Wisconsin Woodland Owners Association

President Loren Hanson thanked the Board for all the work and support in taking on new tasks and challenges that have set a new pace to achieve the goals and the vision of WWOA’s strategic plan.

Jim Mroczenski resigned from the Board effective at the close of the Annual Meeting. The Board nominated Ed Moberg or Dean Mehlberg to fill the remaining one year term of Mroczenski’s three year term. Board members elected Ed Moberg to serve the remainder of Mroczenski’s term.

WWOA Board members signed WWOA’s Conflict of Interest and Code of Ethics policies for the 2011-2012 fiscal year.

Executive Director Nancy Bozek reported that she has been negotiating with the Marriott Madison West in Middleton for the 2012 Annual Meeting. A contract should be in place soon for the August 23-26 meeting.

Treasurer Merlin Becker reported the checkbook balance as of July 29, 2011 was $14,569. The total checkbook balance and investments values are $234,228. WWOA’s Endowment Fund as of June 30, 2011 is $13,885.65. Becker thanked WWOA member Joseph Holman for conducting a review of WWOA’s bookkeeping for fiscal year 2010-2011 on September 8, 2011. Holman’s report was submitted to the Board. The Treasurer’s report was approved.

Bob Mather, WDNR, updated the Board on several WDNR items. Mather reported that the WDNR Hayward Nursery would cease forest tree and shrub seedling production and these functions would be consolidated into the WDNR Griffith Nursery at Wisconsin Rapids and the WDNR Wilson Nursery at Boscobel beginning in 2013. This is a result of decreased demand for seedlings. WDNR is only selling six to seven million seedlings, down from 11 million in the past. WDNR requests time on the WWOA Board of Director’s December 1, 2011 agenda to discuss their new strategic direction.

The Managed Forest Law (MFL) Certified Group audit was conducted in relation to the American Tree Farm System Independently Managed Group Certification Requirements (2010-2015) on June 6-10, 2011. WDNR has been concerned about the costs of maintaining Tree Farm group certification, especially now that Tree Farm has been PERF certified. There were two minor Corrective action Requests (CARs) and one major CAR for the program. On September 6-12, 2011 the MFL Certified Group will be audited against the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards.

WNDR reported that there were major windstorms in July and August in the northwest part of Wisconsin covering six counties. The storm damage resulted in two million cords of damaged timber – about a nine-month supply of wood for the state. Emergency Wisconsin Forest Landowner Grant Program (WFLGP) cost-sharing dollars are available to private woodland owners to assist with clean up and replanting from these storms.

The WFLGP budget is $1.4 million. Of this money, 20% is set aside for emergency funds such as windstorm damage; the remaining funds are for other forest practices. The new WDNR strategic direction will limit the percentage of funds available for cost-sharing the writing of management plans such as MFL plans. The strategic direction focuses funds more on landowners and lands not involved in the MFL program.

Current bill of interest in the state legislature include:

SB126, regarding MFL properties and catastrophic losses
SB161, including changes to the MFL program from the Special Legislative Study Committee
SB166, covering the disclosure that a parcel of land is in the MFL program prior to sale or transfer of the land.

The WWOA Board approved the nomination of the WWOA Foundation’s Board of Directors for 2011-2012. Members of the Foundation Board are Joe Arington, Alan Brix, Karen Cooper, Chuck Haubrich, Cathy Lorang, Ron Rasmussen and John Taylor.

The Annual Seno Center pig roast will be held in October 2011. The Roof Fund is half-way in raising needed funds with 56 people donating $10,280. The Seno Center will also be offering Ties to the Land workshops in spring 2012.

The Nominating Committee nominated the following WWOA Board members for the Executive Committee:

Joe Arington, President
James Rivers, Vice President
Arlene Roehl, Treasurer
Mike Bohman, Secretary

These officers were approved for the fiscal year 2011-2012.

Publications Committee chair, Ed Moberg, presented the committee’s request to rename Woodland Management magazine to Wisconsin Woodlands effective with the December 2011 issue. The Board approved this request.

Secretary James Rivers noted that nine WWOA Board members approved the email request to authorize a trip to Germany and Switzerland in 2012.

During Old Business, Bozek reiterated her email request to the Board for a recount of the Board of Director ballots because proper procedure was not used to count the ballots and election judges tally sheets were not turned in to the office with the ballots after they were counted. This was followed by a discussion about whether or not total votes per candidate should be released publicly. The Board approved establishing a committee to draft future election procedures and present them to the Board at the December 2011 meeting. The Board approved the election results as presented by the election judges.

It was noted that NewPage Corporation has filed for bankruptcy resulting in uncertainty as to how the pilot certification project in the Central Sands Chapter area will proceed.

Director Bill Horvath presented a document titled “The Woodland Advocate Program, WWOA’s Role” dated September 9, 2011 to the Board. Horvath stated that the Board has approved three grant applications that included the Forest Advocate program so he believes that the Board has approved of this program. It was noted that the Forest Advocate program is part of the new Driftless Area project in southwest Wisconsin.

Horvath is proposing the Advocate program in the Central sands Chapter area as part of the pilot certification project. He has worked with Rivers on a budget for this project and 13 items that need to be funded and backed by the MFL Division for this project. Horvath requests that the Board officially go on the record as supporting the Forest Advocate program and then this program would move into the MFL Division. There were many questions from the Board regarding this proposal. It was suggested that a Memorandum of Understanding with Wisconsin Family Forests (WFF) be created regarding this proposal to document responsibilities for the program. Horvath stated that WFF is not asking WWOA to take the program over but for us to assist them with this program. The Board approved the request to go on record that the WWOA Board supports the Forest Advocate program.

The WWOA Board requested an update on the Driftless Area project for the December 2011 meeting. The Driftless Area project is coordinated by Jerry Greenberg of the American Forest Foundation. WWOA’s Bad Axe Chapter is active in this new project.

The Board set its meeting schedule for 2011-2012 as follows:

December 1, 2011 – Schmeeckle Reserve, Stevens Point
March 2 & 3, 2012 – BOD & Retreat with Chapter Chairs, central Wisconsin
June 7, 2012 – MacKenzie Environmental Center, Poynette
August 23, 2012 – Marriott Madison West in Middleton in conjunction with the Annual Meeting
December 6, 2012 – Schmeeckle Reserve, Stevens Point

The Board thanked Jim Mroczenski and Bill Horvath for their service on the Board. They also thanked Loren Hanson for his service as President. The meeting was adjourned to plant an autumn red maple in Carson Park.