Hoosier NF Co-Sponsors Tree Identification Workshop
Janet Eger, Indiana DNR, shows two of the workshop participants the buds of a walnut tree.
Annual tree ID workshop brings out several people to learn more about their native trees.
The White River RC&D annually sponsors a tree identification workshop which is held on a rotating basis in one of the RC&D's five counties. This year's workshop was held in Orange County and featured trees before they leafed out. The intent was to teach people how to recognize trees in winter. Though the crowd was smaller than summer workshops have been they were a hardy group of a dozen people including three teenagers who wanted to learn to recognize trees by their bark and twigs.
The workshop was taught by Janet Eger, District Forester from the Department of Natural Resources, and Teena Ligman from the Hoosier National Forest. The two foresters brought in twigs and fruits (nuts and seeds) to the three hour evening indoor class. Though most of the indoor class was done with pictures on PowerPoint of tree shapes, bark, and leaves in summer, each of the 25 species we taught were also reinforced with twigs and what the fruit looked like if we were able to find some to bring in. In some cases students could "scratch and sniff" to detect the unique smell of certain twigs, or feel the velvet of their buds.
The second part of the workshop was a four hour session in the woods on a Saturday morning. Here the class got to practice what they learned and were repeatedly drilled on the common species until they rarely missed a tree. As one older landowner asserted - he's owned his forest land for over 50 years, it's high time he got more acquainted with what he had. The group was enthusiastic and was encouraged to practice their skills. Another man said now that he's learned he can eat the flowers of the redbud, he's sure to go out to practice and snack quite a lot this spring.
Each participant received a copy of the book 101 Trees of Indiana compliments of the Orange County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD). The SWCD had received money to purchase the books from a Clean Water Grant for the class.