Events


The Quiet Corner Initiative organizes workshops where landowners can share and improve their expertise on small-scale, private woodlands management. During these events, wildlife biologists, conservation professionals, local owners and their family, foresters, Yale faculty, students and researchers meet and learn together with a hands-on approach to build collective stewardship knowledge. The Workshop Series has covered topics ranging from past land use history to wildlife habitat, funding opportunities and on-site wood processing.

Sam and Erika introduce their team of Percherons to the group during the Sawmill Workshop (picture by Alex Barrett)

 

Upcoming Events

Ready for the summer? We thought so. Come enjoy the weather at the Yale Forest camp with our annual Summer Seminar Series! The list of topics has just been announced. This year, we will talk about:

  • Ticks and Tickborne Disease, June 13th. Professor Durland Fish of the Yale School of Public Health works on Lyme disease and other tick-borne pathogens by integrating epidemiology with environmental science.

  • The Old Connecticut Path, June 27th. Local historian and descendant of Connecticut settlers Jason Newton invites us to rediscover the trail that pioneers followed through the unsettled wilderness to build a new life in 1636.

  • Amphibians and Vernal Pools, July 11th. Jonathan Richardson (UConn and Yale School of Forestry) studies the evolution of the wood frogs and spotted salamanders that thrive in the ephemeral pools of our forests.

  • The Emerald Ash Borer in Connecticut, July 25th. This beetle made its official arrival in Connecticut last summer and has been killing tens of millions of trees over the nation. Learn how you can prevent it with forester Thomas Worthley of UConn Extension.

All events start at 7 pm and refreshments are served.

 

Past Workshops

 

  • ESTATE PLANNING AND CONSERVATION - Thursday, April 18, 2013

Do you think you might want to protect your family land but are not sure where to start? This workshop presented a simple set of steps to help you get your affairs in order and design a protection plan that accomplishes exactly what you want to do. 

Speakers: Steven Broderick (Goodwin Forest Center), Bill Dakin (Kahan, Kerensky & Caposella, LLP) and Lindsay Michel (CT Forest and Park Association).

You can now download the materials presented at this workshop!

 

  • PORTABLE BANDSAW MILL - Saturday, January 26, 2013

Our topic was small-scale wood processing and wood utilization. Horse-loggers Sam Rich and Erika Marczak pulled out two freshly felled white pines from our forest and we had a bandsaw mill on-site operated by Will Conklin, an educator, sawyer and timber-framer from Western Massachusetts. A team of forestry students then turned the lumber into boxes for all workshop attendants.

Speakers: Will Conklin (carpenter, educator at Local Wood Works), Erika Marczak (farmer, Draft Animal Power Network)  and Sam Rich (horse farmer, horse logger).

 

  • MANAGING PRIVATE WOODLANDS FOR WILDLIFE - Saturday, October 13, 2012

This session focused on the wildlife of Connecticut forests and explored the tools and funding opportunities for landowners to create and improve wildlife habitat on their land.

Speakers: Dr. David King (USFS and University of Massachusetts at Amherst), Dr. Mark Ashton (Director of School Forests), Matt Snurkowski (NCRS), Max Lambert (Master of Environmental Science student)
 

  • FOREST STAND DYNAMICS AND SILVICULTURE - Saturday, June 9, 2012

How did your forest come to look how it does now? During this workshop, we explored the processes responsible for creating the hardwood forests so ubiquitous in northeastern Connecticut. We then took a look at what active forest management looks like and tried our hand at a couple of silvicultural prescriptions.

Speakers: Marlyse Duguid (PhD student, Research Coordinator), Kris Covey (PhD student, Coordinator of New Initiatives)
 

  • FOREST ECOLOGY AND LAND USE HISTORY - Saturday, September 24, 2011

This workshop focused on understanding the history of your woodlands. After sessions about plant identification and soil sampling, we took a hike through the forest and used "detective skills" to interpret the past land use of a property thanks to clues such as landscape features (like stone walls), soils (like evidence of plowing) and vegetation (wolf trees, mountain laurel, and so on).

Speakers: Dr. Mark Ashton (Director of School Forests), Dr. Philip Marshall (botanist and historical ecologist), Marlyse Duguid (PhD student, Research Coordinator), Alex Barrett (Forest Manager), Angela Orthmeyer (Outreach Coordinator)

 

Landowners and faculty discussing wildlife habitat during the Fall 2012 Workshop

Landowners looking down a soil pit during the Past Land Use Workshop (picture by Angela Orthmeyer)

Summer Seminars


Every Thursday evening in June and July, the Yale-Myers camp fills up with community members and students gathering for the Summer Research Seminar Series. Visiting scholars, faculty members and students present their work at this popular annual series. All seminars are open to the public and refreshments are served.

 

In the past three years, topics have included:

 

 

You can find more pictures of our workshops on Flickr, and fact sheets are currently being compiled to summarize useful information that was discussed during the seminars.

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