Passing my Forest On

This past September marked the 5th Women and Their Woods Educational Retreat hosted by the Delaware Highlands Conservancy. The event this year was held at the Highlights Family Foundation's Workshop Facility in scenic Wayne County, PA.

One of the first retreats was attended by a woman named Norma Dale Smith. Norma had had close ties to family land since she was a little girl, and now her grandchildren were getting involved. Inspired from the retreat, Norma gathered all her stories from the land, put them into book form, and published the book to give to her children and grandchildren. Even while she was learning more about managing the land, Norma was also continuing to forge a connection to the land for herself and her family. Norma’s books have been printed and shared with participants at the WOW workshops.

Success looks like...
She had lost her husband two years before. He was always the one to do the forest management stuff while she managed horses! Now she was left without a clue of how she should manage the forest. Her plan was to just - let it be. Accompanying her friend who invited her on an informal Oregon WOWNet hike changed everything and left her in tears of relief. After talking with women on the hike who are managing forests on their own, she said she felt like she could do it too. She instantly felt she had a support network and a huge barrier was lifted. It’s amazing what a walk in the woods, with peers, can do!

My mom called our forestland in northern Idaho a “spot of paradise.” Mom was the first to point out a grand fir that might fall, to see a moose on the pasture, and to notice Western larch needles changing color. She passed away eight years ago, and we try to honor her by caring for our forestland. Since my brother and I live far away, all of the work falls on Dad.

The Women and Their Woods Educational Retreat is an in-depth, fun, engaging, and thought-provoking workshop on caring for your woodlands now and into the future. No matter the size of your woodlands or if you’re not yet an owner, join us for four days and three nights of learning, networking, and applying new knowledge about good forest stewardship. Learn more about Women and Their Woods.

This session is being offered as part of the 7th annual Loving the Land through Working Forests conference on Saturday, May 19 near Girard Township, Pennsylvania.

For more information and to register for the event, please visit: https://www.foundationforsustainableforests.org/loving-the-land.