Lessons from the Land: A State Forester's Advice

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- Hello, I'm Seth Cassell, Director of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry and the Pennsylvania State Forester, and we're here today on Stonehouse Farm.

This is the land that my family owns and the land that we steward and we manage for many different goals and objectives.

As state forester, I have the opportunity to lead a Pennsylvania's forestry agency in conserving forest resources across the commonwealth.

And as a forest landowner, I have the opportunity to learn what it takes to steward a piece of property, to manage it in a way that ensures future sustainability.

And I've learned so much just being a landowner that I feel makes me a better state forester and better able to connect with landowners and the challenges and opportunities that they face.

Our property on Stonehouse Farm, we have about 12 acres of woodlands and 12 acres of fields, and we're in a transition area between a large block of forest and also a very large agricultural valley.

So we're really in a transition zone.

And one of the things, when we bought our property and we began to manage it, we really realized how important it was to plan for what we wanted to do.

So my first lesson from the land is to always plan.

Think about what you wanna do with your property, the things that bring you joy, the values that you have.

For example, on our land, we like to manage for hunting and recreation, maple syrup production, but we also wanna increase biodiversity, and we wanna increase the amount of acres in our land that is forested.

Be sure that you take the time to think about these things before you start becoming an active steward of your property.

The second lesson from the land that I've learned by being a steward here is take the time to get many different perspectives.

As state forester, I know a lot of people who are natural resource professionals, and I've talked to them about their opinions with how to manage our property, but I've also just talked to friends who have experiences and really good perspectives, and I've gotten great ideas from all kinds of people with all different kinds of backgrounds.

One great source of help is through DCNR Bureau of Forestry's Service Forestry Program.

So there are about 30 service foresters in Pennsylvania here to help you manage your land for your objectives.

This is a free service that DCNR Bureau of Forestry offers.

There's also Penn State University Extension and DCNR Bureau of Forestry Partners with Extension to provide landowner outreach and educational materials to help landowners understand and manage their lands.

There's another really great resource is the James C. Finley Center for Private Forests that also has sources for educational assistance that's really important for landowners as they look to be stewards of their property.

The third lesson from the land that I have to share is to focus on your goals and not so much focused on some of the things that you have to do, some of the battles that you might have to fight.

And I wanted to share one summer I was so focused on getting rid of Mile-A-Minute Weed, I didn't take time to care for the trees that I planted, and I lost focus of the fact that we wanted to grow those trees.

We wanted to increase our forest land.

So sometimes changing your perspective a little bit about what you wanna accomplish versus what you wanna keep out can help you have a positive attitude and really stay focused on the things that you need to do.

Another lesson from the land, understand that your land is part of very large processes that have played out over time.

For example, here on our property, on Stonehouse Farm, just a hundred years ago was almost completely cleared and it was pastured and it was used very heavily.

And so it's gonna take some time to care for the land and to get it to the point where we feel like we're achieving some of our goals and objectives.

The last lesson of the land that I've learned that I wanted to pass on, and probably the most important is to enjoy your land and to celebrate your successes.

It's such a joy to own forest land.

There are so many benefits and things that you can appreciate in nature and recreational activities, and so we wanna always remember that, that we're here to enjoy the property and enjoy the land that we manage.