March has been exciting as winter quickly moved back and forth between spring rain and sun, and winter cold and snow. We were excited to see the winter aconite down by the garden and shortly thereafter the snowdrops popping up around the house. Everyone looks for crocus, we look for the aconite and snowdrops. The crocuses are up now also. Our fall crop of peas that sprouted before the frost but had no chance to grow and produce made it through the winter under cover in our raised beds and appear to be ready to take off. This might be our earliest peas yet if they grow. We expect our tree orders to arrive soon which will get us planting in open spaces in the warbler cuts as well as in the creek buffer. It is great to be able to start in on the things we love to do during the warm months.

The feeder birds are shifting from the winter to summer contingent. The juncos are down to a few representatives. The red breasted nuthatches are hanging on. The goldfinch males are turning yellow. The cardinals are building a huge nest on a lilac branch that stretches into our stand of bamboo. Our DCNR Service Forester, Tim Cole, cringes every time he sees that bamboo, but we are keeping it in check in our yard to provide escape cover for the feeder birds. Sturdy lilac base surrounded by cold wind dampening bamboo seems like a good nesting choice during the changing weather of the season. The mourning doves are calling, and many other birds are chasing each other around to intimidate the competition and impress potential mates. We had a sharp shinned hawk take a dive at the feeder birds mid-month. It missed due to a strategically placed roll of fence wire over the ground feeding area. It flew to a nearby tree and brooded before proceeding up the hollow to David’s feeders for easier pickings. Reading up on them, we found that birds are their main prey. Just as we need predators to help keep mammal populations healthy, we need these avian predators for the same function in avian populations.

The snow is all gone and though we have flurries today at the end of the month, I am hopeful that we have seen the last of any accumulation in the area. I am ready to get out and get some work done.

Thanks to the new Forestry Plan for the property, there is no end to it in sight. Spring is a great time to attack invasives with a basal spray herbicide. The invasives such as autumn olive and bush honeysuckle tend to leaf out ahead of the native plants giving them an early advantage. This also makes them easy to spot and treat and I plan on hitting them hard this spring. The same advantage occurs in the fall – they are the last in the woods to lose their leaves and again stick out from the rest of the forest. Krystaleigh and I have made several trips to visit the various tiny vernal pools we have and see if there are any amphibian activities going on. Sure enough, all the pools we watched last year are showing egg masses. We are excited to see them and constantly thinking of how to get them through to maturity. This being a new area for us to learn about, we are mostly winging it. We found egg masses in the tire rut at the top of the ridge, in the larger tire rut at the head of the hollow and at the pool in the grass near the garden. All told to date, at the end of March, we have over 23 egg masses. This is nearly double last year and makes us think we were somewhat successful in our amateur efforts to save the larvae last year. One thing we asked our Consulting Forester to revise in the draft version of the Forestry Plan was to include the installation of some major vernal pools where feasible on the property. We have some great potential areas. A tour of the John Hoover Tree Farm this past Fall showed us the potential. We are excited to move from tire ruts to true sustainable pools that will continue for generations. There is a link to a virtual tour of John’s property further down in this News You Can Use. The videos are well worth watching.

I have been to many online meetings and webinars. The slate of webinars over the past year has been awesome. Today was the last of a three-part series titled Deer Impact Assessment and Mitigation Summit. Coordinated by Dave Jackson and Sarah Wurzbacher. This online event was a fantastic roundup of true experts in the field of deer and forestry interaction. While there are no easy answers to the continuing “Deer Wars” the studies and work in the field will help to reduce the impact on our forests if we can only get together on a landscape scale and address the goals, needs and concerns of various landowners. Our property is a classic example of the problems in managing deer. We are bordered on three sides by Game Lands. The fourth side and nearby forest tracts are privately owned by several people who all refuse to harvest does during the deer seasons. I must somehow engage with these landowners to try to coordinate efforts to work towards a healthy forest and deer herd despite previous failed efforts. It is a challenge, but I am going to try and get us all to focus on the entire landscape of our hollow. One piece of advice in our Forestry Plan is to join the Quality Deer Management Association. We have been asking the hunters on our property to concentrate on antlerless deer and leave the bucks which is a bit like one part of the QDMA program. I have been on their mailing list and have been reading their messages each month but have not acted on joining or establishing their other suggested practices. I fully intend to correct that deficiency and see if that might help me win over the neighbors to coordinating our efforts to get them the big bucks they want while getting me the herd reduction I want.

Wildfire season is upon us and I have been to several already. To this point, most have been due to downed wires igniting the fire. High winds with trees dropping on wires kept many fire companies active across the state on March 26^th. Few have been due to trash burning at the lawn to forest or field transition. Maybe people are waking up to the fact that such burning is inadvisable on sunny, dry, windy days. I am not holding my breath though. Again, my oft repeated admonishment from Smokey Bear – “Only you can prevent wildfires.”

The PFA has been keeping me extremely busy. A lot of online meetings and activity, all signs of an active and engaged association. The Conservation Fundraiser went very well. We had a virtual drawing on March 6^th. As we are not legally able to accept card payments for tickets, I had put out an offer to pay the cost for anyone wanting a last-minute ticket if they paid me back. The response was great, and I paid for 19 tickets on the day of the event. One wonderful person offered to purchase any remaining tickets before the drawing started. That number was 5 tickets. I paid for that person’s 5 tickets and we therefore sold out of tickets again this year. I am in awe of all of you that made this happen. The funds raised go to forestry education initiatives and is our largest fundraiser of the year. We are planning to have an in-person event next year. It will again become the PFA Annual Conservation Dinner. The date will be March 5^th and it will be held in the State College Ramada Inn with a buffet dinner, live and silent auctions and raffles. Save the date, put aside items of interest for the auctions as you do your spring cleaning and plan on getting tickets and coming to the dinner. Congratulations to Faye Drawbaugh on winning the $10,000 first prize at the 2021 drawdown.

The Forestry Heritage Committee is working on the third video in their series highlighting displays at the Forest Heritage Museum. We will let you know as each gets posted online. The Annual Symposium Committee is also planning for an in-person event which will be held at the Toftrees Resort on October 9^th. Information on registering will be forthcoming. Be sure to get a seat and come to learn and bump elbows with the great people making up our association. The Log a Load Sporting Clays shoot will be held on October 1^st at the Shenecoy Sportsmen’s Club near Huntingdon. Funds raised from this event, cosponsored with the PA Forest Products Assoc. are donated to four PA Children’s Hospitals. It is a great shooting venue and fun for all levels of shooting skill. I tied for low score two years ago and was proud that I was able to hit anything. It was a great training experience and humbling, even to those who are much more skilled than I am.

We had several meetings with the Tree Farm parent organization, the American Forest Foundation (AFF) in March. One was to review where they are on the Family Forest Carbon Program. While the program is still evolving, several counties in PA were used as a pilot program. There have been many landowners who have signed up to sequester carbon in their forests for 20 years. This does restrict some forest management activities but does not stop them. The payments received for carbon credits are a great source of income to use in forest management or to just pay the taxes on your forest property. John Hoover signed up a few sections of his property and is happy with the move.

We also discussed PFA support for the Rural Forests Market Act now pending in the US House. This Act would provide further funding towards the Carbon Market for private forest landowners. PFA has become a signatory on the AFF’s support for the legislation. The Outreach Committee met and discussed the 2022 Calendar project, and having a booth at the Timber Expo and Farm Show, should they become in person events. The Tree Farm Committee, with John Hoover as the new Chair, met and discussed the revision of the Tree Farm Manual and signage that would recognize Tree Farms for their years of being a part of the program. We found that 2 Farms have been in the program for almost 75+ years! There are also 28 with 50+ years and 97 with 25+ years. I congratulate those who have been so dedicated to their forest properties. What fantastic legacies!

In closing, I want to thank Gay & Harold Thistle for their service as PA Tree Farm co-chairs. They have sold their property in PA and are moving to a new property in NY. They have been a steady hand on the tiller of the Tree Farm Committee and remain at our service to ensure that the transition continues to go smoothly. They will be missed but not forgotten.

Be safe,

Mark Ott