By james art 
From the Universities in Wisconsin
Stephens Point-for-Forest University Point Point Point Point Forest Education K-12 Forestry Program and the Wisconsin Natural Resources Department in Wisconsin Department of Forest Program Cooperates to receive Wisconsin’s school forests, more engaged in the collection of seeds of trees.
Leaf and DNR saw the opportunity to encourage the collection of trees in school forests as a way to create a fun and meaningful educational opportunity, as well as a way to intensify for the school of the school forest in 2027-2028. The now-collected tree seeds will turn into seedlings planted in school forests after 2-3 years.
The project was piloted with three school forests in the autumn of 2024-school forest of almond Banderoft (Phillips-Unit), Cedric A. Vig Outdo Classroom (CAVOC) at Rhinelander and Laona School Forest. The school forests coordinators worked with LeAF and DNR staff to plan a seed collection trip.
At Almond-Bancroft, science teacher Brenda Sherman brought her 7th grade students to collect red pinecons. Twenty -six students learned about the reproduction of red pine and helped to harvest half a cones.
At Rhinelander, the school manager Mike Ceshalk had different groups of elementary students to get acquainted with seeds, seedlings and different types of trees. Overall, the students gathered 66 pounds of red oak acorns.
In Laona, science teachers Karen Biederman and Amy Vaklav pulled their respective secondary school and high school students to learn about seed collection. Unfortunately, although the forest was rich in different tree species, none of them was viable for seed collection on the day. The students were able to collect several cones with a hen to study.
Currently, Leaf and DNR are working to develop additional seed collection resources to share with school forests in the spring, hoping to receive additional school forests involved in seed collection.
Each year, the afforestation program buys quality seeds from local adapted local trees and shrubs to achieve the goals for afforestation in Wisconsin. Much of this seed is purchased by local collectors.
Leaf, which is a partnership between DNR and the Center for Environmental Education of the University of Wisconsin-Flyvens Point, coordinates the Wisconsin School Forest Program. School forests are lands registered through the state and are owned or controlled by a public or private school for environmental education and natural resources management.