Events
Conferences and Events of Interest
These noteworthy conferences, workshops, meetings, lectures, projects, calls for papers, and collaborations underway are provided for informational purposes only; please follow the appropriate links or contact the organizers for further details.
If you know of similar relevant events or projects, please email Jennifer Watson.
Forest History Society Events
| Aug. 5, 2024
1 PM ET Register HERE |
"Mann Gulch, Norman Maclean, and Young Men and Fire: Why We Are Still Talking About Them Today" with Stephen PyneOn August 5, 1949, a fire was spotted at Mann Gulch, near Helena, Montana. The U.S. Forest Service dispatched a team of 15 smokejumpers, who were met by a fire guard from a nearby campground. When the fire blew up, thirteen firefighters were killed, three escaped. While the Forest Service studied what happened and revised its training and safety measures, few outside the agency remembered the tragedy. That is not until Norman Maclean published a meditation on it, Young Men and Fire, did the event connect with national and cultural interests—and continues to thirty years later.
Join fire historian Stephen Pyne and host Jamie Lewis as they explore the fire on its 75th anniversary and how Maclean’s book affected the American fire community. Stephen Pyne is a fire historian, emeritus professor at Arizona State University, and the author of The Northern Rockies: A Fire Survey and most recently Five Suns: A Fire History of Mexico. Jamie has written about the fire for the FHS blog and served as an advisor on a documentary film about it. |
| Sept. 9, 2024
1 pm ET Register HERE |
"Cutover Capitalism: The Industrialization of the Northern Forest" with Jason L. Newton
When Americans landed on the Moon in 1969, in the northeastern U.S. there were still workers cutting trees with axes, skidding with horses, and driving logs to the mill by river. It wasn’t the chainsaw and the feller-buncher that industrialized American logging. The power of nature did. Starting around 1870, bodies and forest landscapes were used in new and sometimes ingenious ways to move the second- and even third-growth trees from stump to mill, ultimately sustaining forest products production for nearly a century. Historian Jason Newton’s talk will describe this unique process of industrialization. He will explore how a lumberjack class formed in relation to the seasonal cycles of the forest and why these seemingly primitive technologies lasted until surprisingly recently. Join us for a discussion of logging technology that will challenge commonly held ideas of the working class, industrialization, and capitalism. For his talk Jason will draw from archival research conducted at FHS as well as historical images and videos. Jason L. Newton is a historian of modern America specializing in the history of capitalism, labor, and the environment. He is an assistant teaching professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and a two-time recipient of the Forest History Society’s Alfred D. Bell Jr. Travel Grant. His new book, Cutover Capitalism: The Industrialization of the Northern Forest, will be published by West Virginia University Press in October 2024. |
| June 7, 2024
Watch HERE |
"From Forest to Frame: Using Georgia’s Forests In Local Mass Timber Buildings" With Troy Harris and Russell Gentry and guest host Lynn Wilson The built environment, where we live work and play, accounts for around 40 percent of the world’s global emissions. Of that, 11 percent of the emissions come from the materials that we chose to build with. Substituting traditional construction materials like concrete and steel with mass timber has the potential to materially reduce our carbon footprint with the added benefit of incorporating the beauty of wood into the architecture. Now, companies are using locally-sourced timber for their mass timber projects. Please join Russell Gentry of Georgia Tech and Troy Harris of Jamestown, with guest host Lynn Wilson of Wintertide LLC, to learn about how this has been done in the Atlanta, Georgia, region. |
| June 11, 2024
Watch HERE |
"The Family Tree and Heirs’ Property Rights: Connecting People, Land, and Legacy" With Sam Cook and Natalie and Nikki Jefferies, hosted by Jamie Lewis Productive agricultural land remains elusive for many landowners and agricultural professionals are often limited in helping them due to complicated legal and social issues. This is particularly true for forestland owned as heirs' property—property with multiple owners, each of whom inherited their shares. A new documentary film “Family Tree” looks at this issue heirs’ property rights through the eyes of land owners throughout North Carolina and those advising them. In the film you meet forester Sam Cook, who advises two sisters, Natalie and Nikki Jefferies, who are not only landowners but are advocates for family forests. Webinar host Jamie Lewis will speak with Natalie, Nikki, and Sam about the issue of heirs’ property and their experiences. |
| June 12, 2024
Watch HERE
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“Tree Equity: Enacting Change in America’s Cities” With Jad Daley and guest host Tania Munz Trees are crucial infrastructure to cities—they cool neighborhoods by providing shade, clean the air we breathe, and even provide career opportunities. However, studies have shown that due to redlining and other discriminatory policies, neighborhoods with more low-income families and people of color living in them have fewer trees, which has a significant impact on overall health and quality of life. The Tree Equity movement led by American Forests seeks to remedy this issue through enacting change on both a local and policy level. Join guest host Tania Munz of the Forest History Society for a discussion with Jad Daley, the CEO of American Forests, to learn more about this organization’s work with tree equity and its importance. |
| June 19, 2024
Watch HERE |
"Creating A Viable Future Through Sustainable Resource Economies" With Laurie Wayburn and guest host Peter Stein With about 37 percent of all forestland in the states of California, Oregon, and Washington privately owned, creating economic models for forest conservation by private landowners that works is changing the game there. The Pacific Forest Trust is one of the players working closely with landowners and communities to make this important work possible. Join Laurie Wayburn of Pacific Forest Trustt for a webinar guest hosted by Peter Stein, himself a leading expert in the economics of conservation, to get a better sense of the context and future of this important work. |
| June 28-29, 2024 | FHS is a proud sponsor of the 2024 Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife, a hybrid conference to be held June 28-29, 2024, in Deerfield, MA. This year’s theme is "Into the Woods: New England Forests in Fact and Imagination." Presenters will explore the economic, cultural, and social significance of trees and forests in New England history. Anyone interested in parks and conservation, visual and literary representations of wooded landscapes, indigenous relationships with forests, wood-dependent industries, and folklore involving New England’s woods and forests will find plenty of interest in this two-day program. To see the program and to register, visit: https://www.historic-deerfield.org/events/dublin-seminar-2024/. This event is eligible for up to 12 CFE credits from the Society of American Foresters. |
Other Events of Interest
| June 23-29, 2024 | XXVI IUFRO World Congress 2024 World Congress held by the International Union of Forest Research Organizations. Congress theme: Forests and Society Towards 2050. Location: Stockholm, Sweden |
| August 1-4, 2024 | Society of American Archivists annual conference Location: Chicago, IL |
| August 19-23, 2024 | Fourth World Congress of Environmental History Location: Oulu, Finland |
| September 17-21, 2024 | Society of American Foresters annual convention Location: Loveland, CO |
| October 3-7, 2024 | Forests & Livelihoods: Assessment, Research, and Engagement (FLARE) annual meeting Location: Rome, Italy |
