![\"Soil](\"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/dsc_0397-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nNiehaus\u2019 older brother bought the property in 1969. When he decided to sell, Dave stepped up to purchase it in 2005.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s our roots,\u201d he explains. \u201cI didn\u2019t want it divided up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ten years earlier, he\u2019d asked his brother for some land so he could try his hand at planting trees. Niehaus was an Army veteran and a carpenter; he didn\u2019t know much about forestry, but he wanted to learn. He started in 1995 on a four-acre horse pasture with 16 5-gallon buckets of acorns he\u2019d raked up in a city park. He rigged up a PVC pipe that dug a trench in the subsoil as he dropped the acorns through a funnel into the pipe, planting them in rows across the field.<\/p>\n
The following spring, not a single white oak came up. \u201cMy brother just laughed and said, \u2018You got a lot of fat mice running around up there,\u201d Niehaus recalls.<\/p>\n
The following fall, he enlisted the help of Dr. Jim Wichman with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry\u00a0Nursery<\/em>\u00a0Section. Niehaus\u00a0started one bucket of acorns in his garden, where he could better protect them from predators and mold. He experimented with coverage, noting that germination under peat moss far exceeded that of pine needles and dirt. He then hand-transplanted the seedlings to rows on the open land \u2014 a second, and more successful, try at growing a forest.<\/p>\n Over the next three years, Niehaus cultivated enough seedlings to hand plant the four acres. He expanded his sights. One year he got 500 seedlings from the state nursery and in the course of planting them, credits his then 10-year-old daughter with an important lesson. \u201cShe said, \u2018Dad, this is going to look funny when this grows up\u2026 When you go into a forest, the trees are spaced here and there. And these are all going to be in a row.\u2019 And I said, \u2018Andrea, you just got the vision.\u2019 So that\u2019s what it is now.\u201d<\/p>\n After he bought the property in 2005, Niehaus signed on for a class at the\u00a0Southern Indiana Purdue Agricultural Center<\/a>\u00a0in nearby Dubois, Indiana, Forest Management for the Private\u00a0Woodland\u00a0Owner. Extension Forester\u00a0Ron Rathfon<\/a>\u00a0led the eight-week course.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to know a little more about forestry,\u201d Niehaus says. \u201cI wanted to be a good steward of the property.\u201d<\/p>\n Rathfon has been helping residents manage their woodlands for 30 years, along with the\u00a0Purdue Forestry and Natural Resources<\/a>\u00a0Extension team and public and private resource professionals who offer classroom and field instruction. \u201cRon makes the class interesting, and he makes it fun,\u201d Niehaus says.<\/p>\n His main takeaways from the course were in tree identification and forest biology. \u201cIf you want to manage your forest to get it to grow back to be oak trees, you have to be able to recognize the different species of trees at different ages,\u201d Niehaus says.<\/p>\n For full article with additional photos view: Creating A Woodland Legacy: Dave and Carol Niehaus<\/a>, Extension News and Stories<\/p>\n Resources<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Hardwood Ecosystem Experiment \u2013 Wildlife Responses to Timber Harvesting<\/a>,\u00a0The Education Store, Purdue Extension resource center
\nForest Improvement Handbook<\/a>, The Education Store
\nInvasive plants: impact on environment and people<\/a>, The Education Store
\nManaging Your Woods for White-Tailed Deer<\/a>, The Education Store
\nShrubs and Woody Vines of Indiana and the Midwest<\/a>, The Education Store
\nForest Management for Reptiles and Amphibians: A Technical Guide for the Midwest<\/a>, The Education Store
\nBreeding Birds and Forest Management: the Hardwood Ecosystem Experiment and the Central Hardwoods Region<\/a>, The Education Store
\nNative Trees of the Midwest<\/a>, The Education Store
\nInvesting in Indiana Woodlands<\/a>, The Education Store
\nID That Tree<\/a>, Purdue Extension-Forestry & Natural Resources (FNR) YouTube playlist
\nWoodland Management Moment\u00a0<\/a>, Purdue Extension-FNR YouTube playlist
\nSubscribe: Deer, Forest Management, ID That Tree, Woodland Management Moment, Invasive Species<\/a> and many other topic video playlists, Purdue Extension-Forestry and Natural Resources YouTube Channel<\/p>\n