Meet Your Woodland Advocate

Judy Newland, Leon Township, Waushara County

At the end of 2008 a tired but elated Judy Newland counted 40 forestry management plans she had helped her neighboring small landowners develop and write. As one of the first three volunteers in Wisconsin Family Forests’ pilot Woodland Advocate program, she had walked each of those 40 woodlands with the landowner and a forester to talk about improving wildlife habitat, the health of the forest, and the quality of the timber growing there. Not only had she firmly established sustainable forestry in her own township, she had helped establish that the Advocate program could be extremely effective in reaching landowners who otherwise were unaware of the need for management and the availability of resources and information.
Improving her woods and helping others do the same was not something Judy Newland had even known was possible when she bought her land in 1978. But there’s nothing like a natural disaster in your own forest for getting an owner’s attention.

In 2001 a windstorm downed a number of trees on the property, and two years later the gypsy moths hit. “At that point I figured I needed to do something to keep my woods healthy,” Newland said. “I went to a seminar, and got a forester to come out and walk my land.”
           
The real surprise came when the forester asked her what her goals were for the land. Being put in the driver’s seat, instead of simply being expected to follow a professional’s recommendations, was a revelation, Newland said. She, the owner, was the one who had to understand the options and make the decisions.

To learn more, Newland joined Wisconsin Family Forests, a non-profit organization devoted to helping small woodland owners learn about managing for wildlife, aesthetics, and improved timber quality and forest health. Then in 2007 she received a scholarship to attend the Woodland Leadership Institute, and during that course heard Gerry Mich, a woodland owner and Executive Director of WFF, talk about a new idea for getting owners involved in forest management.
The Woodland Advocate Program would work to inform small woodland owners of both the need for management and the resources available, but through neighbors, not through the usual channels of government-employed foresters. “From Gerry’s surveys and experience with the Wisconsin Healthy Forests Program in Door County and the Baraboo area, he realized this is what landowners want: someone they know and can trust, who can connect them with professionals in their area,” Newland said.

So, thought Mich, why not get a neighbor to volunteer to visit and take a walk in the woods with the owner? Volunteer Woodland Advocates, who were woods owners themselves and had experience with hands-on management as well as knowledge of available resources, would contact other small woodland owners in their own community and offer to walk their woods to see what they had and what could be done. The volunteers would bring along the local DNR forester to provide professional, pressure-free advice.

Mich applied for and received grants to establish the pilot program in 2008. Newland, by now a longstanding board member of WFF, wrote a letter of recommendation for the grant applications and then volunteered to be one of the first Advocates.

Becoming a Woodland Advocate and helping other landowners realize the need for owner-directed management of their woodlands was a natural extension of Newland’s own experience and outgoing personality. “I was so enthusiastic about learning about these things,” Newland said. “I wanted to share, and when I talked with other owners I found they wanted to be good stewards and have healthy forests, but didn’t really know what it takes.”

Realizing that most small woodland owners are primarily interested in wildlife, Newland attended the Wisconsin Coverts Program in 2008 to expand her knowledge in this area. “I would recommend that session for anybody who is a Woodland Advocate,” she said.

Newland said her professional experience in customer relations has also been an asset, since in being an advocate she is doing essentially the same thing she does in her work – uncovering the customer’s needs and addressing their concerns. “One owner I talked with was concerned about how much it would cost her to hire someone to do a timber harvest. I said the logger will pay you money, and she was surprised,” Newland recalled.

Newland has enjoyed working close to home, she said. “It’s very local, and I hadn’t spent that much time in my own township for a long time. There were roads I’d never driven on. And it’s great exercise! You’re outdoors, you’re meeting people. Some are long-time residents, a lot are people who live in Milwaukee or Chicago and come here to their land on weekends.”

Newland was instrumental in developing the format that will be used by the ten newly-trained Woodland Advocate volunteers in 2009 and in years to come as the program continues to expand. “We send out a mailing to local woodland owners, the return postcard comes in, I look them up in the plat book and see what their land is, and contact them to set up an appointment,” Newland said. “I go out there with the forester and we walk the land, address the questions, and then the forester sends them a basic management plan and I give them the WFF brochure.”

Despite her very busy year in 2008, Newland remains excited about the program. “It’s making people aware that their woods are changing all the time, and of what constitutes a healthy forest, and how they can manage their woods with their particular goals in mind,” Newland said. “And just about everybody has some sort of invasive species on their property, so pointing out invasives and what they can do to a woods is really important.”

Sometimes it’s the simple things that are the most satisfying. “I was able to teach a fellow how to identify a white pine. That was rewarding for both of us,” Newland said. “Another fellow from Chicago was so grateful after I had checked through his woods. He said, ‘All we have is alleys in Chicago. It’s so great to hear a forester say we have nice trees.’”