The 7th Eastern Old-Growth Forest Conference will be held at the Peabody
Hotel in downtown Little Rock on March 24-25, 2006.  This FREE meeting
will emphasize work being done in the Arkansas area and other portions
of the Midsouth, with a great line-up of speakers (including ENTS
members Dave Stahle, Bob Leverett, and Don Bragg).  

Further information on this meeting can be found at:
http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/4106/meetings/EOGC2006/EOGC2006.htm

One of the big highlights of this meeting will be the field trip on
March 25 to Bayou DeView, which is in the general area of the
rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker.  Dave Stahle will be leading
this tour and showing off some impressively large and old baldcypress.
Note that enrollment will be strictly capped at 300 persons because of
the size of the meeting hall, and registration is on a first-come,
first-served basis, so register ASAP!

We have posted some recent pictures of the location where the field trip
is being offered to help prime the pump of interest. The index page for
the meeting's website
(http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/4106/meetings/EOGC2006/EOGC2006.htm) has a
low elevation aerial photograph of the Bayou DeView-Dagmar area, clearly
showing the supercanopy (apparently approaching 40 m tall) baldcypress
towering above tupelo gum and a number of other hardwood species. If
you then take the link to the field trip page, you will see Dave Stahle
standing next to one of the giant baldcypress in this area. I sure hope
the site is dry enough next spring to get people in to see the best of
this old-growth remnant!

For ENTS interested in checking out some Arkansas area big trees,
drop me a line, and if there is enough interest, we will try to get out
and see/measure some of this timber.

Don Bragg, Ph.D.  Research forester