Extension Forestry

Connecticut’s trees and forests provide a multitude of social, environmental, and economic benefits every day. The Extension Forestry Program of the University of Connecticut Cooperative Extension System provides education for natural resource professionals, elected and appointed officials, volunteers and private woodland owners who care for this valued resource and landscape. Extension educators—in cooperation with many organizational partners—seek to improve the health, care, diversity, and management of Connecticut’s trees and forests. Educational efforts reflect the wide diversity of the state’s forested landscape and ownership—from small-scale private woodlands, land trusts and woodland cooperatives to state forests; from street trees, town greens and parks to municipal watersheds.

The UConn Extension Forestry program works statewide to address forest stewardship issues. We support woodland owners, communities and Connecticut Forest Practitioners with information and educational programming. UConn Extension Forestry partners with public agencies such as CT-DEEP Forestry Division and non-profit organizations such as the Connecticut Forest and Park Association.

Extension Forestry Programs include educational offerings for woodland owners such as the Coverts Project and the Master Woodland Manager program, activities designed to benefit communities such as the Stormwise Initiative, and professional educational efforts for CT-Certified Forest Practitioners. Extension Forestry contributes the CT Urban Forestry Council, the CT Forest Stewardship Committee, the Oak Resiliency Project and the Northeast Forests and Climate Adaptation Network.

forestry class out in the woods in the winter

Recent Posts from Extension Forestry

Habitat for Birds

White-eyed vireoA white-eyed vireo perches high on a tree branch scanning the understory below. She’s searching for the perfect place to raise her young. The nesting site must match the shopping list inside her head: lush, impenetrable thickets of young trees and gnarly shrubs. She needs young trees at least three feet high, filled with nooks to build one small nest out of bark bits, leaves, and small roots all glued together with a sticky spider web. Green chunks of moss on the outside plug any unsightly holes. But this vireo will have a difficult time finding what she’s looking for in the Connecticut forest.

She is in search of a rare habitat in Connecticut, the young forest and shrublands. According to CLEAR’s Changing Landscape Project about fifty-nine percent of Connecticut is covered by forest, but only six percent of the forest is considered young or in an early stage of development. If we imagine that a habitat is like a room, then the Connecticut forest, which is mostly mature, is like a house with only one room. It would be like our white-eyed vireo spending all of her time lying on the couch. Wildlife like birds, small mammals, and salamanders depend upon having multiple rooms — a variety of habitats at different stages of growth — to fulfill their needs: one room to find food, one room to raise a family, and another to feel safe.

What Can Be Done?

Create a disturbance in the forest. What does that mean? Cut down some trees. It’s really that simple.* Historically, natural disturbances such as wind, fire, Native American agriculture, flooding, and beavers created enough young forest, fields, and shrublands to protect species diversity. But, today, we put out the fires, prevent the floods and restrict beaver activity. Humans must now actively create and manage young forest and shrubland habitat for those species that depend upon disturbance.

Woodland Owners: We Need You

Eighty-three percent of CT forest is owned by private individuals and families. If you are a woodland owner, you have an opportunity to create young forests and shrublands for wildlife. The problem is that cutting trees typically meets with a lot of resistance, mostly because it will result in some parts looking, well, like a mess. But this mess serves a purpose. The forest will pop back up in a year or two, creating that much-needed dining room or bedroom. Then the birds will arrive. Then more birds the next year, and still more the year after that.

Curious? If you would like to know more about creating a "mess" for wildlife on your property, please contact the UConn Extension Forestry
(thomas.worthley@uconn.edu) and tell us your story. We would be thrilled to talk to you about habitat projects.
To see what a young forest looks like in person, visit Sessions Woods Wildlife Management Area at 341 Milford St., Burlington, CT, where two young forest habitats were created in 2001 and 2013.
*Of course, always contact a certified forester to plan forest management activities

Image Source: Shutterstock.com. White-eyed vireo.