S.6 Ep.6: Landscape Change: Dynamic Forest Restoration Blocks

S.6 Ep.6: Landscape Change: Dynamic Forest Restoration Blocks

Author: Wisconsin Forestry Center and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources June 1, 2025 Duration: 1:02:16
Foresters are pretty good at stand-level silviculture. But what if we want to make changes to forest vegetation at a much larger scale? Silviculture at scale to impact landscape-level change is much trickier, whether that’s aiming for a target age-class distribution or meeting the broad habitat needs of birds. Where do we even begin? In walks the concept of Dynamic Forest Restoration Blocks, or the strategy of breaking up the landscape into manageable and biologically meaningful units w...

Tune into SilviCast for a grounded conversation about the woods. This podcast, a collaboration between the Wisconsin Forestry Center and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, digs into the real-world details of silviculture-that blend of science, practical skill, and thoughtful art that shapes how we care for forests. Each episode is built around the voices of people who work among the trees, from field foresters and land managers to researchers developing new approaches. You’ll hear specific discussions about contemporary management dilemmas, from adapting to changing climates to implementing cutting-edge techniques that balance ecological health with practical goals. It’s designed for the rhythm of a natural resource professional’s life, whether you need some thoughtful background while at your desk or a companion for a long drive down a gravel road. The focus remains on applicable knowledge and the shared challenges of stewardship, offering listeners a direct line to the experiences and insights shaping forestry today. By focusing on these tangible stories and solutions, this podcast serves as an ongoing resource for anyone invested in the future of our landscapes.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 67

SilviCast
Podcast Episodes
S.6 Ep.7: Black Gold [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:09:28
Eastern black walnut holds an almost legendary reputation as one of the most valuable timber species in central and eastern North America. A single, high-quality tree can fetch thousands of dollars—sometimes even influen…
S.6 Ep.5: To Treat, Or Not To Treat, That Is the Question [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:40
Garlic mustard blooms, panic ensues! Many foresters in the eastern hardwood forests of North America can appreciate this sentiment as they see yet another invasive plant, garlic mustard, colonize their woodlands and fore…
S.6 Ep.4: My Buckthorn Chia Pet [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:02:58
Buckthorn has been the bane of many foresters and forest landowners throughout eastern North America. This long-lived, woody plant is capable of forming dense thickets, degrading native understory plant communities and i…
S.6 Ep.3: Line of Sight [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:04:20
It’s hard to turn around these days without seeing or reading something about UAVs or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. Drones are becoming an increasingly important tool in many fields, including within the practice of silvicul…
S.6 Ep.2: Toast Me Timbers! [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:39
Foresters are increasingly aware of the importance of prescribed fire as a silvicultural tool in the maintenance and management of fire-adapted forest ecosystems. At the same time concerns remain over the impact of those…
S.6 Ep.1: Acadian Femelschlag [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:10:17
German foresters sometimes named silvicultural systems after the region where the treatment was developed and practiced. So it is with the Acadian femelschlag, a locally developed gap-based system designed to restore spe…
S.5 Ep.12: Practical Wisdom [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 53:45
Foresters need to make decisions every day, and sometimes difficult decisions as we attempt to understand and address the diverse needs of the land, the landowner, and others. Similar to marking a tree, these decisions o…
S.5 Ep.11: Ecological Memory [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:07
We’ve all seen it in the field… Aldo Leopold alluded to it… parts of a forest ecosystem are missing or changed. Now the forest doesn’t respond the same to silvicultural treatments that worked in the past. The forest is l…
S.5 Ep.10: Why Does My Paint Gun Hate Me? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:28
The paint gun is a basic tool of the forestry trade. But what happens when we’re two forties into the woods and our paint gun goes down? This can put a major clog in our day. Maybe the problem with our paint gun is us? J…
S.5 Ep.9: Forest Farming: Planting the Seed [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:08:47
Most of us enjoying a little on-the-job foraging… some blackberries here, some morels there. But how often do we think about intentionally managing non-timber forest products? Forest farming is an agroforestry practice t…