Partners
in Forestry Landowner Cooperative
6063 Baker
Lake Road
Conover, WI 54519
715 - 479 - 8528
partnersinforestry@gmail.com
"For global good, use local wood"
Partners
in Forestry (PIF) is grateful to be recognized by our peers
and colleagues for our conservation efforts in the Northwoods of Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula. This
leadership award, from
Gathering Waters: Wisconsin’s Alliance for Land Trusts,
is named after the late (former) DATCP Secretary Rod
Nilsestuen, and is greatly appreciated and fitting as we
benefitted from an ongoing working relationship with the
Secretary that included a working lands meeting with him in
Vilas County in 2008. Read more about
PIF conservation efforts in land
preservation and the
Gathering Waters working land
preservation award.
If you like the
progress Partners in Forestry is making on important northwoods
issues, such as the new Legacy Forest near Land O' Lakes,
consider being a part of our important work by becoming a member.
Join PIF
Let the members know!
Do you have forest related
information of interest to members?
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site
Articles of interest
Legal happenings
Workshops being planned
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up
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organizations/coops
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Email us so we can pass it on.
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Partners in Forestry
Landowners Coop (PIF), serving north central Wisconsin and
western U.P., is dedicated to providing information, educational
opportunities, and sustainable forest management for its members. (Our
Mission and Goals)
U.S. FOREST SERVICE
Trump’s approach has us worried for
the future of public lands
By Mike Dombeck, Dale Bosworth, Gail Kimbell, Tom
Tidwell, Vicki Christiansen, and Randy Moore
Guest Commentary
Collectively, we have over
200 years of experience in public land management and have
served as U.S. Forest Service chiefs under both Republican
and Democratic administrations.
We are adamant that divesting our public lands from public
ownership would be a grievous error. We encourage all
Americans to support the public servants who work for you
and, most importantly, the public lands that belong to us
and define us as Americans.
This year started with the catastrophic fires in southern
California. It is now only spring, and already we have an
active fire season across parts of the southeast. Is this a
time to dismiss thousands of trained firefighters? Most U.S.
Forest Service employees have collateral firefighting jobs
and are called on as fire season escalates.
We believe that the current administration’s abusive
description of career federal employees is an unforgettable
error. These fired employees, we know from experience,
represent the best of America. Many gave up other
potentially financially lucrative jobs to serve the public
interest, many were military veterans. To see them treated
the way they have been over the past few months is
incompetence at best and mean-spirited at worst.
There was the random firing of some 3,400 probationary
Forest Service employees, some with years of experience as
seasonal firefighters, others with jobs ranging from
managing prescribed fire and fuel reduction, timber sale
layout, fish and wildlife habitat improvement to campground
maintenance. This was followed by a court order to reinstate
the fired employees, who were only soon to be fired again.
Additionally, there was the buyout and retirement incentives
of another 3,000 employees.
While the exact numbers are changing daily, the chaotic
approach resulted in many of the top leaders, including the
Forest Service chief and another dozen top agency leaders to
leav or be demoted. Further, major reductions in the
workforce are expected. The administration has asked USDA to
significantly cut more funding and people.
This is occurring while a recent Executive Order calls for
the immediate expansion of timber harvest from the National
Forests and other federal public lands.
If the White House continues to dismiss the employees who
manage the campgrounds, visitor information centers, trails
systems for hiking, biking, horseback riding and motorized
uses, facilities will have to be closed. The summer vacation
season is just around the corner.
Permit holders for animal grazing, oil and gas leases,
logging and mining activities will also be affected. It
appears the intent is to create a number of crises for the
millions of Americans who use the national forests and
grasslands for their livelihoods and for their recreation.
Rural economies are intertwined with the uses on these
lands, bringing millions of dollars to local economies.
Are these drastic actions the first steps toward crippling
the agencies so they cannot carry out their Congressionally
mandated mission? If so, they portend a cynical effort to
divest and transfer federal public lands to the states and
private interests.
The national forests are public lands that are owned
collectively by all U.S. citizens and managed under the
Multiple Use Sustained Yield Act and a host of other laws.
These laws allow for responsibly managed oil and gas
development, mining, timber harvest, as well as recreation
development, untouched wilderness, and many other uses. Most
importantly, they are the backyard of families that camp,
hike, bike, cut firewood, ski, float rivers, hunt or fish on
their public lands without “no trespassing” signs.
More than 60 million Americans get their drinking water from
streams that flow from the 193 million acres of national
forests. Truly, we have a federal public land system in the
U.S. that serves us daily and is the envy of natural
resource professionals around the world. Divesture of these
precious lands, that belong to all citizens rich and poor,
would be an irreparable tragedy.
The first Forest Service Chief Gifford Pinchot famously
wrote, “Where conflicting interests must be reconciled, the
question shall always be answered from the standpoint of the
greatest good of the greatest number in the long run.” We
believe the greatest good is keeping the National Forests
and all federal public lands in the hands of all citizens
for future generations.
The six authors served as U.S. Forest Service chiefs between
1997 and 2025. Mike Dombeck (1997-2001), Dale Bosworth
(2001-2007), Gail Kimbell (2007-2009), Tom Tidwell
(2009-2017, Vicki Christiansen (2018-2021), Randy Moore
(2021-2025).
Click here to Read Article
NEW
January/February 2025 Newsletter:
Celebrate Joe and Mary Hovel, 2024 Land Legacy Award Report;
Inflation Reduction Act Funding for Conservation; Owners &
Buyers: Beware the Vacant Land Scam; Drill Baby Drill? Or not so
fast Donald?; Interesting Links: • Wisconsin Green Fire Report
on Wisconsin’s Forest Link • Hemlock Wooly Adelgid Management,
You Tube Link • What Makes a Tree a Tree; Speak Softly and Carry
a Sharp Quill; Bobcats, from the Cool Down Report; Knowles
Nelson Stewardship Funding at Risk; The Art of Communing with
Trees; Minnesota Voters Reauthorize Lottery Conservation
Funding; Forest Legacy October 2024; Uncommon Ravens; Paul
Hetzler’s New Book
NEW
BORDER LAKES FOREST LEGACY PROPOSAL
In northern Vilas County, NWA is spearheading two important
Forest Legacy projects which will be reviewed by a national USFS
panel in Winter 23-24. They both have been submitted under a new
category in the program called ‘Family ownerships with greater
strategic importance’. For these projects, NWA’s advocacy likely
will require providing part of the matching funds to the hopeful
Forest Legacy Awards, given the uncertainty of Knowles Nelson
Stewardship Fund.
Click
here and see how you can help support the Border Lakes Forest
Legacy proposal
The following
two articles go with the above news story
INTRODUCING: AN ADDITION TO THE UPPER
WISCONSIN RIVER LEGACY FOREST CALLED THE UPPER WISCONSIN RIVER
BIRD HABITAT- ON THE HEADWATERS LANDSCAPE OF THE WISCONSIN RIVER
Click here to Read Article
Partners in Forestry works to secure
conservation easements on more than 1,200 acres in Vilas County
WXPR | By Katie Thoresen
Published July 2, 2024 at 5:58 AM CDT
Click here to Read Article
State
organization honors Vilas County couple for ‘tremendous’
leadership in land conservation (WXPR)
Ben Meyer May 08, 2024
Fifteen years ago, a Vilas County husband and wife sold more
than a thousand acres of their land to the Northern
Highland-American Legion State Forest to ensure it would be
conserved. That sale sparked a journey in land conservation
projects for Joe and Mary Hovel. They’ve now helped conserve,
both directly and through their advocacy, tens of thousands of
acres in northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula.
For their work,
the Hovels were named this year’s winners of the Land Legacy
Award by Gathering Waters, a leading Wisconsin conservation
organization.
Click here to read Award.
PAYMENTS FOR FOREST CARBON:
By Alexandra Kosiba. Illustrations by Erick Ingraham.
Many forest landowners are interested in managing their forests
for carbon benefits, yet few are able to do so without
considering the financial consequences. To address this need,
there are emerging opportunities for landowners to be
compensated for the carbon sequestered and stored by their
forests. Options include selling a forest’s carbon benefits in a
carbon offset market, as well as with more traditional programs
that pay landowners to implement specific carbon beneficial
practices that are not based on selling offsets. Because carbon
offset markets are novel, complex, and often confusing, most of
this article is devoted to explaining how they work.
Click here to read full article.
Forests and Birds, stand diversity
important:
This study
reaffirms the large body of research which concludes that tree
species diversity as well as stand structure diversity is key
for bird conservation at the landscape level. From this study:
“The youngest and oldest age classes of forest are
underrepresented in eastern forests, and efforts to increase
both of these age classes are necessary for biodiversity
conservation” and “The homogeneity of our eastern forests is a
well-documented artifact of human land use and suppression of
natural disturbances. Increasing diversity through silviculture
can help managers meet ecological objectives.”
Click here to read full article.
Pilgram River Watershed--Brief Geologic
Background:
The Pilgrim River closely parallels the Keweenaw Fault (Fig 1),
running about 0.5 to about 1 mile S of the fault line, on the
sandstone side. It also shows that the river, like many rivers
follows a path which takes advantage of a natural zone of
weakness. The offset to the south is expected because the
sandstone is weaker and more easily eroded than the basalt. The
valley is steeper on the Northern side because of the harder
basalt rock which underlies that side. On the basalt side are
many old mines which are aligned along layers in the basalt
where there were copper-rich amygdaloids (lava flow tops).
Click here to read full article.
Economic Contributions of Land Conserved
by the USDA Forest Service’s Forest Legacy:
The Forest Legacy Program (FLP)
is a conservation program administered by the USDA Forest
Service that seeks to protect traditional forest uses and intact
working forest landscapes. The program awards grants that help
pay for conservation easements and fee-simple land purchases
that are then held by state agencies. Forests conserved using
FLP funding not only provide environmental benefits but also
must be managed to provide tangible economic and social benefits
to the public.
Click here to read more about the Forest Legacy Program.
From Barbells to
Spruce Grouse:
Joe Hovel has written a memoir, which is now available in print.
This 238 page book is available with over 20 color images at
www.northwoodalliance.org/books
All proceeds from this book will go
toward the Headwaters Cedar Community Forest fundraising until
that goal is met
Northwoods Alliance Inc. (NWA)
and conservation partners
are pleased to announce a significant advance toward
establishing a Headwaters Cedar Community Forest in the Town of
Land O Lakes. The project was recently awarded close to 50% of
the funding necessary to complete the community forest, through
a successful grant from the USFS Community Forest and Open Space
Conservation Program. We are grateful that the USFS recognized
the conservation value of this project.
Click here for more information on this
project.
A hike
and a fight: Northwoods residents say DNR is violating its
logging rules
Read these articles concerning the DNR violations
1.
The year and a half long fight between a
forester, a resident and the Wisconsin DNR over logging near
shorelines: Last year, John Schwarzmann and Ardis
Berghoff were hiking near Whitney Lake close to Berghoff’s home
in the Northern Highland-American Legion (NHAL) State Forest in
Vilas County when they noticed paint on a number of trees — a
sign that the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR)
planned to auction off the trees for a timber harvest.
Click here to read more.
Click Here
for another important article about DNR logging.
2.
DNR update to logging rules raises alarms
for activists: An update to the Department of
Natural Resources (DNR) rules that guide logging on public lands
has raised concerns among activists that the department will
allow more trees to be cut down and harm the state’s northern
forests.
Click here to read more.
3.
Companies developing new forestry rules
bought timber where the rules were allegedly broken:
Four
companies on a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
committee developing new logging rules purchased timber from
lakes in Northern Wisconsin in which local residents have
alleged that those rules are frequently being broken, documents
obtained by the Wisconsin Examiner show.
Click here to read more.
2021 Act 230 Makes Changes to Managed
Forest Law Statute. The
legal requirements of the Managed Forest Law have changed,
allowing additional flexibilities to landowners and clarifying
DNR administration of the program. The following changes
to Ch. 77, Wis. Stats were made when 2021 Act 230 was signed
into law on April 8, 2022:
- The
20-acre minimum enrollment requirement may now be comprised
of two 10 contiguous acre portions, that are not contiguous
to each other, if they are on a tract of land under the same
ownership
- Buildings
and improvements on MFL property are allowed if used
exclusively for storage
- Additions
to existing parcels of any size are allowed if certain
eligibility requirements are met
- Leasing
on MFL land is clearly allowed
- What
constitutes a material change to the terms of the order is
clarified
- The
instances DNR is or is not required to assess a withdrawal
tax and fee are made clear
- DNR
authority to provide flexibility for large ownerships (1,000
acres or more) of MFL land, allowing for alternative
management plan requirements is made clear
- Voluntary
withdrawal exempt from tax or fee for a public purpose to a
city, village, or town that is the taxing jurisdiction is
now allowed
The
updated Statute, Chapter
77 MFL, can be viewed on the
Wisconsin Legislature’s webpage.
Northwoods Forest Conservation series of
handbooks.
We are pleased to share with you the first of two follow up
printings to Northwoods Forest Conservation: A Handbook. This
booklet sub-titled Celebrating Local Woods & Alternative Forest
Products is centered on local woods and seldom thought of
benefits from your woodlands.
The second follow up will be sub-titled Managing Forests for the
Future and will be detailed on forest ecology, by discussing
forest fragmentation, bio-diversity, climate threats and
management suggestions.
Read more about this series of handbooks
Northwoods Forest Conversation --
Practical Advice for Landowners.
Upper Peninsula
Environmental Coalition’s Series “Let’s Talk” livestreamed a
conversation with Joe Hovel of Partners in Forestry and
the Northwood Alliance.
“Let’s Talk” is the Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition's (UPEC)
livestream program that looks at how we, the people, can build
sustainable communities in the UP. The program is a conversation
between Joe Hovel and Horst Schmidt, President of UPEC. Hovel
talks about Northwoods Forest Conservation: A Handbook, a
new, free 66-page publication that provides practical advice for
landowners who want to manage their forested property in an
ecologically sound way. The handbook shares reflections from
northwoods conservation practitioners and landowners, assembles
tools and resources for forest conservation, and celebrates
completed projects. The handbook is free for the asking
(donations gratefully accepted; see links below). Mike Dombeck,
a former chief of the U.S. Forest Service, says, “I have not
seen a more inspiring, practical, and easy-to-read ‘how-to’
guide to common-sense sustainable forest land conservation
practices. Northwoods Forest Conservation: A Handbook is
an must-read for all who depend upon and care about forests.”
Hovel also talks about other recent projects, such as the new
Community Forest at Wildcat Falls.
Click here for a link to the conversation
There is no charge to
request the handbook, but donations are welcome to help offset
costs. To order, send an email with your name and mailing
address to nwa@nnex.net or partnersinforestry@gmail.com, or else
call Northwood Alliance at 715-479-8528.
To donate visit the Northwoods
Alliance website.
NEW
Partners in Forestry Cooperative (PIF)
and Northwoods Alliance (NWA) are pleased to announce that their
most recent project, with assistance from the UW Center for
Cooperatives, is now off the printing press. We hope that this
booklet will inspire woodland owners, regardless of the size of
their forestlands, to further engage in conservation at this
critical time.
The Northwoods Forest Conservation Handbook shares reflections
from Northwoods conservation practitioners and landowners,
assembles tools and resources for forest conservation, and
celebrates completed projects. The Handbook is 66 full-size
pages, with numerous color photographs of Northwoods forests and
landscapes throughout. There is no charge to request this book,
but donations are welcome to help offset costs. To donate, visit
https://www.northwoodalliance.org/donations
or contact us at the phone or email addresses below.
Want to be involved? We are eager to
increase our team of dedicated conservationists working for a
more sustainable Northwoods future.
Contact
us for questions, or to obtain a copy of the Handbook:
Email:
nwa@nnex.net or partnersinforestry@gmail.com
Phone:
715-479-8528
Mail: PIF & NWA, 6063 Baker Lake Road, Conover WI 54519
“No matter
where we live, we [humans] depend on forests; for the oxygen
we breath, for the water we drink, for the many products we
use every day, for the diversity of plants and animals they
sustain, for the beauty, tranquility, recreation, solitude
and spirituality forests provide to make our lives better. I
have not seen a more inspiring, practical, and easy to read
“how-to” guide to common sense sustainable forest land
conservation practices. Northwoods Forest
Conservation: A Handbook is an must read for all who
depend upon and care about forests.”
Mike Dombeck,
PhD
Retired UW
System Fellow and Professor of Global Conservation,
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and former Chief of
the U.S. Forest Service. Mike grew up in Northern Wisconsin
where he spent 11 summers as a fishing guide.
"Poignant
and practical, Northwoods Forest Conservation: A Handbook
eclipses all the how-to, cookie-cutter manuals ever written
on the topic. Its contributors reflect some of the myriad
nuances of conservation in cogent, heartfelt voices informed
by decades of experience. Looking to the future with a tone
neither bleak nor jubilant, Handbook is a testament
to the power of collaboration and of seemingly trivial acts;
it is a universal call to action."
Paul Hetzler
Author,
natural resource educator and ISA-Certified Arborist

Coaster Brook Trout
Fishing Reg
Group of helpers
See past issues of
Partners News for suggestions to visit old growth from the book by John
Bates, titled Our Living Ancestors
Protecting your wooded land for the future is essential to
clean water, clean air, wildlife habitat, sustainable wood
supply...all things that are necessary to society and health,
and that are gone forever if the land is developed.
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