Illinois Hosts Mega-Forestry Tour

Nearly 200 soil scientists, foresters, a dozen-odd soil conservationists, biologists, engineers, and graduate students from eight Midwestern States recently gathered in Carbondale, Illinois, for the 27th Annual Central States Forest Soils Workshop that focused on forest productivity with an emphasis on white oak across Southern Illinois.

The tour spanned a day and a half with stops at White Oak Plantation on Crab Orchard Lake planted by SCS in 1938, the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge, Devils Kitchen Lake, a private timber site near Carbondale managed by Carbondale Veneer, Cripps Bend, Government Rock, the Trail of Tears State Forest Nursery, the Von Jakob vineyard, Dixon Springs, and the Garden of the Gods.  Speakers from NRCS, Illinois universities and natural resource departments, private industry, and producers gave presentations on soil and forest related subjects at each stop on the tour.

NRCS Learn more about NRCS in Illinois.

Planning for the workshop started a year ago when Illinois NRCS soil scientists Bryan Fitch and Matt McCauley began early initial planning and sampling for the workshop.
Your contact is Paige Mitchell-Buck, NRCS public affairs specialist, at 217-353-6606.