JJSWA Fall 2020
Free Webinar Series

The Jackson Josephine Small Woodlands Association is pleased to present a free monthly webinar series for woodland owners who would like to learn more about the care, management and improvement of their forestland.
Please join our upcoming online presentations.

Maple Syrup & Poison Oak: Making One and (Unrelatedly) Surviving the Other
Thursday, October 15, 6 – 7:30 pm
Register HERE

Ever wondered why maples put sugar in their sap in the first place? Our native bigleaf maples (Acer macrophyllum) are sugaring champions that require almost no equipment to make syrup. Barb will speak about how to tap trees and how she collects and processes the sap. Poison oak is a beautiful plant in our landscapes, right? Barb will talk about some of its virtues and interesting factoids, and what she learned about how to decrease your chances of getting a rash.

For more information on maple sugaring, check out the Oregon State University publication “Nontimber Forest Products for Small Woodland Owners: Bigleaf Maple Syrup.”

Barb Lachenbruch: A retired OSU professor of tree biology and wood science, Barb straddles life between Corvallis and an off-grid cabin and woodlands, where she retreats a few days a week with her husband (Everett Hansen) and their dogs. They’ve thinned, logged, done a riparian restoration project, and have been making just enough syrup for their own use from the bigleaf maples every year. Barb also has practical knowledge about working with poison oak from her PhD research on its biomechanics and water transport. She writes fiction and creative non-fiction (including forestry-related blogs, www.barbaralachenbruch.com) and posts the flowers as they bloom at their Coast Range cabin in Lobster Valley (Instagram, @botanybarb).