News and Updates for LCSWA Members

A tree tour gathering offers opportunities for questions. Critters were on tour too.

By Fay Sallee The 4-H members this year entered their record books at the Linn County Fair record book contest. They all did very well and qualified for our Linn County Small Woodlands Assoc. chapter awards. This year 14 members applied for $1,600 in scholarships. The candidates were: Jonathan Leever, Andrew Leever, Leeland Prock, Alister Prock, Emily Kinkade, Ryan Henry, Haley Tye, Conner Tye, Kaden Holt, Katie Fortner, Tristan Prock, Elizabeth Kinkade, Gabriel Bradford and Andrew Bradford. Scholarship amounts will be announced at the Jan 18 LCSWA annual meeting.  Their interviews were held on Nov. 20. Our interviewers, Mary and Bob Brendle, Larry and Nancy Mauter did a great job. They were impressed at what the members have been doing in the 4-H Forestry project. They worked hard to come up with the following awards: 1 Gold +, 5 Gold, 3 Silver +, 3 Silver, and 2 Green.  Chapter members will get a chance to meet some of the 4-Hers  at the potluck supper annual meeting.

Oregon Small Woodlands Association has set its annual meeting for 2020 on July 23, 24 and 25th. Lane County will again host the event slated for the Holiday Inn Express in Springfield. The chapter also hosted the 2018 meeting. Benton County hosted the 2019 annual meeting. The three-day event will include a tree farm tour, mill tours, workshops, seminars and an awards dinner. Linn County Small Woodlands Assoc. member Mike Barsotti is president of the statewide group. The annual meeting includes sale of OSWA-logo clothing and other gear. The LCSWA operates the clothing sale and receives a portion of the profits. Post cards announcing the event have recently arrived in the mail of LCSWA members.

Directors of the Linn County Small Woodlands Assoc. will meet Thursday Dec. 5 in Tangent. Brad Withrow-Robinson, Oregon State Extension Service liaison, is hosting the meeting from 7-9 p.m. Board President Lee Peterman’s agenda for the meeting includes reports on the upcoming 25th annual seedling sale. Also on the agenda will be an update on the Robert Mealey Pine Fund project. Members of the LCSWA are welcome to attend board meetings. The OSU Extension office is located just north of Hwy 34 at 33630 McFarland Road.

Hibbs-Karr tour  shows steps toward improving forests for wildlife By Lee Peterman Linn County Small Woodlands Assoc. president When asked what they want of their forests, many family landowners list things like improving their forest’s health,  increasing wildlife and resistance to wildfire.   Many young forests, however, suffer from “production-plantation” style of reforestation. As a result, they are too uniform and dense for those benefits. Steps needed to create a more diverse and healthy forest can be expensive.   The Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) has rolled out new cost-share funds to help landowners improve the conservation value of conifer forests in western Oregon.   On the cool and damp morning of Oct 19, a hardy group of about 25 individuals in rain gear and mud-boots assembled in the parking lot of the ODFW* field office in Adair Village.  OSU Extension Agent Brad Withrow-Robinson took the roll and then herded the participants

Just received my copy of the Bark for October, 2019. The story announcing the date for the Linn County annual membership is incorrect. My fault. The annual meeting is Saturday Jan. 18. Doors will open at the Z Hall in Scio. Thanks for your understanding. We'll try to do better next time/ Larry Mauter

The Shiver River Tree farm was the focus of a nice feature published Oct. 3 in the Albany Democrat Herald. The Benton County tree farmers were selected as tree famers of the year. They will compete for state honors during a recognition luncheon Saturday Oct. 26 at the Oregon Garden in Silverton. In Linn County, Tim and Kathy Otis and their family were selected as tree farmers of the year. They will also be among the honorees. Joe Holmberg, tree farmer of the year coordinator for the Linn County Small Woodlands Association has compiled a list of past recipients of the honor for this chapter. He is still looking into past records to expand this list. If you can help, contact Holmberg at praediolum@yahoo.com . 2019 Kathy and Tim Otis 2018 Sherm and Leslie Weld 2017 Ivan and Rebecca Wolthius 2016 Joe and Shirley Holmberg 2015 Dave and Karen Bateman 2014 Linda Butts 2013 Rod and Ann Bardell 2012 Ed and Jim Merzenich and Karen Wilson 2011 Henry and Mollie

The ZCBJ Hall on Main Street in Scio will again host the annual membership meeting of the Linn County Small Woodlands Association. Board Secretary Jonathan Christie confirmed the reservation date for Saturday, Jan. 18. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. with potluck service beginning at 5:30 p.m. Soft drinks and coffee are provided. Bring your own table service. Members set up chairs and tables for the dinner as the doors open.  OSWA Executive Director Jim James is expected to provide an update on activities of the state organization. A guest speaker from the forestry industry will be invited. The annual meeting is a business meeting for the board of directors and general membership.  It is also the opportunity to meet scholarship recipients LCSWA has funded at Oregon State University and 4-H. There are door prizes and an auction of goods crafted from wood. The annual membership meeting is also a good time to introduce a neighboring tree farmer to the organization, according to mem

Signups are now being taken for volunteers to work at the Linn County Small Woodland Assoc. annual seedling sale. The 25th annual sale is set for Saturday Feb. 1 at the Linn County fairgrounds. The sale provides scholarship funds for Oregon State University forestry students as well as 4-H forestry scholarships. Volunteers are needed Friday, Jan 31.to package seedlings that have been pre-ordered. Order forms for the 2020 sale will appear in the January issue of The Quarterly Bark and online at  linncountyswa.com. Bonnie Marshall, seedling sale chairman, informed the LCSWA board at its September meeting that orders will be similar to last year, a record year for pre-orders and sales. The young plants will be coming primarily from Brooks Nursery and other local nurseries. Supplies sold out quickly on Saturday last year. About 1,500 Douglas firs have been ordered along with about 450 grand fir.  Also, Marshall will be adding Oregon white oak to the order form. The hardwood is

Get to know Robert H. Mealey as an 80-year-old with a passion for the Willamette Valley Ponderosa Pine. The following story appeared in American Forests magazine in 1992. Planting for tomorrow American Forests At his 580-acre tree farm in Linn County, Oregon, 80-year-old Robert Mealey is talking with a friend. "I've only planted 150 trees today," says Mealey. Indeed, compared with this tree farmer's standards, 150 trees is a meager day's work. That's because when Mealey spots a piece of land without trees, it's his natural predilection to plant some. When he got to thinking about Linn County's 100,000 or so acres of unused land, he initiated a planting effort called the Willamette Valley Ponderosa Pine Program. This year, approximately 64,000 seedlings have been distributed to 35 landowners. "This program is growing like topsy," he says. Mealey believes that the 1,500 small tree farms of his county aren't as productive as

Sunnyside Park lived up to its name Saturday Sept. 14 for the annual Linn County Small Woodlands Assoc. picnic. Temperatures were in the mid-70s on a day sandwiched between two rainy days. Much of the conversation for the day centered on the Robert H. Mealey pine fund and a proposal to build a demonstration pine grove at the park. The chapter and Linn County parks are in the early stages of discussion about the proposal. Approvals would have to come from the Linn County commissioners. Retired Cascade Timber Consulting Inc. chief Howard Dew provided a number of published photos and newspaper clippings highlighting Mealey’s career as a forester and ardent advocation of the Willamette Valley Ponderosa pine. Mealey has been called the “Johnny Appleseed of the Willamette Valley” because of his efforts to restore the race of pines that were a prominent tree going back thousands of years. He grew up the son of a mill owner on property now submerged by Foster Lake. He became a

We are set up at Sunnyside Park near Sweet Home for the Linn County Small Woodlands Association summer picnic. Follow the tree tour signs past the main entrance. We are at the covered kiosk. It is sunny at 10:30a.m. Picnic hours are 11 a.m. until 2 p.m.  Potluck. Lunch about noon.  We will be talking about the Bob Mealey project during the day. See you there.

Long-time Linn County Small Woodlands Association members Sherm and Fay Sallee are featured in the July 16 Albany Democrat Herald focusing on their 4-H activities. The feature was written by Alex Paul. It had top billing in the daily paper Tuesday during Linn County Fair week. Fay Sallee heads up the LCSWA education committee. Sherm Sallee is a past editor of the Bark and has handled publicity for the LCSWA for years. The Clever Clovers 4-H group are well known to LCSWA members who attend the annual dinner in January. The Sallees have hosted events and board meetings at their home and the Udell family tree farm on Bellinger Scale Road. The couple also kindled the LCSWA annual seedling sale. The sale is how our group raises money for university and 4-H scholarships. The 2020 seedling sale will be the 25th annual sale. The article details how the couple first met and their love for 4-H. It is a good read throughout.

Three generations of Tim and Kathy Otis’ family helped tell the story of a historic family tree farm — as the Linn County Small Woodlands Association honored its annual tree farmers of the year. The Otis family hosted the July 6 afternoon tour and potluck picnic on property off Ingram Road near Waterloo. The tree farm property has been in family ownership for more than 150 years. Historic photos, maps of the property and the property’s forest management plan were on display for visitors. Otis family children Steve and Erin spoke about the trials and tribulations of ancestor Capt. William Ingram traveling from the East Coast through treacherous Nicaragua and then up the Columbia River to Oregon City in the early 1850s. Tim and Kathy Otis, with much help from family, manage more than 370 acres of forest land in the Middle Ridge area between Brownsville and Lebanon. Their family holdings include 135 acres of farmland and 25 acres of restored riparian woodlands along the Calap

People are gathering on Ingram Road at the Otis family tree farm. Weather is ideal for the celebration of the Tree Farmer of the Year picnic and tree farm tour with Tim and Kathy Otis. There are photos of the family farm going back to the 1850s. Activities today include hiking the property looking at a recent clear cut and also replanting. There are signs off Highway 20 directing members to the potluck picnic. Food and drinks served about 5 p.m.

Here is note of thanks from chapter President Lee Peterman. The OSWA goods booth operation at state convention in late June will help our chapter with annual expenses.  I would like to take a moment and give a shout-out to those who stepped up to assist with the OSWA Goods sales booth this Friday past at the OSWA/Benton Chapter Tree Farmer of the Year program. First, to Bill and Debbie Bowling (Linn Chapter Volunteers of the year !) for all the hard work of ordering, stocking and organizing the OSWA goods. Without their efforts, the booth would be chaos in setting up and keeping an accurate inventory; they did all the heavy lifting -- all credit to Bill and Debbie ! The Linn members I would like to note for taking time from their busy schedules to help out are from morning shift: Fay Sallee with Christy Tye and Conner. Afternoon shift: Uwe and Wanda Fink, Ken Crouse and Jim Merzenich. An extra gold star to Bonnie Marshall, who not only helped with the sales, but who also

A Waterloo-area couple has been named as “volunteers of the year” for the Linn County Small Woodlands Association. Bill and Debbie Bowling were named June 10 by chapter President Lee Peterman as the year’s top volunteers. The couple will be recognized at the Oregon Small Woodlands Association annual meeting June 20-22 in Corvallis, said OSWA Executive Director Jim James. Bill Bowling has just completed two terms as the group’s president. During his terms he was also chair of the Robert Mealey Endowment committee. The chapter also started its own website, linncountyswa.org during his chapter. The couple live near Berlin Road on their tree farm and operate a hand-crafted wooden gifts business — Artisan Light Works — from the farm. The Bowlings were lauded by Peterman for “outstanding achievement”   in the past year as the local chapter has taken over the statewide OSWA Merchandise and products sales. Their effort is generating funds for chapter activities and providing oppo

Tim and Kathy Otis are Linn County's 2019 tree farmers of the year. Together, with much help from family, they manage more than 370 acres of forest land in the Middle Ridge area between Brownsville and Lebanon. Their family holdings include 135 acres of farmland and 25 acres of restored riparian woodlands along the Calapooia River east of Brownsville. The Linn County chapter of the Oregon Small Woodlands Association (OSWA) will hold its annual tour and picnic on their tree farm property this summer.  The majority of the property is owned in a limited liability corporation — Farm and Four-est LLC — by Kathy and her three sisters, Jill Hauptman, Jan Sheets and Deanna Russell. It was formed in November of 2014. Some properties are owned with cousins, which adds to management complexity. Tim, who currently works at Summit Ace Hardware in Lebanon, supplies elbow grease and technical support for the holdings. He holds a masters degree in forest engineering from Oregon State

Rain is in the forecast this week in Linn County. That is good news. Rain gauge totals have sputtered around here this past winter.  We even got that early fire-season wakeup call March 19 and 20 at the North Santiam State Recreation Area. High winds and dry conditions got the blame. The Salem Statesman Journal reported April 2 it cost $332,000 to fight the fire. Some tree farmers are still putting seedlings into the ground, including chapter past President Bill Bowling. He notes that planting seasons vary depending on ground moisture and other issues. This Thursday he is helping to plant 7,000 Noble firs on the north side of a hill on some higher elevation property. This past Saturday and Sunday he planted 500 western red cedars on some wet ground he has near Berlin Road. He is replanting that spot and is hoping for the best. “By planting late the new trees have almost a whole year to grow before they have to learn how to swim,” said Bowling with a chuckle.

In case you missed it, Alex Paul of the Albany Herald-Democrat published a good piece of reporting Monday (April 1) on proposed Oregon legislation that would tighten forest regulations. House Bill 2656 would require Department of Forestry approval for harvests located on “forestland that is a drinking water source.”  The legislation was introduced by state Rep. Andrea Salinas, D-Lake Oswego. It would also curtail aerial spraying and new road construction on watershed lands. Quoted in the article are several Linn County Small Woodlands Association members, including OSWA president Mike Barsotti of Lyons and Jim James. James is the executive director of the statewide OSWA and lives in Sweet Home. Milt Moran of Cascade Timber in Sweet Home was another source quoted in the story. His story also was carried by the Bend paper, The Bulletin. No hearings are currently scheduled on HB 2656.

Feb 1 2020 is the date for the silver anniversary Linn County Small Woodlands Association seedling sale. As usual the scholarship fundraiser will be at the Santiam Building of the Linn County Expo.  Setup for the sale will be Friday Jan. 31. 

Linn County and a local woodlands group may team up to build a demonstration forest at Sunnyside Park near Sweet Home. The Linn County Parks Commission approved a motion March 14 directing parks Director Brian Carroll to move forward with discussions on the project. A week earlier, Linn County Small Woodlands Association directors voted to open talks with the county after members met with Carroll at Sunnyside. LCSWA is proposing a demonstration forest featuring a Willamette Valley Ponderosa Pine grove with walking paths, other native trees, possibly picnic tables and a memorial kiosk with educational information. The project would require approval from Linn County commissioners. Funding would come from a trust created in 1998 by Robert H. Mealey. Mealey was an ardent advocate for the Willamette Valley Ponderosa Pine. His homesite was where Foster Lake now exists. LCSWA President Lee Peterman said his group is excited to be working with the county. “I believe this inter

A new family moved onto the tree farm this week. They will be living in one of those “tiny houses” and their stay will be temporary. The Mason family — we are talking about Mason bees — are pollinators. Their numbers have been on the decline for various reasons. Todd and Kari Stutzman rolled up in their big van with the housing and the bees. Todd set up with a few posts and the boxes along a fence line under an old crab apple tree. The task was completed in a half hour. The Stutzmans earn a living by taking the bees south to pollinate almonds and other fruit trees in California. In Oregon they have Mason bee ranches that basically grow more bees.  Masons collect pollen, are extremely gentle and are active in the spring months. They do not make honey but are crucial to produce heavier fruit yields. The addition of the bees fits in nicely with our Oregon Tree Farm System forest management plan. Wildlife habitat is one of our management system goals. Kerri Stutzman said they

The Linn County Small Woodlands Assoc. is an active organization. This blog is intended to help members in their woodlands efforts. Look for updates and news about the organization. Stay in touch.

Lee is the new press...