State woodlands leaders continues to bring environmentalists out after revamping program

Lavon Yeggy has always been passionate about trees and nature.

Growing up, Yeggy’s parents had black walnut trees on their farm and her grandfather had hickory timber on his land.

In her adult life, living in the Johnson County side of West Branch, Yeggy has been working to transform her land from pasture to prairie. But, it hasn’t been easy.

“It’s been very chaotic,” Yeggy, 67, said. “We'll get trees planted, and then there will be a disaster.”

Throughout owning her approximately 4 acres of land, Yeggy said they have been hit by hailstorms, the 1998 tornado and more recently, the 2020 derecho.

“I found it takes years to recover, so it's just been a challenge,” Yeggy said, who is also a Master Gardener in Johnson County.

To help build her skill set in converting her land and rebuilding the damage it has seen from natural disasters, Yeggy signed up for the Iowa Master Woodland Steward program.

The Steward program aims to educate Iowans on how to become woodland stewards, to either learn more about forestry or help them build the skills and resources to maintain their own forest landscapes.

The program has been offered to Iowans since the 1980s, but it received a “revamp” in 2020, with the help of Billy Beck, an assistant professor at Iowa State University and an extension forestry specialist with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Due to the pandemic, rolling out the revamped program was delayed, Beck said. However, they have hosted four programs since it returned in 2022, with this fall’s seven-module session being the fifth since the revision.

“We've really added a greater diversity of speakers and resources that the students engage with and we’ve modernized the issues that reflect Iowa's current woodland status,” Beck said. “So we talk about climate; we talk about emerging pests and pathogens; we talk about the ever-changing water quality issues and water quantity we’re having in the state.”

They have also modernized the program to reflect the changing goals of landowners, Beck said.

Beck added that other major revisions include the stewards completing self-paced “pre-work” ahead of the module, having a website to house the content after the session ends, shortening the exercises and making them more hands-on in nature, rather than in a classroom setting.

What hasn’t changed: spending time outdoors.

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How it works

The Steward program is divided up into seven modules over six weeks, which cover a variety of topics relating to woodlands and forestry maintenance. The earlier modules start with planning and goal setting with the students, working up to achieve each student’s goals, Beck said.

“Each module builds on itself, and at the end, we get into more advanced management techniques for specific outcomes,” Beck said.

Beck said that participant’s knowledge before starting the program are “all over the board” and that they don’t require any prerequisite knowledge before enrolling.

“It's a wide range of people,” Beck said. “It's private landowners that have been working in their woodlands for decades. It’s private citizens that don’t own woodlands and are just interested in learning about forestry. It's young conservation professionals that would like to know more about our woodlands and woodland stewardship.”

Before sessions start, they send a survey out to participants to gauge their current knowledge, interests and goals to help tailor the program to the group, Beck said.

Each session is held — one in the spring and one in the fall — in one or two host counties, with this fall’s being held in both Johnson and Linn counties. With each module, they work to alternate which county they hold the field session in, Beck said.

“Every field session, we hop around to different spots, both in private and public areas of Johnson and Linn county,” Beck said. “And that's cool for me, because I think a lot of folks don't know a lot of these places exist, and it gives them a chance to explore new places in their own backyard.”

Modules range from basic history of forestry in Iowa, its current status, its threats and opportunities, in addition to personal goal setting, Beck said. Specifically, the modules have opportunities to teach stewards how to identify different trees and spot invasive species.

“We start from the bottom with just basic tree physiology, then we work up to woodland ecology, (and then how) woodlands change over time,” Beck said.

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Program interest grows

Beck said the current program in session, which is a collaboration between Linn and Johnson counties, has one of the most diverse group of participants yet.

It is thrilling to have participants in the program with diverse backgrounds, Beck said.

“This is probably the most diverse class we've had as far as age, background and occupation,” Beck said, adding that this fall session has more “young conservation professionals” than they have had previously. Beck said he works to recruit participants from diverse outlets.

Of the two courses per year, enrollment is booked out through 2026, Beck said. He added that they are working on scheduling the modules for 2027.

With the fall 2024 session well underway, Beck said the program is on the verge of having a hundred graduates of the revamped and modernized program.

Rowan Kuechenmeister, who lives in Wellman but works in Johnson County with the Soil and Water Conservation District, will be one of the woodlands program graduates at the end of the course.

Kuechenmeister, who is originally from Alabama and moved to Iowa in 2020, signed up for the program as soon it was open for enrollment.

“I started learning about invasive species and initially thought that ecology was wild,” Kuechenmeister said. “I just got more into it from there.”

Kuechenmeister, 25, who is especially interested in regenerative and sustainable agriculture, said they signed up for the class because woodland knowledge is Kuechenmeister’s environmental “weak point.”

Enrollment for the programs typically close in 10 days, as they cap the courses at 20 to 25 people, to help build relationships between participants and build camaraderie, Beck said.

“Building that forest stewardship community is a big deal,” Beck said. “We also have reunions about a year-and-a-half after the graduation, we try to get the folks back together, usually on a participant's woodland site, and just catch up and see what they’re doing. … It’s usually a really fun time.“

Olivia Cohen covers energy and environment for The Gazette and is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.

Comments: (319) 398-8370; olivia.cohen@thegazette.com