The Forester is a web resource for forest landowners, loggers, foresters, and anyone else with an interest in forests. The purpose of The Forester is to provide good information on issues that affect our forests, provide a forum for folks with an interest in forests to discuss important topics, and to encourage all participants to become active forest stewards and/or forest health advocates in their community.

Back in 2002 I created a forestry and natural resource newsletter. I called it The Southwest Forester. At the time, I was employed by Penn State University as a Forestry Educator and my job was to provide educational programs to forest landowners, loggers and foresters in a 9 county area of southwest Pennsylvania. The purpose of the newsletter was to inform forest landowners about forest management and to encourage them to be active landowners and advocates for good forestry in their community. In a brief 4 or 5 year period of time, The Southwest Forester became pretty popular with over 1600 subscribers. By the time I left Penn State in 2007, the newsletter showed very positive results in southwest PA. In fact, 98% of readers found the Southwest Forester newsletter to be useful; 97% of readers gained knowledge about natural resources; 92% of readers changed their forest management behavior; and 30% of readers even claimed their attitudes about natural resource management changed in a positive way. 

Why am I telling you all this? Well, now that I am no longer producing the Southwest Forester there seems to be a void in southwest Pennsylvania for up to date, thought-provoking forestry information. I considered continuing with a quarterly newsletter and even started doing so, but a friend pointed out the many advantages of a more 'active' approach, such as this site. With this web-based system, The Forester can easily pertain to a much broader audience - southwest PA is no longer the sole target. This information will be pertinent to all of the northeast US states and beyond! Also, we can discuss the articles as they are posted. It is my desire to recieve comments about the site and about the articles/topics presented. The comments may come from other landowners, other foresters, teachers, engineers, surveyors, moms, grandads...you get the point - this could get exciting.

Well, again, I would like to say WELCOME! Enjoy the ride and please, let me know what you think! If you were a long-time reader of the Southwest Forester I would really like to hear from you. I hope this web resource will be as fun for me and as useful for you as the newsletter - maybe even more.

Feel free to contact me through our company web site at www.appalachianforestconsultants.com or you can easily make contact by commenting on any or all articles posted here. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Mike Wolf

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