Happy New Year!

2009 ended in a snowstorm over Mont Alto. With the campus closed for the holidays, the snow can stay untrodden for a little while. Best wishes and success to all in 2010!

Class of 2009

P1050677
Originally uploaded by P_Linehan.Congratulations to the Class of 2009 forest technology graduates at Penn State Mont Alto. It's been an unforgettable past two years! Good luck in your future endeavors.

And, lest we forget, here is the same group at freshman orientation in 2007.

End of the Year Picnic

This year's sophomore picnic was very wet! Fortunately, the pavilion at Mont Alto State Park kept everyone dry. And the food was good, too! We hope the newest alumni will keep us up to date with their adventures and come back to visit often.

Mont Alto Academic Festival

Forestry students competed in the Mont Alto Academic Festival on April 16th. They cleaned up in the Science/Technology

• First Place: Chance Yeckley and Tiffany Roddy for "Meeting of the Pines Natural Area"
• Second Place: Kevin Braun and Eric Monger "The Distribution of American Chestnuts on Oak Road"
• Third Place: Logan Droppa for "Mapping Ornamental Trees: Korean Tetrainum and Amur Corktree"

Other forester presentations included:

• Matt Reitzel "Identifying and Mapping Fir Trees on Campus
• Andrew Baker " Practical Use of Geographic Information System (GIS) in Developing Forest Management Plans on Privately Owned Forest Land in Washington County, Pennsylvania"

Chance and Tiffany



Eric and Kevin


Logan


Andrew

Presentation by Dr. Finley

The overview of his presentation is that of the 58% of Pennsylvania that is forested, much of the land is privately owned and the size of the land is being parcelized (broken into smaller and smaller tracts). Since most land owners who harvest their forests do not hire a forester, the result is high grading and not thinking about the future forests. They are not waiting for adequate regeneration and what does manage to regenerate is not what we want to see. The main tree species that are regenerating are red maple and black birch. Deer don't eat them or fern. The fern shades out and filters the light needed by the tree seedlings and then if oak regeneration does manage to out grow the fern, the deer browse it off. If the deer don't browse it off, then the oak has to compete with the faster growing birch and maple.

Using tests such as the ASID test and fencing out deer, we can see that the deer, fern, and competition as well as invasive insects like the Gypsy moth paint a very bleak picture for the oak. One of the things that we can do is educate the public and try to use best management practices to ensure a strong forest in the future.

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/foresthealth.aspx This website discusses the concern for deer and Gypsy moth, which relate to the decrease in oak regeneration and its component in our forests, especially in our future forests.

Mont Alto Hiking Trails

Follow this link, http://tinyurl.com/2j7bto to a map of hiking trails around the Mont Alto Campus made by forest technology student Tom Oliver for the GIS class.

Tom made the map with the new design tools in Google Maps. Very simple to use, all you need to do is navigate to the area you want and use the simple drawing tools. You can then send your map to anyone or even download it to view on Google Earth.

Enjoy!

Mira Lloyd Dock Presentation

To help celebrate Women's History Month, Dr. Susan Rimby from Shippensburg University presented a program on the life and times of Mira Lloyd Dock, one of the founders of the Pennsylvania State Forestry Academy at Mont Alto and the Pennsylvania State Forestry Commission, this past Tuesday March 20th. According to Dr. Rimby, Dock was the "Founding Mother" of the forestry academy. She was beloved by the students as a mentor and counsellor. While respecting the Victorian mores of her time, Dock was active in forestry, conservation, and urban beautification at a time when few women were involved in public life. She was a leader in women's clubs both in Pennsylvania and nationally. She used the clubs to motivate women to become real powers in the conservation movement. Dr. Rimby is currently writing a biography of Dock.