Early Spring Or No Winter

[jyoutz]

Boy there has been very little winter here in the mountain west, except for the Pacific tier of states and Idaho and Utah. Otherwise there has been very little snow in AZ, NM, CO, WY, MT. In N AZ we had a few really good snows in Dec and Jan and some really cold spells (-20F) but if you put these periods all together, I doubt if winter has totaled more than a month. Otherwise it has been unseasonally warm and dry. The plant growth hasn't started yet though, but if we get any more days like today, that could change.

 

[rancar]

Hi Jim --

I noticed in your member profile you're a forester. Wow, does this brings back memories. I was in the forestry program at Utah State Univ in Logan back in the 70s. Where did you get your schooling? A was forced to seek an alternative career due to economic reasons back then (in other words, no jobs) but still love the field of forestry and studying up on it. While I don't work in it professionally, we own our own small forest now and I try my hand at managing that in my spare time. This is one reason I'm looking to purchase my first compact tractor, a JD 4710. /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

Regards,
Bob Ancar
Cambridge, NY

 

[rancar]

Frank -- I know what you mean. I'm hoping this time it's different. My least favorite month is March, when the ground thaws, and everything turns to mud. We can get the warm days, but the mud and soft earth prohibits me from getting up into back fields. This is time I like to work at the hedgerows harvesting firewood for next winter before the weather turns warm. Well, this is another reason I'm using to justify my purchase of a 4WD JD4710. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Regards,
Bob Ancar
Cambridge, NY

 

[jyoutz]

Bob, well that makes 2 of us foresters on this board. I'm an alumni of Northern Arizona University (1983). I've spent a few weeks attending Utah State at Logan. Beautiful area and good forestry program. A few years ago, I attended the short course at Logan as part of a silvicultural certification program which involved the 3 regional forestry schools (Utah, N AZ , Colorado State). Yeah, I can relate to the job market. When I graduated, I worked for 9 years for the State at substandard wages before I moved to the federal government. There were no good paying jobs available. It's amazing though. Now anyone with a forestry degree can get a fed gov forester job. Seems like during the dry spell in the 70s-80s, nobody recruited enough new blood. Now the older foresters are retiring and we can't fill all of the position vacancies. Also the substantial new funding that came with Babbitt's national fire program also created a lot of new jobs in forest thinning and fuels management programs. Well what you're doing with you own land is what all of us wish we could do anyway. I'm sure you get a lot of enjoyment out of managing your own woodlot.

 

[rancar]

Jim --

I had looked at Northern Arizona State in Flagstaff but I just chose to attend Utah State. Programs seemed to be equivalent. So, you must have met up with good old Doc Daniels in Logan when you attended the silvicultural cert program. If not, I'm sure you must have heard of his reputation /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif. I haven't been back to Logan since 1978, but I miss Logan Canyon, the Wasatch range, and the Uintas. There's some beautiful back country up there. One of these summers I want to take a 2-3 week vacation and get back out there.

Yes, I sure do enjoy managing our own small forest. It's not big, only about 50 acres in total with predominant species Pinus Strobus and Tsuga Canadensis. I'm experimenting with transplanting some Pinus Ponderosa for ornamental purposes but these were attacked last summer by army worms and I'm not sure they will live to maturity. But still, I kind of miss working in the field. I had to adjust with the times back then though. There were too many people I knew in the forestry program leaving and doing other things other than working in the field of forestry. Really discouraging /w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif. But, we've made a nice life for ourselves and enjoying rural living. Walking through the forest just rekindles the good memories I had at Utah State and provides a certain solitude I can't find elsewhere /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Take care and stay in touch.

Regards,
Bob Ancar
Cambridge, NY

 

[jyoutz]

Bob, No I wasn't fortunate enough to have attended a class by Doc Daniels. He retired just a few years before I went through the program. His reputation is legendary though. His replacement - Dr. Jim Long is a very good tribute to Doc Daniels, as he has built on Doc's research and published a lot in his own right. Bob if you need some ponderosa seedlings, let me know. We grow a few hundred thousand each year of our local seed source in our green house.

 

[rancar]

Jim -- Do you think the ponderosa seedlings would survive a trip cross country? How would you send them? What other species do you grow? I previously were getting mine from Musser Forests (large commercial grower) in PA. Many of these though would die within first year of transplant and I've gotten discouraged from ordering from them again. Let's continue this discussion by private e-mail. Yes, I would be interested in obtaining some seedlings. Thanks.

Regards,
Bob Ancar
Cambridge, NY

 

[Mosey]

I can't say we had no winter here in Indiana. We didn't get much snow at all, but it was real cold in late December and early January (highs in the teens for about a week). After that, the rest of January and early February was real mild - in the 40's and 50's a lot. But, yesterday winter came back and now we have a little snow on the ground and temps in the low 20's. I still haven't used my grader blade to push snow though, and I used it 3 or 4 times last year. The last 2 years we got over a week of warm weather in February with temps in the 70's. It seemed nice at the time, but it ended up causing my cherry trees to bud out early and then the weather got cold again in March and the end result was no cherries. So, maybe this year things will turn out better, since we haven't had that kind of warm weather in February.