Another Great Walnut Council Meeting

On May 18, 2002 the Hans Morsbach Family Tree Farm was the site of the Walnut Council's Spring Meeting. The weather was perfect, a good crowd arrived and many good forestry topics discussed. The Morsbach property has been under management since 1969 with Hans taking ownership in 1972. Starting in 1972 the first tree plantings took place. Since then the practices have expanded to include timber stand improvement, direct seeding and prairie plantings

. The day started out with hot coffee and rolls. The coffee was great and could not keep up with the demand. In fact, the coffee ran out before the rolls were gone. It was a great time to socialize and catch up with other landowners. The agenda was reviewed and each person could pick one lecturer or roam and see as many as time would allow. Hans was also able to get a fleet of Gators to haul people from site to site.

The different stations for the morning walk was timber stand improvement, habitat typing, plantation management, crop tree release………….. A special thanks to the speakers that took time out of their busy schedule to be there that day, Rudy Nigl, John Nielsen, and Mark Mittlestadt. The talks were very informative and discussions within the groups were productive.

Lunch was catered in and the meat cooked by local volunteers. Lunch was delicious and was enlightened by the many interesting discussions. Hans Morsbach gave words of wisdom at the end of lunch, the observations of a landowner over the last 40 years was interesting and at times humorous. Lunch was great and then it was off to finish the afternoon session. Anything missed in the morning was repeated one more time in the afternoon.

The final session was a demonstration from a company called Weed Badger. The idea was to look at other types of weed control other than herbicide application. This system attaches to a tractor and has an arm with a rotary head at the end of it. The head spins and stirs the top inch of soil. The action also knocks the weeds down and mulches them into the top layer of soil. The arm has the ability to swing around the trees within the row. As long as you can see the trees the rotary head can be maneuvered around them. The result was mixed and an overall feeling that it would not work for tree plantings in Southwest Wisconsin was generally agreed. This may work on other soils or on flatter ground.

The day ended with positive reviews and many first time attendee's (new members and others just seeing what the council is about) were hooked and will be returning to other Walnut Council events. The field day was a great success. Special thanks to the Walnut Council members that helped coordinate, put up signs and arranged for the food. A special thanks goes out to the Morsbach Family for hosting the field day.

If this field day sounds like something you wanted to attend, don't worry there is more coming. Look at the schedule of events listed on this newsletter. The Walnut Council looks forward to see you at the next meeting. Remember it is you, the landowner that makes this organization so great.