By Barb Spears
With Black History month upon us, I started thinking about the contributions of black women to environmental stewardship and I immediately thought of one of my heroes, Wangari Maathai.
Women and Woodland Management
Get your leaf-peeping in and connect with other women woodland owners and enthusiasts. Registration is “old school” (print and send a check—link to registration form PDF), so if you’d like to go, please register today!
Women's Chainsaw Safety Class
Tap into Spring. Tap into Conservation.
Native Prairie, Honey Bees & Pollinators
by Jan Bernu
On September 10, Darla Van Heerde of Esko hosted the MN Women's Woodland Network-NE fall event: Native Prairie, Honey Bees & Pollinators. Darla showed us around her 40 acres on a gorgeous fall day. With lots of hard work and the assistance of various entities, Darla has created a beautifully blended mixture of orchards, gardens and native prairie with a variety of pollinator plants, as well as a pond for wildlife and some wooded acreage. She is also a bee keeper with 10 hives. At the end of the tour, she treated us to a glass (or two!) of her delicious homemade elderberry flower lemonade and carrot salsa.
NE WWN Fall Event. Buckthorn ID & Hands-on Control Methods
By Barb Spears
On October 24, 2015, Northeast WWN member Peggy Meseroll hosted a buckthorn removal event on land that she manages. Gail Bong, NRCS Technician, gave a “Buckthorn 101” talk and they hacked and chemmed a good sized area, and prescribed follow-up to kill the seedlings before they turn into seed bearing trees. They used Buckthorn Blasters: http://landscape-restoration.com/, a great little tool for the homeowner/landowner. Buckthorn control/eradication takes a lot of hard work followed by many years of dedicated follow up to keep it at bay.
Massage in the Woods and Goods from the Woods!
By Barb Spears
On August 29, 2015, Gail Bong (WWN NE) hosted “Massage in the Woods and Goods from the Woods – Show & Tell, Buy & Sell”. The outdoor massages, provided by Certified Massage Therapist Eric Bong, were greatly enjoyed by several WWN NE members. Some of the women brought "Hand Crafted Goods for Show & Tell, Buy and Sell”.
Villa Maria Woods Walk
Saturday, July 25, 2015 we took a "woods walk" with consulting forester, Katie Himanga, at the historic Villa Maria in Frontenac to see how the timber stand improvement and woodland management techniques we learned at our Tuesday meeting apply in a real-world setting.
Bee Talk and Woods Walk
On June 26, 2015, Metro Area MNWWN member Debra Donath, along with husband Kent, hosted us to learn about honey bees. We were also able to tour her 23-acre property near Welch to learn about their land management practices involving tree planting of white pine, oak, and walnut and their two prairie restoration sites.
Goats for brush control. How about hogs?
At our Metro Area MNWWN gathering in October 2014, we discussed this topic.
Goats are being used in MN on many projects. Here is a link to a local SE MN company that rents their goats for buckthorn and other vegetation management needs: http://goatdispatch.com/.
Also, check out these links for more information on this topic:
Goats - Conservation Minnesota 2014: https://www.conservationminnesota.org/newsstream/goat-grazing-as-an-alternative-tool-to-invasive-plant-management/
Goats - River Bend NC 2014: http://www.southernminn.com/faribault_daily_news/news/local/article_38cad234-3694-571f-af92-f4c5070912df.html
Goats - Strib 2013: http://www.startribune.com/local/south/222820581.html
Goats - MPR 2013: http://blogs.mprnews.org/statewide/2013/08/goats-have-an-appetite-for-buckthorn-in-se-minnesota/
Hogs - North Central SARE: http://www.northcentralsare.org/Educational-Resources/From-the-Field/Minnesota-Producer-Experiments-with-Hogs-to-Control-Buckthorn
Timber Sale - the Nuts and Bolts on an Active Job Site
Northeast MNWWN and Peggy Meseroll Host a Tour of an Active Timber Harvest by Jan Bernu, MNWWN Northeast
On February 28th, the MN Women’s Woodland Network (MNWWN)-NE local network sponsored a tour of an active timber harvest at the Maki Family LLC property near Esko, MN. Peggy Meseroll, MFA Board Member and member of the WWN-NE local network, and her sister Mary are members of the Maki family and hosted this tour. Jan Bernu, Two By Forestry consulting forester and contracted forester for the Maki family, led the tour and discussion on “Private Timber Sale Nuts & Bolts Basics.” Jan is also leading the WWN-NE group and arranged this tour. There were 12 participants, including 3 from the Metro Area MNWWN, who braved the cold temperatures to learn about timber sales, timber harvesting and woodland management.
MN Women’s Woodland Network Gathering in Bemidji
by Angela Gupta, University of Minnesota Extension
On Friday, March 14, 2014 nineteen women woodland owners gathered in Bemidji to “talk trees”, learn more about caring for their woodlands, meet with female natural resources professionals, and learn about the MN Women’s Woodland Network and how they can become involved or start a network in their local area.