Green Horizons Vol. 6, No. 2 News for people who take their trees seriously Summer 2001 State Tree Farmer of the Year Allen and Joicie Appell were named State Tree Farmers of the Year for 2000. The Calhoun, Mo. couple has 242 acres certified in the Tree Farm program. While their woodland is managed for forest products, the Appells also enjoy managing for wildlife and have included annual food plots and brush piles. Recreation is important, such as hunting and bird watching on two trails. The restoration of two glades and one natural savannah community, as well as a family cemetery dating back to 1840, reflect the couple's interest in the history of the land that they have owned for over 50 years. Their commitment to passing their love of the forest on to future generations is evidenced by the numerous school tours they host. Students enjoy touring two trails that have been designated (with maps) for hiking. Mr. Appell is a member of the American Forest Foundation in Washington, D.C. and the Forest Keepers network in Missouri. He also volunteers for the KATY trail project through the Department of Natural Resources, and for the Missouri Prairie Foundation. He was a leader in coordinating the dedication of the KATY Trail from Clinton to Sedalia. Spring awakenings in woods are easy to find now The woods are waking up from their inactivity of the winter months. Now is a great time to become familiar with all the nooks and crannies that are not so enjoyable to visit during the summer, when insects, noxious plants and snakes are present. Why not take this opportunity to identify and mark locations in your woods of some potential products that you may wish to harvest later in the year? Take a notebook with you to note numbers of plants and species, as well as reminders of other pertinent information. A few small wood stakes and brightly colored plastic flagging can also be invaluable for locating plants later in the year. Some of the earliest wildflowers have already started to flower. The same is true for several forest shrub species. Harvesting seed from both wild flowers and shrubs can be a lucrative activity for anyone looking for marketing opportunities from their woodlands. A necessary part of the process is finding the areas where the desirable species are abundant, making sure you can return to the right spot to check the progress of seed development, and to harvest when the seed is ripe. Use notes to remind yourself of how many plants you found, plants you need to identify, and markets you intend to pursue. The stakes and flagging are used to mark the spots so you can easily find them again. For those who want to pursue floriculture markets, early spring buds on tree and shrub species can be very attractive. Wholesale florists seek unusually shaped or brightly colored buds or twigs for use in flower arrangements, wreaths and bouquets. These items can be harvested with hand pruning shears and placed in bundles of 25-50 for shipment and sale. As a reminder, don't harvest these kinds of products until after you have arranged a sale. Twigs, branches and buds must be kept as fresh as possible, as some have a relatively short shelf life. Also, buyers may have special storage and shipping instructions you need to follow. It is the best season of the year to harvest walking stick stock from the sumac species that are invading your old fields, road sides and open areas. These are best harvested before the end of April, for several reasons. First, the bark can be stripped by hand more easily now than at any other time of year. Second, peeled sticks harvested before their foliage develops will retain their whiteness as they dry (harvested later, the sapwood will turn a yellow color). Third, the ground is soft enough to pull up the tap root intact, giving your canes unique and ready-made handles. Finally, the peeled sticks will dry at the proper rate throughout spring and will be ready to carve or market by the end of summer. It is also an excellent time to cut walking stick stock from saplings of sassafras, ash, hickory, red cedar and walnut. Even if you are going to leave the bark on, the high humidity conditions of spring slow the drying rate and make for a better quality walking stick. It is the time of year to prepare for harvesting and marketing alternative products from your woodlands later in the year. There are many more good ideas just waiting for you to identify. Good hunting! - Shelby Jones consulting forester Missouri timber prices on-line The Missouri Timber Price Trends and Missouri Log Market Report can be accessed on-line at: http://agebb.missouri.edu/mkt/timber This website lists quarterly market conditions, the Missouri log market report, statewide price trends, Ozark region price trends, Prairie region price trends and Riverborder region price trends. It also explains where the prices come from, tree scale conversion factors and the criteria for log grades used in the log market report. Newsletter deadlines Because your newsletter must be in the mail at least 30 days before the next organization meeting and another three weeks is needed to get it ready and through the printing process, the deadline for the next issue is: June 15, 2001 Send your newsletter material to: Sandy Hodge, 203 Anheuser-Busch Natural Resources Bldg., Forestry Program, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211. Phone (573) 884-6729. Your management tips, ideas and experiences are most welcome! Twenty eight tree farm certificates awarded Twenty-five silver and three gold Tree Farm Certificates were presented at the 2001 Tree Farm Stewardship Days in Jefferson City at the beginning of March. Silver certificates are awarded for 25 years of participation in the program and gold for 50 years. The conference focused on "Adding Value to Your Natural Resources." Subjects covered included agroforestry on small farms; real life experiences with agroforestry; a discussion on whether pasture or timber has the highest potential return per acre; and how to get more income from your timber sale. Wildlife topics included improving woodland habitats for quail, white-tailed deer and wild turkey; economic and conservation impacts of hunting leases; and putting a woodland and wildlife management plan into action. Landowner show and tell was held Friday evening. Governor Holden Proclaims Tree Farm week Governor Bob Holden, signs a proclamation designating Feb. 26 - March 4 as 2001 Tree Farm Week. Looking on are Bob Kreps, MDC state forester; Fred Crouse, consulting forester; Fred Bergman, landowner and Tree Farm committee; John Johnson, chairman, state Tree Farm committee; Cory Ridenhour, executive-director, Missouri Forest Products Association; Julie Rhoads, University of Missouri-Columbia; Connie Johnson, landowner; and Bill Kickbusch, retired U.S. Forest Service and state Tree Farm committee. Sisters awarded for Tree Farm participation Cory Ridenour of the Missouri Forest Products Association, presents sisters Nancy Brod and Sharon Lashley of A.M. Meyers, Inc., DeSoto, Mo., with a silver certificate for having 25 years in the Tree Farm system Camp Horsecreek Grandparents and grandkids go to camp! Estate planning cannot accomplish as much for the future of your Tree Farm as a week of undivided attention with your grandchildren out in your woods. We created Camp Horsecreek, a week-long summer camp experience for our grandchildren on our Tree Farm, because we wanted to convey our love of the farm. We hope they will someday want to own and manage the acreage. Creating a summer camp was a challenge. For ideas, we searched our memories, Project Learning Tree, Boy and Girl Scout handbooks, called our local resource forester and even read the kids magazines in the dentist's office. We found nature books in sticker and coloring styles at a local state park bookstore that were perfect for plant and animal identification. Be sure you include activities you enjoy as much as the children. It is important for you and the kids to have fun together. We now have two years of experience with Tree Farm Summer Camp and we are happy to share some of what we have learned. - Find a co-worker. You will need a helper to shoulder some of the responsibility; you won't be able to be in two places at once. - Make time. Block out the chosen week as if you will be gone from home. You and your helper need to be prepared to give 24 hours a day to the project. - Go to the Tree Farm. If you are going to instill a love of your Tree Farm in your grandchildren, the place to hold camp is on your farm. We live on our farm and centered our activities around our home, with many trips to the woods and the river. If you live in town and your kids are campers, pitch your tents on the farm. For some Tree Farmers, a combination of home and farm will be the solution. - Start with a schedule. Every hour of every day is scheduled, even if it is an afternoon of fishing in the river. Our motto has become, "Kids need lots of sleep and lots of exercise." We begin and end each day with a nature hike. Each of our hikes has a theme, such as Plant ID, Animal Track ID, Tree ID, or Insect ID. - Share the cooking. We found that the kids love to help with meals, which are a great one-on-one activity. They wanted to take part in the cooking and even invented their own recipes. By the second year traditional "camp" recipes were already in demand. - Get in uniform. We provide two sets of identical clothing for everyone - Camp Horsecreek t-shirts, a sun hat, and white tube socks. We wash all dirty clothes each evening. Make up a simple and appropriate clothing list. - Stock up on supplies. Each child gets a backpack for carrying supplies, a water bottle, a clip board, pencils, pens, crayons, glue, a toothbrush and a drinking glass. Campers are assigned a color. Everything, including sheets and towels, is color-coded. Determining ownership of misplaced items is easy! - Review the rules. Get your rules of conduct straight the first day of camp. Ask the kids what they think the rules should be. There are some rules you will want to include; for instance, no one goes to the lake alone. Consequences of breaking the rules need to be spelled out also. The first day is also the best time to talk about fire safety and hold a fire drill. Camping out is a big part of the fun and the memories. We have a small tent, sleeping bag, folding stool and mess kit for each child. The first year, the kids were afraid to sleep in their own tents but were enjoying it by year two. We include a broad range of activities and try to vary them each year. Our forestry projects have included marking a Tree ID Trail and planting trees. Our community service projects were painting a sign for a nearby rural church and cleaning up one mile of riverbank. The kids always make and take home a nature-oriented gift for their parents. Games are very popular. We introduced them to some of the old traditional games such as tree-legged and sack races. They enjoy nature scavenger hunts also. We have discovered several "don'ts." We found theme parks weren't the place to go - the kids were wild, whiny and demanding - and we couldn't see any educational value to the experience. We prohibit electronic games, which are distracting in many ways. We don't allow TV viewing or computer use during camp week. We want them to experience something different from everyday life. Several weeks before camp, we send a letter asking what five foods they love, what five foods they dislike, if they take medicine daily, if they have food allergies, how tall they are, what grade they are in, and what size T-shirt they wear. We also give them the clothing list. And they are asked to bring medical cards and parental permissions for medical treatment. During the year we plan for camp, we keep a file of ideas that we review six weeks prior to camp. The best time to plan for the next year's camp is the seven days following the end of camp, because everything is fresh. We write down all our observations and save them for the next year. It's important that each year is basically the same but has a different emphasis. You and your Tree Farm probably have everything necessary to create a never-to-be-forgotten experience for your grandchildren. Camp Horsecreek goals We established (and met) the following goals for the children: - Complete a forestry project. - Complete a civic service project. - Earn the Missouri Junior Naturalist badge. - Visit Springfield, Missouri, Nature Center. - Tour Drury College. - Make a gift for parents. - Camp out overnight. - Ride a horse. - Identify a constellation. - Be able to identify: 10 animals through sight, tracks or scat, 10 insects visually, 10 trees by leaves, 5 birds visually, 10 wildflowers visually. This article is adapted with permission from Connie Hjelmeng-Johnson, from "Survival Camp: Grandparents pass on their love of the woods in hopes of keeping the Tree Farm in the family" which appeared in the May/June 2000 issue of Tree Farm. The Johnsons were named Missouri State Tree Farmers of the Year in 1991 and 1998 and North Central Tree Farmers of the Year in 1992. Scionwood offers second crop potential Several Missouri black walnut and pecan growers have found another crop in their plantations in recent years. With the steadily increasing demand for grafted nut trees, nurseries need a supply of grafting wood from improved varieties. That wood, called scionwood, can only be supplied from established nut orchards with trees grafted to those improved nut cultivars. In February and early March the scionwood is collected by cutting only the previous year's growth from tree branches. This one-year-old growth is the most likely to grow when grafted onto an understock (existing tree). The understock is cut off at about waist height and the new wood is attached, making sure the cambium layers of both pieces are in solid contact. These grafts usually are made around the first week of May for best success. Scionwood may be available through members of the Missouri Nut Growers Association. The organization also offers grafting instruction at their annual spring meeting which will be held on May 5. The Grafting Day will be held on the Wayne Adams Farm located 10 miles north of Joplin on Highway 43. Contact Mary Ann Byrd at (660) 925-3253 for more information. Upper Current River Headwaters Informational Tour The Texas County and Dent County Soil and Water Conservation Districts hosted an informational tour of the Upper Current River Headwaters Proposed AgNPS Special Area Land Treatment Project on February 6. Twenty people participated, representing the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, the Missouri Department of Conservation, University of Missouri Outreach and Extension, and private interest groups. The focus of the tour was on problem areas of agricultural non-point source pollution that threaten water quality in the watershed. The project, if approved by the Missouri Soil and Water Conservation Commission, will work with landowners on a voluntary basis to develop sustainable forage and timber management programs that will better protect the soil and water resources of the area. This project will recognize timber as an agricultural crop and will be funded with monies from the parks and soils sales tax set aside to address agricultural-related non-point source pollution problems. Potentially, special conservation cost-share practices could be made available to cooperating landowners within the watershed, with up to 75 percent of the installation cost of the practice being reimbursed. The group toured several stops in the Big Creek and Ashley Creek Watershed, looking at several sinkholes, pasture conditions, different types of timber harvest management, and site preparations after harvesting. A comparison was made of the soil types and timber in the area. Verlin Beasley, a longtime Raymondville timber producer, showed the group some recently harvested managed timber, a pine-thinning, and gave a history of the timber resource that spanned 80 years. A successful Master Tree Farm Program via satellite The Master Tree Farmer Program (MTF), which concluded in March, was a resounding success! Missouri ranked second in participation among the 14 states taking part in the satellite-downlinked program offered by Clemson University to 12 sites in Missouri. According to John Dwyer, acting state extension forester, over 300 forest landowners, University of Missouri Outreach and Extension personnel, resource professionals from the Missouri Department of Conservation, Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Missouri Consulting Foresters Association attended. The popularity of this course was evident by the fact that some of the participants traveled 60 miles, one-way, to attend the sessions! The 7-week program, held once a week, focused on educating landowners about forest management. Subjects included forestry terms and concepts; forest finance; taxation and estate planning; pine and hardwood management; timber sales and marketing; and agency assistance and government cost-share programs available for forest landowners. An advanced six-week course is being considered for next winter. If you would like more information about the Master Tree Farm Program, contact John Dwyer at: Forestry Department, 203 ABNR, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65203. The program is a collaborative effort between University of Missouri Outreach and Extension specialists, resource professionals from the Missouri Department of Conservation and the Missouri Consulting Foresters Association. Without their unselfish help and dedication to the Master Tree Farmer Program, its success would not have happened! Agroforestry news January Professional Agroforestry Workshop a success Cold weather did not dampen the enthusiasm of the 120 people who attended the professional agroforestry training workshop January 10-11, 2001 in Columbia, Mo., sponsored by the University of Missouri Center for Agroforestry (UMCA). Natural resource professionals from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Agricultural Research Service, state forestry departments, University Outreach and Extension, university faculty, consulting foresters, woodlot owners and managers, as well as landowners represented Missouri, six other states, Ireland and British Columbia. Faculty from the University of Missouri Center for Agroforestry, Oregon State University, Iowa State University, the University of Nebraska and the National Agroforestry Center in Lincoln, Neb. presented in-depth discussions about the five temperate agroforestry practices. Sessions focused on design and species selection. There were also unique presentations on using agroforestry for growing mushrooms and managing for wildlife. A special session was held on the economics of agroforestry and how to estimate the costs and benefits associated with agroforestry practices. Incentive programs for landowners that have potential to support agroforestry in Missouri were also presented. New publications soon available for purchase or download The University of Missouri Center for Agroforestry announces two new publications in the Agroforestry-in-Action Series. Propagating Pecan and Black Walnut in Missouri and Trees and Shrubs for Agroforestry in Missouri are due out in May and can be downloaded from the Center's website at: http://agebb.missouri.edu/umca Email and phone orders can be placed at umca@missouri.edu or by calling (573) 884-2874. There will be a nominal fee to cover shipping and handling for publications ordered by email or phone. The bid sheet (The following is the result of an actual timber sale bidding process on a Missouri forest property. What would the result have been if the timber had been sold without a bid?) Situation: A landowner had a consulting forester mark 493 trees on his property with a volume of almost 200,000 board feet. The trees were a mixture of hardwoods, mostly oaks. Opening bids: The 11 bids ranged from $19,000 to $56,000. Calendar of upcoming events May 5, 2001. Missouri Nut Growers Association Annual Grafting Day. Scionwood swapping and grafting instruction. At the Wayne Adams farm located 10 miles north of Joplin, Mo. on Highway 43. Contact: Mary Ann Byrd (660) 925-3253. May 17, 2001. Karkaghnae Club Meeting. Tour of Karl Wolf's property, Van Buren, Mo. For more information, contact Karl Wolf, 17212 Thunder Valley Rd. Eureka, MO 63025, or by email at KarlR22@aol.com. July 14, 2001. Missouri Chapter of the Walnut Council summer meeting at the Horticulture and Agroforestry Research Center (HARC), New Franklin, Mo. Contact: Phillip Moore, (816) 297-4454. July 29-August 1, 2001. National Walnut Council Annual Meeting, LaCrosse, Wisconsin. Contact Nancy Gunning at the Walnut Council Headquarters for registration and program information. (317) 802-0332. August 5-8, 2001. Annual Meeting and Tour of the Northern Nut Growers Association. New York. Contact: Tucker Hill, (717) 938-6090. August 13-15, 2001. Seventh Conference on Agroforestry in North America, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. There will also be a pre-conference tour offered on Saturday, August 11, Sunday, August 12, and a wine and cheese reception on the evening of Sunday, August 12. The conference venue will be held at the Ramada Hotel & Convention Centre, 1818 Victoria Avenue, Regina, SK S4P 0R1, Tel: (306) 569-1666, 1-800-667-6500, Fax: (306) 525-3550. For more information go to the AFTA website at www.missouri.edu/~afta/ 7thconf.htm or contact the University of Missouri Center for Agroforestry at (573) 884-2874. Friday, October 28, 2001. Missouri State Tree Farm Committee meeting, Rolla, Mo. Contact: Cory Ridenhour, (573) 634-3252 Send your forestry related event dates to: Sandy Hodge 203 Anheuser-Busch Natural Resources Bldg., MU Center for Agroforestry Columbia, MO 65211 Green Horizons is published quarterly by the University of Missouri Center for Agroforestry and the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. All submitted material is subject to editing for style and length. Editorial board: Sandy Hodge, editor, Green Horizons, MU Center for Agroforestry, (573) 884-6729 Scott Brundage, Missouri Consulting Foresters Association (573) 443-3977 Philip Moore, president, Missouri Chapter of the Walnut Council, (816) 540-3169 Gene Garrett, director, MU Center for Agroforestry, (573) 882-3647 Paul Manson, president, Missouri Nut Growers Association, (660) 548-3477 Cory Ridenhour, Missouri Forest Products Association (573) 634-3253 John Shopland, superintendent, MU Horticulture and Agroforestry Research Center, (660) 848-2268 Clell Solomon, Missouri Christmas Tree Producers Association (660) 273-2368 Larry Harper, president, Missouri Tree Farm Committee (573) 442-5326 Wayne Wittmeyer, Forest Stewardship Program (573) 751-4115 Mailing address: Green Horizons, c/o Sandy Hodge, MU Center for Agroforestry, 203 Anheuser-Busch Natural Resources Bldg., Forestry Program, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211.