SINSINAWA MOUND - If it is true that we are known by the company we keep, my reputation keeps getting better. In addition to hobnobbing with my poker buddies (not a horse thief among them) at Husie's in Blanchardville on Sunday nights, I crossed paths recently with some first-rate forest managers at the Tri-State Forestry Conference at Sinsinawa Mound.
I reacquainted with old friend and retired forester Rudy Nigl from Richland County, DNR foresters John and Carol Nielsen, and met John Ouellette, a retired physician who also owns forest land in Richland County.
Carol Nielsen was the first DNR forester to visit our property when we purchased it in 1989. She has moved around since then, but pops up often at these events. John Nielsen is a regional forestry supervisor out of the Dodgeville DNR office.
As members of the Bad Axe Chapter of the Wisconsin Woodland Owners Association, the Nielsens will host a field day at their property later this year. I hope to attend the event and observe how the professionals ply their trade.
I strike up a conversation with Ouellette at a break out session on using GPS as a forest management tool. Two things stand out immediately about the man. First, he walks with the aid of two canes, undeterred by the strenuous outdoor portion of the instruction. The other is his eagerness to learn from others who share his passion for the land.
Ouellette serves as president of the Wisconsin Walnut Council and as we get to know one another narrates a rather fascinating life journey. I learn that he grew up on a farm in Vermont and was stricken with polio at a young age.
He invited me up to tour his property, a 300-acre Silva cultural gem, managed professionally since the early 1970s. I quickly juggle my schedule in order to take him up on the offer the next week.
I meet up with Rudy and John, and John's friend, Frank Iwen, at the Country Kitchen in Richland Center for breakfast. In addition to a hot and hearty meal, the conversation is brisk - about our wondrous woodlands and the triumphs and tribulations of striking a balance between managing forests and enjoying wild critters such as deer with their voracious appetites.
If Rudy is the expert, John is the consummate student, hanging on every word, while dispensing his own tales of the "back 40" that every American farm seemed to possess in years past.
Nigl talks about the importance of "top down" pruning of walnut trees (and presumably other hardwood species).
"You need to carry pruners with you everywhere you go," he insists.
Sure enough, we soon encounter numerous young trees having two or three top stems that, if left untouched, will evolve into mature trees of little commercial value. Some have suffered substantial deer damage, despite a harvest of several of the ravenous cervids each hunting season on John's land.
"Don't worry about the deer," Nigl says, "Just keep pruning."
Ouellette shares his own advice about dealing with the problem. He wraps tin foil around the leaders of young trees in the fall, a system that serves to frustrate even the hungriest whitetail.
He shows us an eight-foot high fence around a three-acre plantation of hardwoods and pines, hoping to demonstrate the difference between a protected site and one left open to natural succession. The other practice I take to heart is the hanging of aluminum cans to the low-hanging branches of young trees to discourage rutting bucks from rubbing them raw.
The unpredictable vicissitudes of nature intrigue me most, however. Ouellette points out the skeleton of a young buck, struck down by a falling tree on this wind-swept ridge one autumn day. He came upon the scene shortly after the event and later related the story to his sister who then laid pen to parchment in an ode to the fallen creature.
Like those of us who grew up on farms, left for greener pastures and then returned to the land in later years, Ouellette has recaptured a part of his youth, but with a more thoughtful understanding of land ethics.
"I have an emotional connection with the land," he says. "I was raised on a farm. We made 500 gallons of maple syrup each year; I helped plant pine trees for an FFA project; and left 450 acres of farmland and 100 registered Jersey cows behind.
"(Now) I have children who will walk along in my footsteps when I am no longer able to be there," he says. "I want the land to be better than what it was when I first met it."
- Lee Fahrney is the Times Outdoors writer. He can be reached at (608) 967-2208 or at fiveoaks@mhtc.net.
I reacquainted with old friend and retired forester Rudy Nigl from Richland County, DNR foresters John and Carol Nielsen, and met John Ouellette, a retired physician who also owns forest land in Richland County.
Carol Nielsen was the first DNR forester to visit our property when we purchased it in 1989. She has moved around since then, but pops up often at these events. John Nielsen is a regional forestry supervisor out of the Dodgeville DNR office.
As members of the Bad Axe Chapter of the Wisconsin Woodland Owners Association, the Nielsens will host a field day at their property later this year. I hope to attend the event and observe how the professionals ply their trade.
I strike up a conversation with Ouellette at a break out session on using GPS as a forest management tool. Two things stand out immediately about the man. First, he walks with the aid of two canes, undeterred by the strenuous outdoor portion of the instruction. The other is his eagerness to learn from others who share his passion for the land.
Ouellette serves as president of the Wisconsin Walnut Council and as we get to know one another narrates a rather fascinating life journey. I learn that he grew up on a farm in Vermont and was stricken with polio at a young age.
He invited me up to tour his property, a 300-acre Silva cultural gem, managed professionally since the early 1970s. I quickly juggle my schedule in order to take him up on the offer the next week.
I meet up with Rudy and John, and John's friend, Frank Iwen, at the Country Kitchen in Richland Center for breakfast. In addition to a hot and hearty meal, the conversation is brisk - about our wondrous woodlands and the triumphs and tribulations of striking a balance between managing forests and enjoying wild critters such as deer with their voracious appetites.
If Rudy is the expert, John is the consummate student, hanging on every word, while dispensing his own tales of the "back 40" that every American farm seemed to possess in years past.
Nigl talks about the importance of "top down" pruning of walnut trees (and presumably other hardwood species).
"You need to carry pruners with you everywhere you go," he insists.
Sure enough, we soon encounter numerous young trees having two or three top stems that, if left untouched, will evolve into mature trees of little commercial value. Some have suffered substantial deer damage, despite a harvest of several of the ravenous cervids each hunting season on John's land.
"Don't worry about the deer," Nigl says, "Just keep pruning."
Ouellette shares his own advice about dealing with the problem. He wraps tin foil around the leaders of young trees in the fall, a system that serves to frustrate even the hungriest whitetail.
He shows us an eight-foot high fence around a three-acre plantation of hardwoods and pines, hoping to demonstrate the difference between a protected site and one left open to natural succession. The other practice I take to heart is the hanging of aluminum cans to the low-hanging branches of young trees to discourage rutting bucks from rubbing them raw.
The unpredictable vicissitudes of nature intrigue me most, however. Ouellette points out the skeleton of a young buck, struck down by a falling tree on this wind-swept ridge one autumn day. He came upon the scene shortly after the event and later related the story to his sister who then laid pen to parchment in an ode to the fallen creature.
Like those of us who grew up on farms, left for greener pastures and then returned to the land in later years, Ouellette has recaptured a part of his youth, but with a more thoughtful understanding of land ethics.
"I have an emotional connection with the land," he says. "I was raised on a farm. We made 500 gallons of maple syrup each year; I helped plant pine trees for an FFA project; and left 450 acres of farmland and 100 registered Jersey cows behind.
"(Now) I have children who will walk along in my footsteps when I am no longer able to be there," he says. "I want the land to be better than what it was when I first met it."
- Lee Fahrney is the Times Outdoors writer. He can be reached at (608) 967-2208 or at fiveoaks@mhtc.net.
