General Guild Meeting—April 29, 2017

“All About Wood” is the theme of this April’s General Guild Meeting at the Bow, NH High School.  I hope each and every member will bring a sample or two of their favorite wood species and tell everyone about it:  where you get it, why you like it, what kind of objects you make with it, how you mill and finish it, it’s woodworking properties, and anything else you would like to say about it…the possibilities are endless.

And of course, our “What’s in YOUR Shop” series will continue and the topic will be, you guessed it, “WOOD.”  I will be the moderator for our discussions, and will bring a bunch of my favorites and talk about the many and varied sources of wood that I use, including the trees in my forest.  I’ll share with you my modest library of wood and tree books, and hope you will bring some of yours too.  If you were born in the computer age and don’t do “physical” books, share with us some of your favorite URL’s for wood information and I’ll publish the results in an Old Saw .pdf file on our website.   We’ll also discuss wood identification, and identification of trees from growth characteristics, leaves and bark.  I’m no expert here, and I hope everyone else will pipe in with their opinions and techniques.  Hint – bring a pocket magnifier if you have one.

Our featured speaker for the afternoon will be Dave Anderson, Director of Education for the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests (https://forestsociety.org/) where he has worked for two and a half decades. Dave will tell us about the work of the Forest Society and will give a presentation titled “A Century of Conservation at The Forest Society.”  I think it will be a fitting conclusion for our theme meeting on WOOD.

Agenda:

• 9:00 Meet and Greet with coffee and donuts
• 9:45 What’s in YOUR Shop – WOOD
• 11:15 Business Meeting and upcoming events:

Guild Day at Woodcraft, Newington, NH, June 10

Summer Trip, date TBD

Annual Meeting, September 23

• 12:00     Lunch
• 1:00        Featured Presentation – Dave Anderson, Forest Society
• 3:00 Adjourn

Hope to see you there.

Tony Immorlica, your GHNW Program Chair

PS – Suggest you bring a chair, brown bag lunch, and wood, books and URL’s for Show and Tell

Bio – Dave Anderson

Dave Anderson is Director of Education & Volunteer Services for the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. He joined the Forest Society in 1990 and is responsible for design, development and delivery of conservation education programs.

Anderson is best known as a working naturalist guiding field trips on Forest Society reservations statewide while teaching about forest ecology, wildlife ecology, forest stewardship and land conservation to introduce both life-long residents and visitors alike to the protection and wise management of New Hampshire forests, farms and open space.

Anderson is a co-author of the “Forest Journal” column in the statewide New Hampshire Sunday News. His quarterly “Nature’s View” columns are a long-time regular feature in the Forest Society’s quarterly Forest Notes magazine. Anderson is writer and co-host of “Something Wild” Nature and forest-related radio features on New Hampshire Public Radio.

In 2014, Anderson received the prestigious Fred E. Beane Award for effective, fair and balanced Statewide communications on issues affecting agriculture and forestry in New Hampshire. He and his family live on a 45-acre certified family Tree Farm nestled on a back, dirt-road in rural South Sutton, NH. The farm includes laying hens, vegetables, perennials, fruit trees, pastures, wetlands and much-loved backyard woodlot producing timber, cordwood and maple.

“The Forest Society plays a duel role as a statewide land trust and forestry organization that owns more than 180 permanent forest reservations totaling more than 53,000 acres and monitors more than 685 conservation easements on more than 126,000 acres. As practitioners of a practical conservation philosophy, the Forest Society works to promote land stewardship and protection of open space throughout New Hampshire”