Forest Stewardship

Mike taking a core sample from a larch tree

We’re currently taking a forest stewardship class offered by the Montana State University forestry extension office. It’s a 3-part class series they’ve been offering for a number of years, typically once a year in a few different locations. We tried to get in last year but I didn’t register us in time before it filled up, so I hopped on it super quick when it opened this time around. I’m glad we got in, as it sounds like we may be the class to go through before budget cuts take their toll and big changes will be necessary to make next year.

We had a few hours worth of videos to watch and paperwork to read and fill out before our first two classes, which were back to back this past week. Our third and final class is this coming week on Friday and we have more homework to get done ahead of time, in the form of doing detailed assessments of small plots around our property with tools and info we were provided. We did one plot yesterday and it took us over 2 hours. But we trust that once we get the hang of it the rest will take us less time as we go. Mike mapped out 11 plots for us to do in total, but we are asked to do only 3 plots before the next class.

As part of the plot assessments, we were instructed and given tools to borrow to take core samples of a few select trees on each plot in order to determine their age. We were assured this doesn't harm the tree, as pretty much everyone in the class was concerned about, but gosh it felt like a strange and unkind thing to do. But we trusted our knowledgeable instructors and did the core samples. And they are really cool. The fragrance of them is also amazing. In the pic below, I am holding up a core sample from a ponderosa pine around 109 years old.

Core sample from a ponderosa tree, 109 years old

The overall objective for the class is to help us create a management plan for our property, which involves thinking about and fleshing out our list of goals, priorities, and potential strategies for tending to such things as: wildfire mitigation; developing access to different parts of our property; rain and snow melt drainage; maintaining a healthy forest; and taking good care of the local wildlife. It will for sure take some time and head-scratching - and more info and education - to figure out how to balance what we want to do in terms of community building & development with healthy forest development and home site protection, while leaving the land untouched as much as possible.

As greenhorns at owning property, with a strong desire in being good stewards of the land, this workshop is a solid first step. But I don’t mind telling you that all of the info and paperwork we’re being given and offered as part of this class series has been overwhelming and a lot. One of the big takeaways I am getting from these classes is how much there is to know and how much I have to learn.

In this day and age of digital everything, I will also report - and keep in mind this is being said by a writer, poet, and avid reader who deems paper notebooks and paper books critical and essential to her quality of health and well-being - that the amount of information we’ve been given in paper form is not at all to my liking. On our first day of class there was a big thick binder chock-full of info-laden papers, pamphlets, booklets, and brochures waiting for us, dutifully clipped into the three rings and organized by tabs (see pic below). To add further insult, they explicitly told us not to give it back to them, which instantly thwarted my plan to leave it behind. I’m all for paper. I’m a big fan of notebooks and newspapers and all sorts of other paper related stuff. My idea of a really good day could easily include a trip to a stationary store. But there are a lot of times when digital access is far more practical and sensical. And in my view and opinion, this class could be a poster child of one such situation. 

But I digress.

We’re still in the active process of working on our management plan. Wonderfully and thankfully, after our last class, as part of the fee we paid to participate in the workshop, one of the professional instructors will come and do a walk-through with us on our property to help us determine what our next steps might be. So that will be incredibly valuable and helpful. But gosh, we so appreciate having this opportunity offered to us as still pretty new land owners. This July will mark 4 years that we’ve been out there in the woods after selling our house in Missoula. And it’s nice to start learning a little more about how we can take good care of the land we now reside on.