Snow Tubing (At Last!)

The third time was the charm (after ice storms forced us to cancel two previous dates) last Thursday (2/28) as the forestry club finally went snow tubing at White Tail Resort It was cold enough, but not too cold, as eleven forestry club students braved the slope. The tubing area seemed more crowded this year with several school groups there for the first hour. They added an inflatable barrier at the bottom of the hill this year so that there was no need to slow down at the bottom! Will Darren Krebs ever get his hat back?

Tubing is a great way to let off steam after all the labs and tests of the forestry courses. Thanks to White Tail for the free passes for the members of the Woodsmen's Team. We can't wait to come back next year.

Mont Alto Students at the Allegheny SAF meeting

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Originally uploaded by P_Linehan.

Fifteen forest technology students from Penn State Mont Alto attended the Winter meeting of the Allegheny SAF in Carlisle on Thursday.

The quiz bowl team of Frank Grano, Chance Yeckley, and Eric Monger won the Quiz Bowl after an exciting match agains Penn State University Park.



John Schwartzer (Mont Alto alum and UP forestry senior) leads a student discussion on issues in forestry education.





Among the issues discussed at the meeting were bio-energy from forests in PA, carbon markets, wood pellet systems for heating school buildings, forestry education in the Allegheny region, and advances in biological controls of invasive plants.

Burn Pile Service Project

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Originally uploaded by P_Linehan.

Penn State Mont Alto forestry students are lighting the burn pile on the nursery field. Volunteers will work shifts all weekend to guard the fire. Much of this material came from the ice storm last December that cut power to campus over a whole weekend. Bring on the hot dogs!

Find more of the pictures on Facebook or Flickr.

Spring 2008

The forestry club's first meeting of the semester was gavelled in to order by President Tiffany Roddy last Thursday evening. Twelve students and club advisor Dr. Linehan were there. On the agenda was getting ready for the Allegheny Society of American Foresters winter meeting in Carlisle on Feb. 14-15. The Mont Alto quiz bowl team will consist of Eric Monger, Kevin Braun, Frank Grano, and Chance Yeckley.

The forestry club will go tubing at White Tail Ski Resort next Thursday, weather permitting. The club will also volunteer to help Waynesboro High School's Envirothon Team prepare for the forestry part of the competition.

The meeting ended with a short video on the Tillamook firest in Oregon during the 1930's and 40's. Legacy of Fire: The Story of the Tillamook Burn had some fabulous images of the catastrophic fires with first hand accounts from some of the people who lived through the fires and fought to suppress them. More inspiring was the story of how the forest was successfully replanted with the help of thousands of school children. For more information see: http://www.tillamookforestcenter.org

A Hotshot's Return

Rich Briggs
Originally uploaded by P_Linehan

Rich Briggs '07 addressed the Forestry Club on December 11 on his experiences working this past summer on a hotshot firefighting crew. Rich was based in Arizona, outside Phoeniz, and also worked on fires in Georgia and Idaho. Firefighting is incredibly hard work. You have to be able to climb a mountain and spend all day digging fire lines in smoky, hot conditions. Although the crews do everything to work safely, danger is always present. Yet, Rich really enjoyed the challenge and plans to return to firefighting next summer.

Sunshine Visit

Penn State Mont Alto alumnus Paul "Sunshine" Shogren spoke to the Forestry Club today. In his talk "Past is Prologue", Paul talked about his days at Mont Alto in 1947/48 and his early years working as a forester. In the top picture Paul shows his spiked cork boots he used on logging jobs in the West. The bottom picture shows a closeup of the boots. The box they are in was his laundry box while at college. Each week he would mail home the box with his dirty laundry and his mother would return the clean clothes with a care package. In the middle Paul poses with forestry students.

Among the interesting stories Paul told was how it was common to travel by hitchiking when he was in college. He travelled to Arizona and Oregon for summer jobs using his thumb. After graduation from Penn State in 1951, Paul served as a U.S. Marine in Korea. On one of his final jobs he was assigned to teach officers to pack horses in Quantico to use in operations in Korea. The Marine Corps learned that Paul had worked with burros at the Philmont Boy Scout Reservation in New Mexico.

Paul worked for many years for the U.S. Forest Service and eventually worked on strip mine reclamation in Maryland for the Soil Conservation Service. Retired, he now lives with his wife in Garrett County, MD.

SAF Convention in Portland

The SAF Convention was a good time! We competed in the Quiz Bowl and attended talks on issues in forestry. The Keynote Speaker, Richard Louv, was very interesting. He wrote the book "Last Child in the Woods," which is about how children today are not as in touch with nature as they should be. I bought the book and it is a very good read!
I attended some talks on silviculture and the Pinchot/Muir debate. There were also booths for businesses and schools, and the Mont Alto crew hijacked the University Park booth. There was and abundance of free merchandise and finger foods. The highlight of the trip, however, was the day we took off from the convention to go sightseeing. We drove out and saw a few waterfalls and wound up at Mt. Hood. The scenery in Oregon is amazing!
All-in-all, it was a great trip.. and seeing hobos is always a bonus!