Gillett students learn about forestry

Crews from Franks Logging moved into the Gillett Public Schools forest on Sept. 23 to begin the process of thinning out the red pine and hardwood trees to help maintain the forest.

Students had a chance to to explore the woods at the Michael Anderson Environmental Education Center behind Gillett Elementary School on Sept. 26, when volunteers and professionals set up 12 stations around the forest to teach the youths about life in the forest, explain how logging can be part of responsible forest management, and of course demonstrate the mechanics of cutting down trees and transforming them into boards and even paper.

At one station, they learned how the day’s activities would help sick children through the Log a Load for Kids program operated by the Great Lakes Timber Professionals Association (GLTPA).

“We all like trees, right?” Henry Schienebeck, executive director of GLTPA, asked a group of first graders. “Well, that’s part of our job is to make sure we never run out of trees. That’s why what you’re seeing here today is called sustainable forest management.”

Schienebeck said trees provide clean air, clean water and wildlife habitat.

Proceeds from Log a Load for Kids are donated to seven Children’s Miracle Network hospitals in Wisconsin and Michigan, said event coordinator Laurie Schienebeck said at her husband’s side.

“The money helps the kids and their families when somebody’s got issues,” she said. “They needed help and medical care, so the money we’re donated from the wood we cut here today will be going to these hospitals to help families.”

Laurie Schienebeck shared the story of a girl, born prematurely weighing 1 pound and 4 ounces, who was treated at one of the children’s hospitals and is now a healthy fourth grader.

“She benefited from some of the moneys from some of these tree harvests,” she said.

Last year, the association donated $48,600 from the proceeds of three Log a Load events and funds raised at its annual Logging Expo.

“Everything that comes in from these Log a Load events goes back out to these hospitals,” she said.

Logging opens up the forest so healthy trees can continue growing and thriving, said Lucas Broderick, who cut down a tree for the students using a huge $800,000 machine capable of cutting as many as 100 trees in an hour.

“We’re not taking the good trees,” Broderick said. “We’re taking the bad ones to make room for the good trees to grow.”

Before the loggers move in, a forester goes through and marks the trees to be harvested, leaving the healthiest trees to spread out and continue growing, he said.

At another station the students saw a demonstration of a portable sawmill that quickly turned a log into two-by-four boards for construction.

They also heard from forest management experts from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources about how trees support wildlife. Garrett Lubbers of the DNR had a group of first graders pretend to be trees and stretch out their arms to demonstrate how a forest can become too crowded with trees.

“You’re going to be a wildlife tree for those eagles,” Lubbers said to the “trees” picked to thrive. “And you’re going to live for hundreds of years providing a home for the eagles.”

Students stayed at each station for about 10 minutes, and then an air horn sounded to signal it was time to move to the next location. Volunteer Rich Lietz said 517 Gillett students would be circulating through the forest through the course of the day.

“It’s a great opportunity to get kids exposed to a new industry,” Lietz said.

wbluhm@newmedia-wi.com