President’s Column

We want to hear from you!

HazelnutContributions to this website from Linn County Small Woodlands Association members and forestry interests are welcome. Submittals will be edited. We are interested in news and meetings relating to Linn County and neighboring counties.

Head shot of Mike Barsotti

Tree farmers’ gathering in 2024 to be evolutionary step

The Linn Chapter will host next year’s Oregon Family Forest Convention. It will be on Friday, June 14, 2024 at Lebanon’s Best Western Boulder Falls Inn. A tour of the Merzenich family tree farm is set for Saturday, June 15. We are planning to have additional tours June 13. It’s interesting to look at the…

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Photo of Mike Barsotti

Heartfelt thanks for past efforts; current legislative issues spotlighted 

As I start my term as the Linn County Chapter president, we say thank you to Tim Otis, who remains on the board as past president. We also say farewell and a big thank you to our Bark Editor Rich Clark for all the time and talent he has dedicated toward keeping our chapter members…

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wabi-sabi table. Photo by Tim Otis.

Japanese style celebrates simplicity, love of old stuff

The Japanese concepts of wabi and sabi are expressed in a table I recently built with meaningful lumber.

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Tim Otis

What makes us civil

Opinion: This being my last column, I have chosen to share something not tree-related, but rather offer something I wrote several years ago, but which has recently much on my mind. Here it is. I recently read a New York Times editorial written by David Brooks about the growing lack of civility in public life…

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Pile of firewood waiting to be stacked

Splitting wood helps sharpen focus on important things

Two Tramps in Mud Time “The blows that a life of self-control Spares to strike for the common good That day, giving a loose to my soul I spent on the unimportant wood.”  From the poem by Robert Frost. President’s Column By Tim Otis What do you call that, when a bunch of things that…

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Tim Otis

‘The mother tree’ offers lesson about connections

“The task that remains is to cope with our interdependence – to see ourselves reflected in every other human being and to respect and honor our differences.” ― Melba Pattillo Beals I had been staring at these five Douglas-fir trees on our tree farm and wondering why they were so much healthier and larger than all…

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Frost poem rings true 100 years later

The Road Not Taken Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair,And having perhaps the better claim,Because it was grassy and wanted…

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