College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Department of Forestry

Our forestry club had the great privilege of attending another Michigan Society of American Foresters conference this past April and this conference’s discussions were exciting! The conference was originally meant to be held in Gaylord, but with the ice storm that had passed through a little over a week prior, SAF was swiftly moved to Bellaire.

Due to the movement of the conference, this was the first year our forestry club stayed at an Airbnb and not at the hotel! This allowed for some club bonding with chatting, card games, and an opportunity to explore a bit of the local wilderness. However, with the storms in mind, the stage was set for this spring’s SAF to highlight the damage ensued in Gaylord. It was a real-time lesson in the unpredictability of mother nature and how that can affect the value of privately owned forest land. Many were urged to support the citizens of Gaylord where they could and awareness was made to the susceptibility of damaged stands of trees to diseases and pests.

This year’s dinner and happy hour featured a get-to-know-you bingo to allow the experienced foresters to meet and interact with students. As per usual, there was a raffle with some amazing prizes! Although it may not be a competition, our club members won an outstanding amount of prizes which was one of the highlights of the night! As well, the forestry club had the opportunity to fundraise for our graduating seniors’ gifts and it was amazing to see the willingness of present foresters to help make something so special happen for future foresters.

With the help of the Michigan Society of American Foresters attendees and the MSU alumni we were able to purchase personalized hatchets for our graduating seniors as their graduation gift! It was another great SAF and we can’t wait for next year!

The forestry club also participated in this semester’s forester’s conclave at Jack Pine Lumberjack Shows in Mackinaw City. We competed with the students from Michigan Tech in axe throwing, cross cut saw, species identification, and a few other timber sports events. Our club members even camped overnight at the competition site and it was the first camping experience for many students! This proved to be very cold for all involved as it was held in the cold of April. We received mentorship from big names in the timbersports world and had the opportunity to participate in new events such as speed climbing. We ended up winning two out of three of the judged events, playing the MSU fight song proud! We continued our comradery with Michigan Tech and one another as we cooked hotdogs over a fire and demonstrated timbersports for a real crowd. We look forward to continuing the timbersports traditions!