Great Plains Windbreak Renovation and Innovation Conference
July 24-26, 2012
International Peace Garden
This conference brought together technical expertise and experience to facilitate learning and sharing about windbreak renovation and how to incorporate innovation into the design and management of windbreaks to address current and future needs and issues and to make windbreaks truly multifunctional.
Tuesday, July 24
Morning
Renovation and Innovation in Canadian Windbreaks - John Kort, Agroforestry Researcher, AAFC Agroforestry Development Centre, Indian Head, Saskatchewan
United States National Windbreak Perspective - Bruce Wight, National Forester, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
Changing the Way We Address Change - Richard Straight, USDA National Agroforestry Center
Using Remote Sensing to Identify Size and Condition of Kansas Windbreaks - Bob Atchison, Kansas Forest Service, and Kabita Ghimire, Department of Geography Kansas State University
A Remote Sensing-Based Approach for Mapping Tree Cover in the Great Plains - Dacia M. Meneguzzo, Greg C. Liknes, Charles H. Perry, Forest Inventory and Analysis, Northern Research Station, USDA Forest Service
Assessment of Windbreak Condition and Indicators to Renovate - Steve Rasmussen, Nebraska Forest Service District Forester
Renovation: Experiences in the Field - Craig Stange, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
Afternoon
Windbreak Renovation [North Dakota experience] - Anne Ehni, Manager, Wells County Soil Conservation District, North Dakota
Shelterbelt Renovation [Manitoba experience] - Richard Warkentin, Stanley Soil Management Association
Invasive Pest Alerts for Windbreaks - John Ball, Professor of Forestry, South Dakota State University; Forest Health South Dakota Department of Agriculture
Shelterbelt Utilization: Options Beyond Piling and Burning - Shawn Dias, Manitoba Forestry Association
Wednesday, July 25
Field Tour: A charter took the Conference Field Tour Participants to locations within North Dakota, USA. The tour included stops on two farms to discuss different renovation techniques, to see a variety of equipment in action including a woody bio-baler, sawmill, tree saw, and tree planting equipment. The field tour concluded following a supper at Hahn's Bay State Forest Recreation Area.
Thursday, July 26
Morning
Small Scale Woody Biomass Successes, Challenges & Lessons Learned - Dave Atkins, USDA Forest Service
Biomass and Bioenergy from Windbreaks: Opportunities? - Dean Current Center for Integrated Natural Resources and Agricultural Management (CINRAM) University of Minnesota
Opportunities, Process and Challenges for Bioenergy Projects - Toso Bozic, Agroforester, Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development
Shelterbelts in Large-Scale Agriculture - Chris Reynolds Manager, Whitemud Watershed Conservation District; Ralph Oliver Reeve, RM of North Cypress
Shelterbelts, Beef Producers & Behaviours: Investigating an Alternative Approach Using Social Marketing - Ryan Canart, Ian Shanghvi, William Ashton, & Blair English, Rural Development Institute, Brandon University
Afternoon
Vegetative Environmental Buffers & Air Quality - John Tyndall, Department of Natural Resource Ecology & Management, Iowa State University
Pollinator-friendly Multi-functional Windbreak Design - Mark Wonneck, Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada
Multifunctional Shelterbelts: Considerations and Designs for Ecobuffers & Ecologically-based Farming - Gary Bank, AAFC Science and Technology Branch, Calgary, Alberta
Agroforestry: Accounting for Windbreak's Climate Change Contributions - Michele Schoeneberger, USDA Forest Service /NRCS National Agroforestry Center; Jim Brandle & Xinhua Zhou, University of Nebraska; John Kort, AAFC-AES Agroforestry Development Centre; Tom Sauer, USDA ARS Natl Lab for Agriculture & the Environment
Windbreak Economics - Larry D. Godsey Ph.D., Economist, The Center for Agroforestry, University of Missouri
Conference Closing Comments - Richard Straight, USDA National Agroforestry Center, U.S. Forest Service;
John Kort, Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada
