Forest Society Welcomes New Land Stewards!
The Class of 2022 Land Steward volunteers wrapped up their training last week at the Wilkins-Campbell Forest in Deering. The group of 19 new stewards hails from all over the state and will be stewarding forest reservations from Clarkesville to Chesterfield. During COVID, Forest Society staff developed virtual screencasted versions of the Land Steward training presentations, so a good portion of the training program is now done online at a volunteer's own pace and schedule. Over the past month, five group zoom events covered important topics and were opportunities for the new recruits to ask questions and get to know each other a bit.
The training culminated on a VERY wet field day last week at Wilkins-Campbell Forest.
"It couldn't get much wetter than that day," said Managing Forester Wendy Weisiger, "but I was impressed with everyone's great attitudes despite the terrible weather."
The group practiced compass navigation and pacing, learned about routine trail maintenance, and toured an active timber harvest happening on the property.
Reservation Stewardship staff are excited to work with and welcome this new class of Land Stewards to the organization, and we hope they find volunteering rewarding and educational.
If you are interested in learning more about the Land Steward Program, visit this page on our website. Contact Carrie Deegan at cdeegan@forestsociety.or for more information or to be added to a notification list for when next year's training is scheduled.
