvement work of his waterway.
The walking tour will cover generally flat ground with a few relatively steep sections, sturdy walking shoes recommended. Following the walking tour, lunch is provided.
Tour is sponsored by the West Virginia Woodland Owners Association, WVU Appalachian Hardwood Center/ Extension Service, West Virginia Forestry Association, West Virginia Tree Farm, and West Virginia Stewardship Programs.
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DOF COMPLETES LONG-RANGE PLANS
Two Complimentary Efforts Combine
to Form the Most Comprehensive Planning Efforts
Ever Undertaken by the Agency
The West Virginia Division of Forestry (WVDOF) has announced the release of two separate, but complementary, planning documents that will guide the activities of the agency for years to come.
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"Call Before You Cut" Program Helps Landowners
Develop Plans and Find Expert Help
Managing your woodland can be a daunting task, but help is here for West Virginia landowners. The "Call Before You Cut" program launched Monday, Nov. 23, with a Web site, www.callb4ucut.com, that caters to the needs of those seeking professional advice on how to manage their woodlands. A toll-free telephone number, 1-888-4WVCBYC (1-888-498-2292), allows landowners to speak directly with a professional forester and request information that can help them with their long-term management plans.
"The Call Before You Cut program is targeted specifically to landowners who want to do something good for the land and for future generations," said Assistant State Forester Jeremy McGill. "This new resource will give landowners the tools they need to select reputable, licensed loggers, as well as help them make responsible long-term management decisions. Visit the Web site or give us a call so that we can put you in contact with professionals who can help you set goals for your property and help you reach those goals."
The program is sponsored in West Virginia by the Division of Forestry, West Virginia Forestry Association, Association of Consulting Foresters and the USDA Forest Service. Call Before You Cut is a multi-state initiative to help landowners manage their woodlands for multiple uses, including wildlife, recreation, timber and woodland streams.
The Web site features sections on how to get started and who to contact for expert help. Information packets will be available through the Web site and the toll-free telephone number.
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Landowners Need Exemptions
to Harvest Timber on Their Properties
Landowners that intend to harvest timber on their own properties must first obtain a Timber Harvesting Exemption from their local Forestry Regional Office.
This exemption requirement is part of the Logging Sediment Control Act of 1992, which states that anyone conducting a logging operation or buying timber or logs for resale is required to be licensed by the Division of Forestry.
The total stumpage value for timber removed by an individual under an exemption may not exceed $15,528 within the calendar year for which the exemption is issued.
If you are planning to harvest timber on your property and want more information about an exemption, please contact your local Division of Forestry Regional Office: Farmington (304) 825-6983; Beckley (304) 256-6775; Milton (304) 743-6186.
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