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Episode5 – Wisconsin North

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Forest Products Laboratory Featured in America’s Forests with Chuck Leavell

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On October 21st, 2020, Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) director, Tony Ferguson, represented FPL in a panel discussion for the premier of the most recent episodes of America’s Forests with Chuck Leavell (AFCL). FPL was featured in a segment showcasing its long history of forest products research, testing, and innovation.

Director Ferguson articulated that FPL has had a long history of being a champion in innovative land and forest use. The FPL segment of AFCL captured this message and the spirit of its history in a tantalizing, bite-sized featurette.  

The two 25-minute episodes, Wisconsin North and South, covered the scope and interconnected nature of Wisconsin’s forests and conservation work while giving a nod to FPL’s connection to it all.

And the timing of the Wisconsin focus arose from an earlier FPL connection with the AFCL team.

FPL Forest Products Marketing Unit Program Manager, Brian Brashaw, met the America’s Forests production team during their first premiere when cross-laminated timber (CLT) was a major story line in their Oregon episode. CLT is a forest product that FPL is hugely invested in researching.

After participating in the Oregon episode, Brashaw absolutely knew FPL and the state of Wisconsin needed to be a part of AFCL—and making it happen was deeply personal. “I felt that Wisconsin should have an episode and feature FPL. I grew up in northern Wisconsin and got the connection between forest products and forests from an early age. My Dad worked for Connor Forest Products in Laona, and family friends were in the Forest Service. This influenced my career path in forestry and forest products research and market development,” said Brashaw.

Brashaw set his mind to it and got to work. He was able to secure seed funds for the producer and made lots of introductions to key Wisconsin partners that allowed the producer to secure the remaining funding.

FPL was featured in the Wisconsin South episode. AFCL created an FPL kaleidoscope of past and present accomplishments, truly exhibiting the extraordinary contributions the lab has made to wood products innovation and forest conservation since 1910. Viewers were introduced to research botanist Alex Wiedenhoeft’s work combating global illegal logging to save endangered species through his machine-learning, computer-vision based system called the Xylotron.

From the global to the infinitesimal, AFCL revealed FPL’s research as scientifically diverse and groundbreaking. Nanocellulose, a material that is being pioneered by FPL’s research materials engineers, is wood broken down to microscopic fibers and has the potential to change how products from plastic to concrete are made for a sustainably greener future.

Leavell also got the opportunity to visit one of the most exciting and entertaining rooms in the Forest Products Laboratory, the Engineering Mechanics and Remote Sensing Laboratory. FPL’s forest products technologist, Dwight McDonald, introduced Chuck to the thrills of testing timber strength and durability in the lab. Testing products to their absolute structural limit often results in bursts of splinters and wowed enthusiasm.

With over 17 million acres of public and private forests in Wisconsin, there is more to discover in the new AFCL episodes besides FPL.

Forests transform lives.

AFCL took the time to introduce viewers to a beloved member of Wisconsin history. There is no better an example of how Wisconsin forests can affect lives than Aldo Leopold who once wrote, “Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land. By land is meant all the things on, over, or in the earth.” Leopold, a former FPL Associate Director, was a private landowner and forester in the Baraboo Hills. He is also one of the most influential and well-known conservationists in the world. His work and vision set the stage for Wisconsin’s mindset and forestry network today. 

Wisconsin is a state and a people deeply invested in and shaped by its forests. From the successful Menominee practice of sustainable forest management (the seventh generation philosophy with a healthy focus on the future as a guide to forest management) to the Urban Forest Movement (which is working to save 4 billion board feet a year of usable timber from landfills) to the Forest Service Job Corps program (focused on training underserved youth for meaningful careers), AFCL explores how Wisconsin’s forests and forestry communities are like any ecosystem, resiliently and irrevocably interconnected.

Hilary Markin, public affairs officer for the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, emphasizes the connection between forests and people with an eye on transforming young lives for the better, “Job Corps mission is helping young people improve the quality of their lives through career technical and academic training, in particular hands-on learning, by helping them connect with natural resources and Caring for the Land and Serving the People. Hopefully the connection that is created through these experiences leads them to a career in natural resources.”

Children need forests in their lives. With that in mind, AFCL takes viewers into the Wisconsin Log a Load for Kids program. It’s a charity focused on bringing forestry education (from logging to milling to conservation) to school aged children while raising millions of dollars for Wisconsin children’s hospitals.

Through each vignette, AFCL exemplifies this powerful and reciprocal connection, trees need people and people need trees.

Brashaw truly sums up the heart of the AFCL Wisconsin episodes, “Forests make our lives better. Forest products are essential in people’s lives. Innovations are essential, and we need to keep moving forward with both research and market development to support the connection to healthy, resilient forests. Forestry should be celebrated, and it is in Wisconsin. It was very special having Chuck Leavell share Wisconsin’s forestry story.”

Watch the Wisconsin episodes at North: https://vimeo.com/463980346 & South (includes FPL): https://vimeo.com/464006996

The AFCL panel discussion can be watched at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2rSCljoaCc

To view other episodes of this series, please visit America’s Forests with Chuck Leavell at https://www.americasforestswithchuckleavell.com/watch/

Want to learn more about the amazing advancements our scientists are making? Visit the Forest Products Laboratory at https://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/

URL: https://bit.ly/38CbZ1w

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NPR: ‘Without Wood There Would Be Hardly Any Music’: Chuck Leavell Talks Forest Preservation

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Chuck Leavell plays keyboards with the Rolling Stones. But he’s also a passionate environmentalist and forester.

“There was a personal connection for me. Where does that wonderful thing that’s given me so much joy and a great career come from? Of course, it comes from the resource of wood, as do many, many other musical instruments. Without wood there would be hardly any music, we’d just be singing acapella,” Leavell explains.

He’s a longtime tree farmer and the co-founder of The Mother Nature Network. Leavell recently launched a show called America’s Forests with Chuck Leavell to draw more attention to their importance.

Leavell was in Wisconsin last week, filming footage for an upcoming segment for America’s Forests. He helped the city of Milwaukee forestry team take down a massive elm tree that had Dutch elm disease — after managing to escape the disease for 60 years. The tree was then loaded onto a truck and delivered to a sawmill. The logs will be turned into something to commemorate Leavell’s visit to Milwaukee.

The segment featuring Wisconsin, which includes Milwaukee’s urban forestry program as well as a stop to see Lynden Sculpture Garden’s magnificent trees, will air sometime in January.

Leavell says he and his team enjoyed their week in Wisconsin.

“One of the things that’s been so remarkable is just the natural beauty of this state — driving from place to place, city to city, the farmland, the corn, the soybeans, the forest. It’s such a beautiful, diverse landscape, and I have really gotten a lot of pleasure out of that,” he says.

URL: https://bit.ly/2JnvQHq

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Spotlight On Wisconsin Forests During Oct. 21 Premiere of America’s Forests With Chuck Leavell

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Two-Part Series Explores Breadth Of Sustainable Forestry In Wisconsin

FROM THE WISCONSIN DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES

MADISON, Wis. – The Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at UW-Madison will host a virtual premiere of the national TV program, America’s Forests with Chuck Leavell, which features the acclaimed host’s travels to Wisconsin in the multi-part series’ latest episodes.

This online gathering, scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 21, from 6:30 – 7:30 p.m., will bring together thought leaders to engage in conversation on the critical importance and value of well-managed public and private forest lands in Wisconsin.

Leavell is best known as the keyboardist and musical director for The Rolling Stones, but he is also an educated and enthusiastic forestry advocate, conservationist and woodland owner. As host of the television series, Leavell serves as the on-camera guide, traveling across the country to interview people passionate about the gifts received from our woods and exploring creative solutions to complex problems impacting this important natural resource.

“The search for solutions to the problems of sustainable growth, climate change and energy conservation is increasingly inspiring thought leaders to look at one of America’s finest resources — our forests,” Leavell said. “Whether for building or for recreation, our forests are good for the economy and for the spirit.”

Leavell explores the forests of Wisconsin, fittingly on a Harley Davidson, in this two-part TV special. Part one finds Leavell exploring Wisconsin’s Northwoods. Viewers will learn about managing forests for ruffed grouse, the sustainable forestry practices on the Menominee Tribal forests and much more.

In part two, Leavell heads to Milwaukee and Madison to experience the urban wood movement, get behind-the-scenes at the USDA Forest Products Laboratory, and explore the Baraboo Hills’ biodiversity. Leavell wraps up his Wisconsin adventures at a Log-A-Load for Kids event in the Suamico School Forest, where hundreds of elementary students from local schools got to try their hands at being foresters for the day.

During the Oct. 21 virtual premiere event, Leavell will be joined by Heather Berklund, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources chief state forester, Tony Ferguson, U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service director of the forest products laboratory, Buddy Huffaker, Aldo Leopold Foundation executive director and Henry Schienebeck, Great Lakes Timber Professionals Association executive director.

Registration for the virtual premiere and screening of the episodes is available online at go.wisc.edu/talesfilmseries2020. Links to attend the virtual premiere event and to view the episodes in advance will be emailed to all who register.

“A wide range of partners support the sustainable management of Wisconsin’s 17 million acres of forests,” Berklund said.. “These two episodes of the show highlight several shining examples of this collaborative work to ensure that Wisconsin forests provide ecological, social, cultural and economic benefits for today’s citizens as well as for future generations.”

America’s Forests with Chuck Leavell television series is produced by Choose Outdoors and 42 Degrees North Media.

The Wisconsin episodes were made possible with support from the DNR, USDA Forest Service, Great Lakes Timber Professionals Association, Wisconsin Sustainable Forestry Institute, Ponsse North America, John Deere (McCormick), Red Wing Shoes, The Nature Conservancy, Aldo Leopold Foundation, Ruffed Grouse Society, National Forest Foundation, Menominee Tribal Enterprises, Wisconsin Urban Wood, University of Wisconsin and Harley Davidson.

About the Series

America’s Forests with Chuck Leavell captures the breadth of our nation’s woodlands – both public and private. It features stories that demonstrate how vital forest habitats are to the well-being and economic health of communities across the country it presents individuals who embody this passion for the woods. Previous episodes featuring Oregon, Colorado, South Carolina and California are available on PBS stations nationwide and online here.

About Leavell

Leavell’s musical career includes work with The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, The Allman Brothers Band, John Mayer and a host of others. He is acclaimed as a conservationist, environmentalist, author and tree farmer.

After studying forestry by correspondence and doing much of his homework while riding a tour bus with the Fabulous Thunderbirds in the mid-’80s, Leavell and his wife turned her family’s property near Macon, Ga., into what has become a textbook and award-winning tree farm. He is also the co-founder of The Mother Nature Network the world’s leading environmental website. MNN recently merged with its sister-site, Treehugger.

URL: https://bit.ly/2HF2J1U

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National Tv Series Celebrates Launch Of Wisconsin Episodes With Oct. 21 Virtual Premiere Event Featuring Host Chuck Leavell

WHAT

National TV program America’s Forests with Chuck Leavell travels to Wisconsin in the latest episodes of the multi-part series. Using the Wisconsin episodes as inspiration, the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin will host a virtual premiere event on Wednesday, Oct. 21 from 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. CST. This online gathering will bring together thought leaders to engage in a rousing conversation on the critical importance and value of well managed public and private forest lands in Wisconsin. The two Wisconsin episodes are available online for pre-screening.

WHEN

Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2020 from 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. CST

WHERE

Hosted online with support from the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin.

Registration is available online at go.wisc.edu/talesfilmseries2020. Links to attend the virtual premier event and to view the two 27-minute episodes will be emailed to attendees upon registering.

WHO

Panelists include:

Chuck Leavell, host of America’s Forests with Chuck Leavell

Tony Ferguson, Director of the Forest Products Laboratory, USDA Forest Service

Heather Berklund, Deputy Forestry Division Administrator for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

Buddy Huffaker, Aldo Leopold Foundation

Henry Schienebeck, Executive Director of Great Lakes Timber Professionals Association.

Moderated by James Edward Mills, journalist, media producer and Community Partnership Liaison, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, UW-Madison along with Adena Rissman, associate professor of the Human Dimensions of Ecosystem Management in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison

VISUALS/ INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITIES

Viewing of the two Wisconsin episodes

Chuck Leavell, keyboardist and musical director for The Rolling Stones, forestry advocate, conservationist, tree farmer, and host of America’s Forests with Chuck Leavell

Bruce Ward, Series Executive Producer and President of Colorado-based nonprofit Choose Outdoors

Representatives from the USDA Forest Service, DNR and project partners

Photos and short promo videos available at https://tinyurl.com/AFCLWIMedia. Please credit James Edward Mills for photography use.

CONTACT

Bruce Ward, President, Choose Outdoors (bruceward1@gmail.com or 303- 917-1476)

MORE INFO:

AmericasForestswithChuckLeavell.com

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Wisconsin: Ruffed Grouse and Lumberjill

Wisconsin Behind the Scenes Blog Series: Ruffed Grouse and Lumberjill 

“The autumn landscape in the north woods is the land, plus a red maple, plus a Ruffed Grouse. In terms of conventional physics, the grouse represents only a millionth of either the mass or the energy of an acre yet subtract the grouse and the whole thing is dead.” — Aldo Leopold

Thump, thump, thump… that’s the territorial sound of the male ruffed grouse beating his wings on his “drumming log” in northern Wisconsin.

The male birds make this sound by beating their wings quickly and forcefully to create a small vacuum. The bird beats his wings faster and faster – and end up sounding something like a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

EMBED: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVfiIp3QGs4

Ruffed Grouse are widely distributed across the country, and have been observed in 38 states and all Canadian Provinces. They are a popular game bird for hunting enthusiasts, and primarily live in wooded habitats.

Chuck and the crew met up with Jon Steigerwaldt, 3rd generation tree farmer/forester and Regional Biologist of the Ruffed Grouse Society, a nation-wide non-profit organization that promotes education and conservation of this curious bird. Jon knows that ruffed grouse actually prefer a forest that is diverse, young and frequently harvested. As a private landowner, he and his family have made a priority of managing their land to create habitats for the ruffed grouse and a wide range of other forest wildlife species.

Photo Credit: James Edward Mills

Jon’s property, thick with aspens, is home to a host of ruffed grouse, who will do most of their noisy drumming this spring. We filmed Chuck and Jon in his truck, chatting about Jon’s family history of tree farming, as the truck trundled through narrow paths deep in the Steigerwaldt property. Walking deeper into the woods, Chuck and Jon talked about aspens…We heard the rustle of the quaking and big-toothed aspens, which Chuck (and our sound recordist) loved.

We also met Kate Witkowsi, an actual “lumberjill” and Stihl Timbersports Champion! Kate taught Chuck how to axe-throw, a competition where the lumberjack or jill throws a double-bitted axe at a target from about 20 feet away. The trick is to use the right amount of force to line up the rotations of the axe just right, to hit the target dead-on. After missing the target once, and severing a ratchet strap, Chuck nailed it on his 3rd try! No cameras were hurt in the making of this scene.

Photo Credit: James Edward Mills

Then Chuck, Jon, Kate, and our crew ventured off the path to fell a spruce tree that Jon has decided will make a great “drumming log” for the ruffed grouse on his land and further enhance the quality of wildlife habitat.

Photo Credit: James Edward Mills

Sources and further reading:

https://ruffedgrousesociety.org/grouse-facts/

https://www.audubon.org/news/see-and-hear-ruffed-grouses-haunting-air-drumming

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Wisconsin Blog: Forest Products Lab

Wisconsin Behind the Scenes Blog Series: Forest Products Lab

Who doesn’t like to break things? The engineers at the USDA Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) in Madison certainly do. The Forest Products Lab is a federal institution that does all kinds of research on wood products: building materials, nanotechnology, advanced identification methods, and innovative structures. In the lab, building materials are put under extreme stress– and not the kind that makes our director Kate Raisz’s hair go gray!

Chuck and the crew met Dwight McDonald, who is an engineering technician at the lab. Chuck helped Dwight set up two different stress tests: a bending test and tension test. We waited with baited breath and cameras on slow-mo, as the massive hydraulic machine pulled harder and harder on the two ends of the wood. Finally, with a loud bang, the wood ripped apart!

Photo Credit: James Edward Mills

Engineers at the Forest Products Lab need to know how much physical stress their materials can take, so they can make recommendations to the public about what kinds of wood products to use. Mass timber products, like CLT (cross-laminated timber) and glulam (glued-laminated timber) is becoming more and more mainstream in commercial and residential construction efforts, and contractors and consumers need to know that these new materials can withstand hurricanes, earthquakes, and even fire.

We couldn’t get enough of this cool wood tech. The crew went back to the Forest Products Lab to explore other departments. First up, the Center for Wood Anatomy Research (CWAR). We walked into a literal library of wood– over 103,000 samples! Curious artifacts were sitting on every surface, carefully labeled and categorized. Aisles of small drawers full of more wood samples made us feel like we were in a sacred archive.

Alex Weidenhoeft of the CWAR has dedicated his career (since being an intern at age 18!) to the study and identification of different tree species. He and his associates have developed a portable microscopic camera and accompanying software to identify wood. The “Xylotron” is a hand-held device that takes a super close-up photo of the wood grain. Based on certain patterns of fibers and air pockets, the software can identify over 150 types of neotropical wood more accurately than a trained professional. Eventually, Alex hopes that border agents will use this technology to identify wood that has been illegally logged.

From the small, cozy wood anatomy lab, we went to the massive, industrial Nanotechnology Pilot Plant, where scientists explore wood properties at an anatomic level. Nanotechnology is the study of materials at the “nanoscale”– 80,000 times thinner than a human hair! Researcher Rick Reiner showed us the process for making nanocellulose: using acid to break down paper into a solution of nanocellulose particles.

When you break wood down to the molecular level, it can be used as a sustainable alternative to a lot of plastics and metals. Rick told us that the FPL is experimenting with creating packaging out of nanocellulose, to combat our plastic use. Nanocellulose can even be mixed with concrete to make more sustainable and stronger building materials. 

The Forest Products Lab is a like a playground for wood experts, and we were excited to hear about all their innovative research– right in the heart of Madison, Wisconsin!

Sources/further reading:

https://www.fs.fed.us/inside-fs/delivering-mission/apply/stopping-illegal-wood-imports-us-ports

https://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/research/highlights/highlight.php?high_id=585

https://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/pdf2011/fpl_2011_hermanson001.pdf

https://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/research/research_emphasis_areas/introduction.php?rea_id=4

Special thanks to Rebecca Wallace and Brian Brashaw for coordinating our days at the FPL!

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Wisconsin Behind the Scenes : Menominee Tribal Enterprises

Wisconsin Behind the Scenes Blog Series: Menominee Tribal Enterprises

“…a forest is much more than cords and boards. It’s a whole ecological process. Clean air, clean water, good soils, a place to gather.” — Marshall Pecore

Photo Credit: James Edward Mills

The Menominee Tribe in Wisconsin has an incredible history of forest stewardship, and Chuck and the crew traveled to the Menominee Tribal Enterprises to see this decades-old business in action. Marshall Pecore, a descendant of the Menominee Tribe, is the forest manager of the operation in Neopit, Wisconsin. Our crew interviewed him about the rich history of their long-term, sustainable approach to timber, and how they harvest trees on their own tribal reservation.

Photo Credit: James Edward Mills

Although the Menominee tribe has lived in northern Wisconsin for thousands of years, as a result of a wave of restrictive treaties with U.S. government, their land was reduced from more than 10 million acres to 235,523 acres.

The sawmill, constructed in 1908, is a primary source of jobs for tribal members. With generations of experience, the tribe knows that their profit depends on a sustainable forest. Unlike other mill owners, they cut the diseased trees first, as well as any tree that won’t grow to be a thick, straight trunk suitable for milling boards.

The Menominee method takes into account not only the health of the tree, but the health of the surrounding organisms. Marshall explained how they survey the “assemblages”– the plants on the forest floor– to determine what species of tree would best thrive there. They also avoid felling “wildlife trees:” trees where animals like birds, snakes, porcupines, or raccoons have made their homes.

Photo Credit: James Edward Mills

Later in our trip, we met Wade Fernandez, or Wiciwen Apis-Mahwaew (his Menominee name), at Audio for the Arts, a recording studio in Madison. Wade plays traditional Menominee music on flute and guitar. He and Chuck played “Wild Horses” (written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones), Chuck was on piano (of course), and Wade accompanied him on native flute. Wade then treated us to our own private concert and played some of his original music solo. He regularly travels around the country and around Europe to tour his music. Take a listen: (link to music videos)

Photo Credit: James Edward Mills

Sources and additional information:

https://www.mtewood.com/Sawmill/History

https://www.mpm.edu/content/wirp/ICW-153

https://wadefernandezmusic.com/

https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/wnrmag/2019/Summer/Forest