My impressions of the Orlando SAF convention

I think that there were good things and a few disappointments about the convention. I am originally from Mississippi, so it was great to go back south and see magnolias, pines, and live oaks again. The convention had different topics to attend lectures on. Since it was in the south this year, there was a seminar series about Longleaf pine. I attended a lot of these. I learned a lot about Longleaf, but they reintroduced the ecology and range at each lecture so I feel that they wasted a lot of time that could have been used to go more in-depth on management and silviculture. The lectures in general seemed as if they were speaking to a public audience instead of folks with general forestry knowledge, they could have gone more specific many times. The poster symposium was very interesting. The posters were reseach presentations and many were much more applied. I feel that I took more away from these that I can bring to actual management practices.
The exhibition hall had several booths of interest, particularly schools. I am still debating grad school, so it was good to get some information about programs and be able to ask questions as opposed to playing email tag with a counselor. The alumni reception was interesting and helpful. We met Jim Karels who runs the Florida Division of Forestry. He helped us find a place in Florida to go and get out into the woods. We went to Withalacoochee state forest and dendro samples for Carl and bugs for our Entomology collections.

All in all it was a good experience and I learned a lot.