REFORESTATION
	LOOMING LARGE
	EDITORIAL
	Wisconsin Favorites Wade into History

Reforestation
Envisioning a Forest Among the Trees.

“Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved for gods and poets.
To plant a pine, one need only a shovel.”—Aldo Leopold

A lot has changed since the days that conservationist Aldo Leopold planted thousands of trees around his family’s weekend getaway cottage—a chicken coop he called “the shack”—on his old farm in central Wisconsin, made famous by his tome, A Sand County Almanac. Today, we have GPS, the Internet, iPods, and ATVs.

Despite technological progress, planting trees remains largely an endeavor done with our hands: tree by tree, row by row, acre by acre, just as in Leopold’s day and with about the same love of the land and spirit of stewardship. Many rural landowners envision stands of mixed hardwoods or confiners, stands that they may toil today to plant so that their children might enjoy some shade in the future and their grandkids could harvest to pay for college. Other landowners enjoy the beauty of their woodlands and plant trees for recreation or to provide wildlife habitat.

“I planted trees not long after I purchased the 65-acre farm,” says Paul Bader, now serving as the forestry management coordinator for the Kickapoo Woods Cooperative based in La Farge. A Vernon Electric Cooperative member since 1970, Bader has been planting trees with his family to transform a beef cattle pasture into a thriving stand of mixed hardwoods and conifers, designing saw mills on the side. As of 2001, he’s been working with the Kickpoo Woods Cooperative, an organization with 201 members and more than 20,000 acres of forest, to assist private landowners with management services such as marking and inventorying timber, compiling cutting notices, and marketing the harvest. These days, he hardly has a day off.

Stewardship, Restoration

Like Bader, Wisconsin’s DNR foresters are also a busy bunch, since about 57 percent of Wisconsin’s forests are privately owned by 272,000 individuals or families, according to the University of Wisconsin Extension. Some private landowners enroll in the Wisconsin Managed Forest Law program, which provides property-tax breaks for managing their woodlands, or in other federal programs such as the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP). Both programs foster active stewardship of forests, sometimes involving reforestation of existing woodlands or afforestation (converting cropland or pasture into forest).

“Every year Wisconsin landowners plant millions of tree seedlings to enhance and restore native forests,” says Greg Edge, a tree nursery specialist with the Department of Natural Resources. “If you’re thinking about doing a large tree-planting project, contact your local DNR forester or a private consulting forester for advice on species selection, site preparation, planting methods, cost sharing programs, tree planter rentals, and other considerations in establishing a successful forest tree planting,” suggests Edge.

A Forest Feeding Frenzy

Throughout most of Wisconsin’s countryside, record-setting numbers of white-tailed deer are eating away at the state’s forests. Nationally, the deer population has exploded from 500,000 in the 1900s to over 25 million today. Expanded hunting policies have not diminished the deer population boom that has resulted, in part, from changing land use practices and ownership.

Now forest landowners are being forced to adopt aggressive steps to protect their newly planted trees.

“The tree seedlings sticking up out of the snow are perfect for deer to come along and browse on the terminal buds, turning an oak or maple tree into a bush,” observes Bader, who spends much of his time managing damage control after landowners recognize the problem.

“There’s a lot that can prevent a successful tree planting,” admits Mark Shepard, vice president of the conservation non-profit organization Southwest Badger Resource Conservation and Development Council based in Lancaster. “In addition to deer browse, weed control, rabbits, and other small animal browse, weather, tree planting technique, and getting good seedling stock can all determine whether landowners end up with a field of trees or nothing at all.”

Donald Waller, a professor of botany and environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, agrees. “Hunting is a good place to start to manage for deer, but landowners may also be forced to choose between either less browse-sensitive trees or defending those seedlings in some way with tree shelters, deer repellents, or fencing,” advises Waller. “Northern red oak, northern white cedar, and hemlock would be hard to get going under current conditions.”

Such realities are echoed by Charly Ray, general manager for the Living Forest Cooperative based in Ashland, with most of its 155 members served by the Bayfield Electric Co-op. “Getting the forest to regenerate in the face of over-abundant deer is the biggest issue,” he admits. “The cedar and hemlock are candy to the deer.”

Just Browsing…

The Living Forest Cooperative provides forestry management and educational services for its members, working toward a vision of delivering timber products from “the floor of the forest to the floor of your home.” Some of the co-op’s efforts are devoted to pooling together timber harvests by forest landowners, many with small acreages, and creating more profitable, value-added forest products.

“Browsing by white-tailed deer has been a growing problem for Wisconsin landowners planting seedlings for reforestation purposes,” according to the Wisconsin DNR’s report, “Deer Repellents For Reforestation Plantings,” based on the 2003 Governor Knowles State Forest Deer Repellent Study. “The state nurseries shipped over 17 million seedlings, over 80 percent of which are subject to browsing.”  The Wisconsin Council on Forestry, a diverse group of leaders in the forestry community appointed by Governor Doyle, likewise identified deer browse as the most significant barrier to successful forest regeneration.

For deer and small animals that browse on trees, a variety of reforestation aides are available, including tree shelters that surround the trees, deer repellent, and spiral tree guards. For more than a decade, Southwest Badger RC&D, has assisted forest landowners with their reforestation efforts, emerging as the Midwest’s leading supplier of affordable reforestation aides such as tree shelters, deer repellents, and weed mats. Sales of its reforestation aides help support the work of the organization. No products trump active stewardship on the part of the forest landowner, though.

“The biggest concern in forestry is natural forest regeneration,” confirms Nancy Bozek, executive director of the Wisconsin Woodlands Owners Association, a statewide educational non-profit organization with over 2,200 members. The association devoted its entire Summer 2006 newsletter to the threat posed by record-level deer herds, focusing on helping its members better understand what’s going on in their woods.

Changing Land Use and the Great Exotic Invasion

Existing forests are also under threat by encroaching homes and the parcelization of land into smaller and smaller chunks. “Huge areas of forests are being broken off into 20-, 40-, or 60-acre parcels,” explains Bader. A growing number of rural homeowners face challenges in securing a timber harvest and sale on small acreages. “It’s more difficult to manage and challenging to put together a profitable timber sale when the time comes,” he continued.

Then there’s the onslaught of invasive exotic plant and insect species. Common buckthorn, bush honeysuckle, and multiflora rose threaten to undermine native tree species unable to emerge from beneath the shadows of these fast-growing plants. Garlic mustard growing rampant in some parts of the state actually changes the soil chemistry and inhibits tree growth, according to Bader. As it turns out, invasive species are such a statewide issue that Governor Doyle declared June 2007 as “Invasive Species Month,” a designation designed to make people more aware of invasive plant species as well as insects such as the gypsy moth and emerald ash borer.

“The impacts of invasive plant species are getting a lot worse because many exotic species spread rapidly, lack any form of natural control, and tend to have longer growing seasons than native species,” says Dan Bohlin, the forest invasive plants specialist with Southwest Badger Resource Conservation and Development. He works with private woodland owners to determine if invasive species exist on their lands then assists landowner with information and steps to control the problem. Thanks to his grant-funded position, Bohlin’s services are offered free to the forest landowners in the nine counties in southwest Wisconsin served by the organization. County DNR foresters are another place to turn for help.

Bohlin offers five action steps for forest landowners when it comes to managing invasive species. First, carefully examine your forest to determine if any invasive species are present. Second, prevent the spread of any species found (in the case of garlic mustard, by not walking or driving through the impacted area). Third, control the invasive species by removing and destroying it. Fourth, monitor the affected area on a regular basis since often a seed bank can exist (up to seven years in the case of garlic mustard). Finally, work on restoration of the area. “If you’ve eradicated an area of garlic mustard,” advises Bohlin, “plant some trees in its place. And don’t forget to protect your trees from deer with tree shelters or other reforestation aides.”

Global Perspective

Many who concerned about global climate change frequently cite “sequestration” (capture and storage) of carbon dioxide as one means of mitigating impacts of greenhouse gases. Trees provide an important ecological “service” of naturally sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide and, in turn, supplying oxygen. It’s been argued that unwise land use decisions over the past several hundred years have had a role in exacerbating CO2 impacts, with widespread forest removal dating to the time in Europe when lumber was in great demand for fleets of wooden ships. Ongoing in the present, there’s rapid deforestation in rainforests around the world, in part, to supply materials for the construction industry or make way for agriculture.

“Forests provide a huge carbon sink,” explains Bader. “Trees process carbon dioxide, storing carbon in their woody tissues and release oxygen. If you’re concerned at all about global warming, you should be concerned about forest growth.” Yet forests are disappearing around the world at unprecedented rates; rainforests are disappearing by about the size of a football field every second.

Planting for the Future

Wisconsin has a field of opportunity when it comes to planting trees. Modern farming practices have also allowed farmers to produce more on less land, freeing up acreage for forestry purposes.

“I don’t look on my forest as a profitable venture for myself,” concludes Bader. It will be a financially profitable venture for his grandson, who, appropriately enough, is named Forrest. “Trees take a long time to grow.”

“Planting trees is about ecological restoration and diversifying the forest economy,” observes Ray, who is quick to point out that only 1 percent of Wisconsin’s ancient forests remain. “There’s a lot more strength in a diversified forest that can produce timber for both sawlogs and pulpwood.” Sawlogs can be turned into value-added products such as flooring or paneling while pulpwood gets turned into paper products. “Our Living Forest Cooperative members want to restore the structure and forest function,” says Ray.

Unlike Leopold, we’ll need to do a lot more than to plant a few acres of trees and hope enough will grow into a forest. Forest landowners these days need to consider multiple factors in order to have a successful tree planting and need to work with their foresters, conservation organizations like Southwest Badger RC&D, and forestry cooperatives around the state to help them achieve the legacy they desire. And they need to be prepared for the hard-but-satisfying work ahead to benefit their communities and coming generations.—John Ivanko
Ivanko, of Browntown, Wis., is a forestry consultant who works with with Southwest Badger RC&D.

 

Looming Large
After a year of respite, hurricane activity looms large for 2007

Seldom have so many been so happy that others were so wrong. At this time in 2006, co-ops along the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf Coast were bracing for a third consecutive year of hurricane activity. Meteorologists were predicting as many as six major hurricanes to add to the disaster roll call of storms such as Charley, Ivan, Katrina, and Rita.

Mercifully, they missed the mark. The United States escaped major hurricane damage in 2006 for the first time since 2002. Instead of a predicted 16 named storms, the stormy weather season, which runs from June through November, yielded just nine, the fewest since 1997. For August, Philip J. Klotzbachhttp://typhoon.atmos.colostate.edu/forecasts/2006/aug2006/ - _ftn1, William M. Gray, and William Thorson, an expert team at Colorado State University, foresaw “considerable activity” for the month. In retrospect, the authors acknowledged, “Our August-only forecast was a bust.”

But just as electric co-ops did well last year to prepare for hurricanes that never formed, they’ll do well again this year to guard against complacency, if changing weather patterns are any indicator. In fact, the latest returns from the Colorado State group are ominous. Some of their key predictions include:

• An estimated nine hurricanes with five of them at Category 3 status or higher;

• An estimated 40 days of hurricane activity, compared with an average of 24.5; and

• An estimated 17 named storms, compared with an average of about 10.

The probability of a hurricane making landfall along the U.S. shore is 74 percent, the Colorado State researchers said, with the chance divided equally between the Atlantic and Gulf Coast regions.

“Despite a fairly inactive 2006 hurricane season, we believe that the Atlantic basin is currently in an active hurricane cycle,” the researchers said in a preview of 2007 hurricane activity. “This active cycle is expected to continue for another decade or two.”

The key difference between 2006 and 2007 is the dissipation of an El Niño warming pattern in the Pacific Ocean that tended to curb hurricane activity in the Atlantic. That linkage seems odd to casual observers, but scientists insist the correlation between El Niño events and intense hurricane activity is strong. El Niño produces warmer ocean waters in parts of the Pacific, which in turn changes wind patterns in the Atlantic.

In this case, large waves deep under the surface of the ocean appeared to have spurred El Niño’s rapid development last summer and kept Pacific waters warmer than normal.

“El Niño developed quickly and the atmosphere responded rapidly, reducing hurricane activity during an otherwise active era that began in 1995,” said Gerry Bell, a lead forecaster for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

In the last few months, scientists have concluded that the El Niño phenomenon ended, only to be replaced by a La Niña event. That’s the flip side of weather in the Pacific basin, and it means cooler-than-normal water temperatures have been observed in the east-central part of the Pacific.

Keeping the names of weather patterns straight seems like something out of “Jeopardy!” but co-ops need only remember this: La Niña could be bad news. In seven of the eight years following El Niño events, weather trackers recorded a flurry of Atlantic-based hurricanes. All of those years featured either neutral or La Niña conditions in the Pacific.

“Although other scientific factors affect the frequency of hurricanes, there tends to be a greater-than-normal number of Atlantic hurricanes and fewer-than-normal number of eastern Pacific hurricanes during La Niña events,” said NOAA Administrator Conrad C. Lautenbacher.

The Colorado State forecasters agree based on their newest prediction models. For 2007, they’ve changed the way they factor in considerations such as low pressure systems in the Atlantic and high pressure systems in the Pacific. That’s what led them to the conclusion that about nine hurricanes loom for coastal parts of the United States in 2007.

While scientists can’t pinpoint exactly where those hurricanes will strike until shortly before they make landfall, they have identified areas in the U.S. that are most vulnerable to hurricane damage. To no one’s surprise, low-lying New Orleans, still shaking off Katrina-related damage, tops the list, compiled by the International Hurricane Research Center at Florida International University.

Other vulnerable areas include Lake Okeechobee, Florida, where the second worst hurricane-related loss of life occurred in 1928; the Florida Keys; coastal Mississippi, Miami, and Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; and Houston and Galveston, Texas. Many of those regions were touched directly or indirectly by hurricanes in 2004 and 2005 and should be on guard again this year, scientists said.

One side note—the most recent wave of hurricane studies might provide some comfort to coastal residents who dread the regularly scheduled appearance of slicker-cloaked newsmen ready to report on imminent property destruction. The spate of hurricanes in recent years does not appear to have been induced by permanent changes to the Earth’s climate and should level off down the road.

The surge of Atlantic hurricanes during the last decade probably is more related to variations in ocean circulation, driven by changes in ocean salinity, than a global warming pattern, the Colorado State researchers found. For example, hurricane activity in the Atlantic basin between 1950 and 1964 was indistinguishable from activity between 1990 and 2004, even though land and surface temperatures were cooling during the earlier time span.

“Although global surface temperatures have increased over the last century and over the last 30 years, there is no reliable data available to indicate increased hurricane frequency or intensity in any of the globe’s seven tropical cyclone basins,” the Colorado State team reported. “We have no plausible physical reasons for believing that Atlantic hurricane frequency or intensity will change significantly if global ocean temperatures continue to rise.”—Steven Johnson, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association

 

EDITORIAL
by Perry Baird

Dark suits as their “uniform,” solemn electric co-op leaders (left) gather at Washington’s Mayflower Hotel in January 1973 to counter administration actions against REA. A more colorful and diverse-looking crowd (right) assembles at another Washington, D.C., hotel for a similar purpose last month.

The scene was familiar: Clusters of electric co-op directors and employees walked the halls of House and Senate buildings in Washington, D.C., sometimes crowding into offices’ tiny reception areas as they waited for meetings with lawmakers and congressional staff. At times, the co-op leaders arrived in such numbers that the small Capitol Hill offices couldn’t comfortably accommodate them; in those cases, a hallway or a vacant hearing room sufficed.

A three-day span early last month marked the 35th consecutive year electric cooperatives “rallied” to press Congress for action supporting cooperatively owned electric utilities and the members they serve. This year, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) drew more than 3,000 participants to its legislative conference, including nearly 70 from Wisconsin (see related story and photos on page 8).

Opening a briefing session for the co-op throng, NRECA President Jack Wolfe recounted how the string of consecutive annual conferences began in 1973 in response to a crisis involving the co-ops’ financing program.

Black Friday

Loans to help electric co-ops build and maintain rural utility systems come through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS), formerly called the Rural Electrification Administration (REA). Dating to Depression-era assistance efforts that recognized the economic difficulty of providing electricity to remote, unserved areas, government loans through REA and RUS have been an important resource that allows electric co-ops to offer reliable and affordable electric service.

The loans are more high-profile than are sources of private financing, and they’re frequently targeted by unfriendly administrations for reduction or elimination. Such was the case on December 29, 1972—still referred to as rural electrification’s “Black Friday”—when President Nixon ordered the REA lending program be terminated. Three weeks later, about 1,400 cooperative delegates from 46 states descended on the nation’s capital, urging congressional action to save the program.

Congress responded by passing a bill setting up a revolving fund from which REA loans could be made. Nixon signed the measure on May 11, 1973.

Back At It

An issue topping the agenda for the 35th legislative conference this May had an all-too-familiar ring to it. The Office of Management and Budget has proposed eliminating RUS power-supply loans for cooperatives’ electric generation, and the agency wants to limit access to RUS loans to just co-ops in the most remote parts of the country.

Setting out to re-acquaint lawmakers with the special needs of electric co-ops—which can’t access the type of federal tax breaks enjoyed by for-profit companies and must spend more to build and maintain electric systems across wider and less-populated areas—the grassroots lobbyists once again trekked to Washington, a place that’s become “home turf” to legions of co-op advocates through the years.

As cooperatives of all types know—and continually get presented with chances to reaffirm—banding together is the way to pursue business and legislative goals.

 

If you’re wondering what it was like to live in Wisconsin as an ordinary citizen during the Civil War, the best way to wet your feet in that era’s history is to wade right in at the Wade House in Greenbush.

As the war raged far away from this small Wisconsin village, travelers on the plank road from Fond du Lac to Sheboygan sought meals and lodging at the town’s stagecoach inn, the Wade House. Villagers bought their lumber from the nearby sawmill. All thrived in the 1850s and ’60s, but during the 1900s the Wade House stood vacant and dilapidated.

Beginning in the 1940s, two women, Marie Christine Kohler and Ruth De Young Kohler, dreamed of restoring the inn to its condition during its heyday. Through their efforts, the Kohler Foundation purchased and restored the property, including the Wade House and the circa-1855 residence of Charles Robinson, son-in-law of inn founder Sylvanus Wade. Eventually the restored property was deeded to the Wisconsin Historical Society, and in 1954 it became the second of the society’s historical sites.

Today visitors can relive the days of the Civil War in the company of costumed guides who explain how life was lived at that place and time. A horse-drawn wagon transports visitors as they tour the inn and grounds, where guides are busy doing the activities of the 1860s.

Visitors may also visit the sawmill, built in 2001 in the image of the Herrling Sawmill. The original sawmill stood at this precise spot between 1854 and 1910. It is one of just a few working water-powered sawmills of its kind in America. Daily the turbine-powered sawmill, drawing energy from a millpond fed by the Mullet River, saws lumber during its demonstrations for the visitors.

Also on the site is the Wesley Jung Carriage Museum, displaying a vast assortment of American-made, horse-drawn and hand-operated vehicles from the 18th and early 19th centuries. These range from children’s wagons to delivery wagons, fire wagons, and a circus calliope. The remarkable collection grew from one begun by Wesley Jung, grandson of an early Sheboygan carriage maker, Jacob Jung.

The Wade House also hosts many special events to appeal to both sexes and all ages. Coming up is Visitor Appreciation Day on June 3 (just $2 admission on this day) and one of the monthly 1860s baseball games. On June 17, the Greenbush vintage baseball team battles another historic baseball team, playing by 1860s rules. September brings an arts and crafts fair, a Civil War School Day, and the annual Civil War reenactment.

Whenever you go, just wade in to history, and you’ll end up enjoying while you learn.
—Linda Hilton