Fall 2002 - Volume 11, Number 3

As the leaves turn color and the temperature cools I know it is time to let you know what has been going on with the Indiana Woodland Steward Institute. It has been a busy year with producing the newsletter, the policy statement, updating the website, and tracking what's new in the forestry community both in Indiana and the United States.

Once again the circulation of the newsletter grows. We continue to reach out to more and more woodland owners around Indiana to spread the word about forest management. With the newsletter distribution at 33,000, we strive to keep woodland owners informed about managing their forest land. We are continually looking for new ways to stretch our postage dollars so we can reach more and more people. At this time we have a surplus of names and addresses that we cannot mail to because of the lack of funds.

This year we have partnered with more county SWCD's to bring the newsletter to their counties. These counties provide the needed funding to print and mail the newsletters to forest landowners in their counties. This has been a very successful partnership providing many new landowners forest management information. Check with your local SWCD to see if they participate in this program (See map).

With the push to limit timber harvesting on ever increasing acres of public ,and the directors of the Indiana Woodland Institute felt it important to speak out on the issue. In doing so, we published the policy statement on timber harvesting (see page 3 of this issue or www.inwoodlands.org for the policy statement). We felt a strong message needed to be sent to the public about timber harvesting and our position on the issue.

The www.inwoodlands.org web site continues to grow. The number of visitors increases by about 3000 visitors a year. The most popular pages are the price reports from Dr. Hoover at Purdue University and the Indiana Consultant Foresters Price report. Several sites link to our website because of these pages. It appears that we receive several hits from local schools. Many teachers use our site as reference material. It is not uncommon to see peak hits in a week coming school as the students are directed to search our site for useful information. We are receiving about 1600-1800 hits a month. Many of our hits are from countries around the world.

Throughout the year we are looking for new information to share with our readers about forestry and managing their property. One of the big stories this past year has been the new Farm Bill and how it will affect woodland owners. As always we continue to track the progress of the implementation and even strive to influence the process to benefit woodland owners.

As always the Woodland Steward Institute is looking for new ways to increase our mailing list. In the past we have been blessed with generous donations from our partner organizations, from county SWCD'S, advertisers, and from generous donations from you, our readers. Once again we are asking for help in providing these services to the woodland owners around the state. in this issue you will find information on donating to the Woodland Steward Institute. Your donations will help us to expand our mailing to landowners that have not yet received our publication.

Thanks again for your support and encouragement. Throughout the coming year we hope to provide you with the necessary information to help you manage your forestland wisely. If you have any suggestions or questions feel free to contact me at steward@inwoodlands.org.

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