NorthWoods is asking YOU to be a forest steward.
Northern forests need some heroes. Development and fragmentation, invasive species, and climate change all threaten the vitality of local landscapes. NorthWoods Stewardship Center is on a mission to help children and adults steward their environment. Our new bunkhouse—building in 2015—will bring woodland owners, youth conservation crews, students and resource pros to NorthWoods for hands-on learning in our demonstration forest.
THANK YOU to all of our generous donors who made gifts large and small and not only met our goal of $10,000 but exceeded it! We are grateful to every single person who has contributed to our campaign! The winners of our prize packages are:
Stay for 2 at Jay Peak Resort – Elaine Hobart
1yr Northern Woodlands Magazine Subscription – Beth Torpey
Hiker’s Package – Adrian Helm
Paddlers Package – Cornelia Rath
Paddlers Package – Caleb Lefebvre
Some highlights from our event!
About the Bunkhouse
Our goal is to complete our 20-person Bunkhouse by October 2015. Currently, students, workshop participants and visiting researchers have to be put up in tents, hotels, or the homes of local volunteers when attending NorthWoods programs. While we appreciate that toughing out the elements builds character, a more permanent and insulative housing solution will allow us to serve a wider audience and host multi-day events in all seasons.
Multi-day programs with access to the full range of demonstration areas will allow us to offer in-depth forest ecology and silviculture to landowners and forestry professionals as well as education programs for K-college students. The Bunkhouse will increase the number of individuals that benefit from our demonstration forest and environment educational model. Student groups from colleges can utilize the facility for weeklong field experiences while the education department can offer overnight camps, no matter the weather.
In addition to providing housing for students, the bunkhouse building itself utilizes the same sustainable harvesting practices we teach in our demonstration forest. 15,000 board feet of spruce, fir and white pine were milled on-site specifically for the building of our bunkhouse. Of the total logs used, 2/3 were salvaged from storm damaged forest at Al Robertson’s Tree Farm in Sheffield. The remaining 1/3 were sourced from our own 1500 acre property, as part of a planned timber stand improvement project, and cut in part by a class of Game of Logging students. All locally sourced logs were harvested using low impact tractor- and tractor/forwarder- logging techniques. Woohoo!
NorthWoods has all permits in place to initiate ground breaking this spring, and just need some additional help from YOU to get this project (literally) off the ground and start introducing the next generation of environmental stewards to the great northern forests.
“I have brought students to NorthWoods for a number of years on overnight camping field trips to survey for small mammals. Having a bunkhouse to utilize will allow more time for field work and will encourage future use of NorthWoods by graduate students and faculty from the University of Vermont.”
C. William Kilpatrick,
Professor of Zoology & Natural History, UVM
