College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science

Category: History

Forestry Club Tree-dition Plants Seeds for a Merry and Bright Future

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Two forestry club members pose carrying a massive tree through the snowy woods.
Michigan Tech’s Forestry Club harvested 86 trees for their annual Christmas Tree sale from two Tech owned properties. All photos courtesy of club secretary Tristan Walk.

Michigan Tech’s Society of American Foresters Forestry Club’s annual tree sale is a long-standing tradition at Michigan Tech. Forestry Club secretary and forestry major Tristan Walk ’26 said the written record of the sale dates to the early 1980s, while the anecdotal record places the start of the tradition somewhere in the 1960s or 1970s. Club paperwork shows trees were bought wholesale from tree farms south of Chassell and in Iron River in the 1990s through the 2000s, although neither company offers bulk wholesale these days.

In recent years, the club has supplied their sale with wild-cut trees from Michigan Tech’s Wilkinson Tract. Students drive out into the woods and fan out on foot, assessing the types of trees they are looking for based on what is available in the area and what is best for the forest. Club members usually cut six- to eight-foot conifers as well as small “Charlie Brown” sapling trees, taking care to thin the area but not decimate the conifer population. They also seek out one larger 15- to 20-foot tree for the U. J. Noblet Forest Resources Building Atrium.

Four forestry club members stand inside the U. J. Noblet Forest Resources Building Atrium next to the holiday tree.
The forestry club’s annual tree harvest provides a festive holiday tree for the College atrium atrium.

The club has regular customers for their sale—CFRES folks who aren’t expecting specimens fit for a Hallmark movie.

“One of the cooler things about this is that the trees are naturally grown. These are wild balsams, wild spruces that are out in the woods and so our faculty are very understanding that when they buy these trees they aren’t perfect,” said Walk.

In recent years the club has completed thinning conifers of the desired size within a reasonable walking distance of their parking spots in the Wilkinson Tract. Members are now seeking wild trees in the Prickett Dam Tract.

That property was recommended to the club by forestry faculty member Jim Schmierer. Though the Prickett property is also owned by Michigan Tech, it has not been as actively managed in the past decade. The trees students harvested are along old logging trails. The trails would need to be bulldozed at the next harvest cycle to allow access into the forest.

“It’s kind of like a fallow field. It regenerated and apparently there are a bunch of balsams and spruce that have regenerated way back in the woods,” Walk said, prior to the club’s tree-cutting trip,

“The problem is in order to get to those trees he (Schmierer) thinks we’re going to have to go through several hundred yards of saplings, so we’ll have to park our trailer and truck at the end of the road and then hike in and drag the trees back out with us. So it’s going to be kind of an adventure,” Walk said.

Two forestry club members carry evergreen trees through the snowy woods.
 Forestry club members walked through deep snow to harvest spruce and balsam and carry them back by hand to their vehicles.

As part of their commitment to responsible forest stewardship, the club plants more trees than they cut each year. In the past they’ve planted the seedlings at the Ford Center, but that practice is expanding to make sure this long-standing tradition remains sustainable for both the forests, and the organization. This year members planted more than 50 balsam seedlings in the ash wetland off their wood-cutting site at the Tech Trails.

Planning a Stable and Continuing Program

The goal is to have a long-term tree farm to support the tree sale 15 or 20 from now. An active tree farm would give members the opportunity to participate in a more specific type of forest management.

Students are already gaining experience through trial and error with the planted saplings, and learning what level of maintenance is realistic for members already busy with coursework and other activities. It requires a generous amount of foresight for an organization whose members cycle through roughly every four years, but it’s part of the group’s larger commitment to growth.

Michigan Tech’s Forestry Club currently has about 45 dues-paying members. It holds events every other week in addition to biweekly meetings and frequent weekend events such as wood-splitting sales and tree fellings. Walk said the club hopes to attract additional members and hold more open events like axe-sharpening workshops and lumberjack-style games on Walker Lawn. To connect with students outside of their organization, this year’s sale will offer more small sapling “Charlie Brown” trees suitable for apartments and other small spaces.

The annual tree sale is Tuesday, Dec. 10 from 4-7 p.m. on parking lot 14 next to Walker Lawn and the Center for Diversity and Inclusion on the main campus. All sales support the Forestry Club, with funds allocated for equipment, trips, and experiences.


About the College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science

Michigan Tech’s College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science brings students, faculty, and researchers together to measure, map, model, analyze, and deploy solutions. The College offers seven bachelor’s degrees in forestry, wildlife ecology and conservation, applied ecology and environmental science, natural resources management, sustainable bioproducts, and environmental science and sustainability, and environmental data science. We offer graduate degrees in applied ecology, forest ecology and management, forest molecular genetics and biotechnology, and forest science. 

Questions? Contact us at forest@mtu.edu. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for the latest happenings.

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Natural Resource Career Fair Helps Students Find their Path

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Hands holding a rectangular compass.
RJ Laverne, forestry ’80, displays one of his prized possessions: a compass he purchased in 1979 when he was a student at Michigan Tech.

The College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science’s Natural Resource Career Fair continues a legacy of genuine investment in student success passed down from CFRES faculty and alumni to the next generation of professionals. R.J. Laverne, a Davey Tree company representative, Tech alum, and adjunct professor opened Career Fair by likening the event to one of his prized possessions: a compass he bought in 1979, not long after he became a Husky.

“I think that for the students who will participate today, you may just find the right person at one of these tables to point you in the right direction. This could be the career compass that puts you on the first step toward a successful career,” said Laverne, who earned his forestry degree in 1980.

He emphasized the impact Michigan Tech’s faculty had on his career, particularly former forestry head Gene Hesterberg. “I was, on a good day, a mediocre student. Despite my poor academic performance at other institutions, Dr. Hesterberg took a chance on me,” said Laverne.

“To come back to Tech and teach urban forestry, a course my professional hero (Gene Hesterberg) taught me, is an honor.”

RJ Laverne, Forestry ’80

Davey Tree, a long-time partner with CFRES, was chief sponsor of this year’s fair. After a long career including 28 years with the company, Laverne eagerly reinvests his success in Tech students as both an adjunct professor with CFRES and Davey Tree’s manager of education and training. In addition to supporting the Natural Resource Career Fair, Davey Tree offers three $1,000 scholarships to CFRES students each year.

The reward for these investments, according to Laverne, is experienced new employees with “a desire to do quality work that ultimately benefits humans that has as much to do with the spirit of the college as academic quality.”

RJ Laverne holding a compass stands next to a painting of Gene Hesterberg.
RJ Laverne stands before a painting of his “professional hero” Gene Hesterberg, proudly holding a compass he purchased in 1979 when he was a forestry student at Michigan Tech.

More than 20 employers attended the fair, some of them traveling long distances to seek Tech students’ skill sets, spirit, and experience.

“I know what levels of training I received back when I got my degree. I know the engineering quality; my father and my brother both went here as engineers. I knew the high level standards that were there. So yeah, I’d love to have a Michigan Tech grad working for us.” said Tree Care Enterprises arborist John Richards, a 1977 forestry graduate.

Many Tech students find their career paths through the Natural Resource Career Fair and similar CFRES recruiting events. Forestry major Shawna Carr, ’24, is one of Laverne’s former students who found her path with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Carr is currently what she calls a “classic forester” specializing in timber management, invasive species, fire prevention, and outreach. She was at the fair to represent the Minnesota DNR, along with recruitment coordinator Austin Dane. The organization is currently offering a wide variety of natural resource career opportunities.

 “We had around 24 entry-level forester positions last year and have 19 this year. That is a trend we expect to continue for another cycle,” said Dane.

Entry level positions aren’t the only roles Michigan Tech students have available to them, said Dane. Specialist positions in the DNR have specific requirements that CFRES students meet, including a bachelor’s degree from a Society of American Foresters-accredited institution. In addition to fulfilling these requirements, Dane said Michigan Tech students are “historically a great fit” and there are currently Huskies at every position level in the Minnesota DNR’s forestry division.

Pep band students walking through the upper level of the Forestry Atrium.
The Michigan Tech Pep Band helped open this year’s Natural Resource Career Fair with a performance in the Noblet Forestry Building atrium that included Husky classics.

Carr recalled her experience with the Natural Resource Career Fair as a student last year, “It was overwhelming at first but people were very enthusiastic and there was a good variety (of employers).”

That feeling of being overwhelmed and somewhat daunted was echoed by several students as they left the fair, including wildlife ecology and conservation major Meghan Boelens, ’26. “It was intimidating. It got a tiny bit less intimidating, but I am glad I walked around with a group of people. We were all the same major so we all were there to make each other not as scared,” Boelens said.

Though they may have felt trepidation, those nerves didn’t seem to show to employers.

 
“The students were all excellent. They asked a lot of great questions. They were very inquisitive. I was impressed with how well versed they were with job searching,” said Chad Andresen, biological science technician with the US Fish and Wildlife Service Marquette Biological Station.

“I think it was intimidating but then I got here and realized they are just people. They’re not that scary.”

Evan Karmis, ’26, wildlife ecology and conservation

Students’ discerning questions made it clear the fair isn’t just about recruiters finding future employees. Huskies weren’t just looking for any job, they were seeking the right career fit for their goals, and employers with strong answers to those questions stood out to students.

“Talking to Neon (Battelle – National Ecological Observatory Network) stuck out to me. They were really passionate. Everything they were saying was super applicable to me if I were to apply; the housing options and the differences between the positions. So that helped me visualize what it could be like if I were to apply to some of the positions. There were lots of opportunities I could apply to,” said wildlife ecology and conservation Sadie Bartels, ’26.

Though some students have a strong idea of what field they want to pursue, the wide variety of employers and job opportunities at the fair exposed them to options they may have never considered.

“I’ve found that a lot of kids don’t know what arborcultures are about. It’s not really a strong career field here. It’s an option, but when I tell them about what I do they become really interested and want to know more about it,” said Richards.

A Career Fair for the College Community

Three students stand talking on the atrium steps inside the Noblet Forestry Building.
Students engaged alumni and recruiters with thoughtful questions during the Natural Resource Career Fair.

Tech students weren’t the only ones invited to this year’s fair. Both Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College (KBOCC) and Gogebic Community College students were invited and in attendance, and were just as nerdy about natural resources opportunities as Huskies are.

“I was just talking to Tree Care and he was talking about a more holistic approach to tree health, minimizing the carbon impact and focusing more on the health of the tree as well as the long-term viability. He was discussing how they set up a planting schedule for different flowers to counteract different species of insects that might be an issue for certain trees,” said Ryland Edwards from the KBOCC environmental science class of ‘26, shared enthusiastically near the end of the fair.

To any Huskies considering the Natural Resource Career Fair for next year, CFRES students had a few words of wisdom. 

“It is super intimidating, but once you talk to the first person it’s super easy,” said Bartels, “They all want you to apply to their positions so they are all super friendly and really informative.”

About the College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science

Michigan Tech’s College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science brings students, faculty, and researchers together to measure, map, model, analyze, and deploy solutions. The College offers seven bachelor’s degrees in forestry, wildlife ecology and conservation, applied ecology and environmental science, natural resources management, sustainable bioproducts, and environmental science and sustainability, and environmental data science. We offer graduate degrees in applied ecology, forest ecology and management, forest molecular genetics and biotechnology, and forest science. 

Questions? Contact us at forest@mtu.edu. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for the latest happenings.

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“Best Forestry School in the Country”

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A message to Dean Gale.
I thought your “Message from the Dean” in the current issue of the SFRES magazine was right on the money.

Speaking as an educator, you posed the question ”Are we providing students with the knowledge base they’ll need to address new issues that go beyond what they learned in their formal education?” My own career experience illustrates the importance of being able to do just that, and your recognition of the importance of this key issue speaks well for your program.

I had a 34 year career with the Bureau of Land Management primarily in western Oregon. Michigan Tech prepared me well for my early experiences, once I got used to the differences in scale. I still remember putting in a cluster of inventory plots in a 800-year old stand of Douglas-fir, and cruising a stand of timber on a beautiful riverside terrace that averaged 220,000 board feet per acre. But as my career evolved, I quickly got involved in issues that did indeed go far beyond my formal education.

For most of the latter half of my career, I was the BLM’s Chief of Forestry Planning with responsibilities covering 3,000,000 acres of forest land in Oregon and Washington. These responsibilities included forest inventory, the determination of the sustainable allowable harvest level and oversight of the program to bring that level of timber production to market, and the integration of the forestry program within the land-use planning process.

Early on, the process was relatively simple, and I was guided by the principles and philosophies I learned under Gene Hesterberg, Vern Johnson, and Eric Bourdo in old Hubbell School. Very quickly, however, it became necessary to “go beyond” as you suggest.

One of the first things I had to deal with in this context was the integration of management considerations related to anadromous fisheries. The spawning and rearing streams that salmon and steelhead depended upon were intimately associated with some of our finest timber producing lands. Some of the interactions between fish and timber production were quite subtle, in that relatively minute changes in water temperatures or quality, or the timing or magnitude of stream flows, could have drastic effects on fish production.

Furthermore, it quickly became apparent that the Douglas-fir old-growth seral stage itself was quickly becoming an endangered and scarce resource that needed special handling and management. Hundreds of wildlife species were uniquely dependent upon it, not to mention its importance in more esoteric areas like carbon sequestration and as refugia for mychorrizal fungi.

The point I’m trying to make is that my career quickly moved beyond the specifics I learned in my formal education, but I was able to traverse uncharted waters because of the sound knowledge base and the integrative attitude and adaptive capabilities I acquired at Michigan Tech.

That’s why it is so heartening to read your message. You’ve got the best forestry school in the country on the right trail, Peg. Keep on chuggin’.

Ron Sadler
1957

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Why I came to Tech: John DePuydt – 1971

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During spring break of my senior year (1967) of high school, my Dad, my cousin Chuck (his company sold hockey equipment to John MacInnes and Michigan Tech hockey), and I drove up to Tech from the Detroit area for a visit. I had been accepted at Tech already and I wanted to see what I was getting into.  I chose Tech because I wanted to play hockey (I played on the Freshmen team) and to go into Forestry, and to get into some of the great hunting that was talked about up here.

While we were visiting, we got a chance to go to the Forestry building (Hubbell School) and meet Dr. Hesterberg.  Upon meeting Dr. Hesterberg (he insisted we call him Gene) and seeing a mounted Ruffed Grouse on his desk I knew I was in the correct place!  My classmates and I were the first freshman class in the new building. We were also the first class to have Summer Camp on campus.

After I graduated I never left the area and have been here for 44 years!  Incidentally, my parents moved the entire family up here just before I graduated.  My brother, Drew, was at Tech with me and he graduated in 1973, and the DePuydt name has been a stable name in the Copper Country for many years and many more years to come!

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Why I came to Tech: Tom Cieslinski – 1963

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I had never heard of the Michigan College of Mining and Technology until receiving the offer of a $100 scholarship in the spring of 1959 to attend the Soo Branch. That was a good sum of money at the time. Three of my classmates had received the same offer and accepted so I decided to join them, and quickly picked Forestry as my major.

Coming from a poor family with little money, I hoarded the few dollars earned from paper route and grocery store jobs and headed north with my father and a promise from a very benevolent aunt to pay for tuition and other expenses. My first quarter was extremely difficult with 5 Cs and a D. A very understanding and compassionate Algebra professor straighted me out in the second quarter (stop playing card games!). From then on my grades improved every year culminating with graduation with honors in 1963.

I thoroughly enjoyed both the Soo and Houghton campuses, summer camp at the Ford Forestry Center, the campus food (generally better than what I got at home), and finally the 9 hole golf course the last quarter of my senior year (hitch-hiked as I had no car). I participated in seven intramural sports as well as winter statue construction.

The course work was very hard for me, not being the brightest bulb, but I made it. I am extremely grateful to the college, to the Forestry staff at both campuses, and especially to my aunt who came through on her promise. My aunt was a hoarder and saved all the letters I mailed her from both campuses, the summer camp, and my Forest Service internship in the Rio Grande National Forest the summer of 1962.

Again, thank you everyone.

—Tom Cieslinski

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Alberta: A Great Community

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Alberta – a great community of faculty, staff and students.

It was my home and office for 26 years. I remember a few students rebelled against the Athletic Deprtment requiring summer camp to have physcial exercise for PE credit.  An unnamed students whose initials were Bill Botti led a short series of trumpet “charges” at 7:00 a.m. for a few days wherein the students sang “Mickey Mouse” as they raised the Mickey Mouse flag up the flag pole. The “requirement” was soon dropped and the students maintained their PE credit.

Another fun incident was when a student, rumored to be Mike Henricksen, allegedly broke into the dining hall and decided to ride the dumbwaiter down to the kitchen cooler to feed his crew, after getting in late for dinner one night. They even cleaned up after themselves!

We all have many fond memories of the good times at Alberta.

Roger Rogge – former faculty member

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