UMaine School of Forest Resources named Outstanding Conservation Educators of the Year
DOVER-FOXCROFT — At the Piscataquis County Soil and Water Conservation District’s Law Farm visitors can walk miles of trails and look at research projects including current areas on American chestnut trees and another studying the impact of climate change. All the Law Farm offers to the public has been helped in part by the University of Maine School of Forest Resources.
In recognition of this partnership, the University of Maine School of Forest Resources has been selected as the district’s 2023 Outstanding Conservation Educators of the Year. School faculty and students were presented with the honor on Sept. 8 at the Law Farm Education Classroom.
The mission of the University of Maine School of Forest Resources is to provide excellence in education, research, and public service that promotes the understanding, efficient use, and sustainable management of forest resources for the well-being of the people of Maine, the United States, and the world.
PCSWCD Educational Coordinator Kacey Weber said the award presentation is done differently every year. She said having the 2023 ceremony at the Law Farm is appropriate given how involved the University of Maine School of Forest Resources has been at the location and everything her organization is doing. Weber said the school has also had a great influence on Piscataquis County in general.
,
OUTSTANDING CONSERVATION EDUCATORS — The University of Maine School of Forest Resources was honored as the Piscataquis County Soil and Water Conservation District’s 2023 Outstanding Conservation Educators of the Year. Pictured at the Sept. 8 ceremony at the Law Farm Outdoor Classroom in Dover-Foxcroft are, from left, PCSWCD board members Toby Hall, Sam Brown, Kim Merritt, and Molly London, Appalachian Mountain Club Research Forester Carolyn Ziegra, Maine State Climatologist/Research Assistant Professor Sean Birkel, Assistant Professor of Forest Ecosystem Physiology Dr. Jay Wason, Professor of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources Dr. Jessica Leahy, PCSWCD Executive Director Sarah Robinson, and PCSWCD Educational Coordinator Kacey Weber.
This made the University of Maine School of Forest Resources “a very obvious and a very deserving candidate for the 2023 Outstanding Conservation Educator of the Year,” Weber said. She said previous honored educators were all individuals, such as teachers in area schools.
Speaking of the Law Farm, Weber told attendees, including PCSWCD staff and board members and UMaine faculty and students who during introductions mentioned they are majoring in subjects such as parks, recreation and tourism and ecology and environmental science, said the property is public land that the district owns and maintains.
“The goal is to teach people how to sustainably manage their lives and conserve natural resources,” Weber said.
She said University of Maine School of Forest Resources faculty and staff have “put in countless hours of time and energy into this county and those efforts have resulted in extraordinary opportunities for Piscataquis residents and visitors and for us.”
“At every event faculty shares knowledge at, every research trial underway, and every student opportunity happening in this county, that’s UMaine having a very vivid presence here in this area of Maine — not just in Orono,” Weber said.
FOREST MANAGEMENT — University of Maine School of Forest Resources Assistant Professor of Forest Ecosystem Physiology Dr. Jay Wason explains a study on the impact of heat and drought on tree regeneration during a tour at the Piscataquis County Soil and Water Conservation District’s Law Farm in Dover-Foxcroft on Sept. 8. Study data will help landowners be able to better manage their forests to cope with these events.
She said this sharing of knowledge and presence is very valuable and powerful as “information you are bringing into this county, it really trickles out into the community and it affects, in positive ways, the people who live here and who visit here.”
The educational coordinator said the school has a deep, far reaching impact on the region and the PCSWCD is thankful for that investment. She said the University of Maine School of Forest Resources contributions have helped bring American chestnut trees to the Law Farm, where a grove of young trees is protected by an electric fence, as well as climate change research and provided a forest management plan to help guide efforts on the public land.
“Every time somebody comes here to walk the trails or enjoy this space, they see your effort and they see that information, that energy that you put into this land here,” Weber said. “They notice the fences and they notice how nice it looks here.”
Weber said the University of Maine School of Forest Resources Professor of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources Jessica Leahy — who accepted the 2023 Outstanding Conservation Educators of the Year plaque and gift of a currently potted tree from Hall’s Christmas Tree Farm of Sangerville — and External Graduate Faculty member Mindy Crandall’s rural use study has been invaluable to the district. The study is used frequently in PCSWCD work with school-aged students.
“We also really like working with you all as people,” Weber added.
She said University of Maine School of Forest Resources faculty and staff appreciate Piscataquis County and what the region has to offer. “We are grateful for that investment in this part of the world,” Weber said. “It keeps our natural resources and our residents happy and thriving, especially with you doing a lot of great work with us.”
“We just have great excitement about the future working with you and we’re so grateful that you are our partners and you will continue to be our partners,” she said, before a post-ceremony tour of the Law Farm to see some of the projects the 2023 Outstanding Conservation Educators of the Year are involved in.