Green Horizons

The National Walnut Council will meet in our own backyard this summer. The annual meeting and tours will be Aug. 3-6. Indoor events will be held at the Holiday Inn Select Executive Center, Columbia, while field tours will be in adjacent Callaway and Howard counties.

All landowners with walnut and other fine hardwoods will have an opportunity to see and hear information relevant to their forest, woodlot or plantation during the field tours, said Harlan Palm, one of the conference organizers. Attendees also will get to tour one of the largest walnut mills in operation in Missouri. In addition to seeing logs being milled by modern technology, the tour will include discussions on log and lumber quality.

The theme of this year's event is "First Manage What You Have." This will be evident especially in the field tours, as attendees can ride trailers to view managed native and planted walnut stands as well as native mixed hardwood stands now benefiting from timber stand improvement and crop tree selection procedures, Palm said. During tours, experts will discuss site suitability, appraise current value of existing walnut and white oak and provide advice on deciding when to harvest and how to manage a timber harvest following competitive bidding. Buses will be available to transport attendees to all of the field tour sites.

The vast majority of landowners in Missouri have some walnut and other fine hardwoods in their wooded areas. The purpose of this event is to inform such landowners to recognize what is already out there, Palm said. If the site is well suited for walnut and there are already walnut there, the landowners will learn what can be done to improve the health and production of the trees with the highest potential value.

Other conference activities include a kick-off mixer, Landowner Show and Tell, an Evening with the Experts, the annual banquet and awards program, exhibits, posters, a silent auction, speakers discussing recent innovations and introduction of newly elected board members. Spouses' tours and a post-conference tour of the Hammons Products Company's facilities also are available.

Full registration for Walnut Council members is $145; registering at the door will run $165. Non-members can add $15 to their registration or join the organization. For more details, head to http://www.walnutcouncil.org/ and click on "Annual Meeting." The site includes agenda and registration information. For more information, contact Palm at palmh@missouri.edu.