Annual Meeting

More information about the 2024 Annual Meeting will be posted here as it becomes available.

Join us to celebrate WWOA’s 45 year anniversary at the 2024 Annual Meeting on September 26-29 (see the Join tab if you aren’t a WWOA member yet) at the Hotel Marshfield (2700 S. Central Ave.) in Marshfield. Hotel Marshfield is an inviting hotel that offers a variety of amenities including an outdoor courtyard with a fire pit and large sauna, fitness center, two Tesla charging stations, and welcomes pets. Hotel rooms include coffee maker, refrigerator and microwave. Complimentary breakfast is included with your hotel room. Check in time is 3 pm and check out is at noon.  Hotel Marshfield is offering a special rate of $109 per night plus tax for our event.  Hotel Marshfield reservations can be made by calling 715-387-2700 and mentioning WI Woodland Owners Association. To prevent a cancellation fee, contact the hotel at least 48 hours prior to arriving.

Mark your calendar NOW to attend a tour, a day, or stay for the whole weekend. A variety of registration options will be available.

Thursday 

On Thursday, September 26, the WWOA Board of Directors will hold their quarterly meeting at the Hotel.

Thursday offers 2 group tours.

Thursday, we anticipate offering two fun and interesting tours. The first tour will be hosted by Pittsville High School students and is called a Splash of Red Cranberry tour. Tour a cranberry marsh, see a harvesting demonstration, learn about testing and freezing of the cranberries followed by lunch including a cranberry dessert. After lunch, we hope to visit the Pittsville Area Historical Society Museum complex where their motto is little buildings housing a lot of history. The complex has 7 buildings on their grounds, providing visitors an amazing variety of authentic, historically accurate exhibits and displays of Pittsville area past. Buildings include a museum, one room school house, a barn reproduction, farm shed with early tools and farming equipment and an historical PowWow ticket booth.

The second Thursday tour being planned will include a trip to Wausau to tour the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum’s 49th year of the Birds in Art exhibit. This juried annual art exhibit includes over 100 pieces of the very best contemporary artistic interpretations of birds and related subject matter including two- and three-dimensional artworks in all media other than crafts and photography. After lunch, we hope to take a stroll on the trails that run through Monk Botanical Gardens. This 30-acre property offers a diversity of garden types and seeks to promote understanding of the aesthetic, economic, and ecological role of plants. WWOA’s previous AmeriCorps member, Elise Schuler, is their program director.

Thursday evening will host our Sharing Experiences session where selected members share their experiences with managing and caring for their woodlands.

Friday

The planning committee is working on four tours for Friday, September 27.

One tour will cover forest product industries in the area.

Another Friday tour in the planning stages will cover commercial ginseng production along with information about ginseng on private lands. We hope to tour Heil Ginseng in Edgar, a commercial operation. The Heils have been growing ginseng for more than 30 years. Ginseng is an ancient medicinal root native to eastern North American. Wisconsin produces 95 percent of the nation’s ginseng, and Marathon County produces about 85 percent of that. Wisconsin ginseng is considered the best cultivated ginseng in the world by Asian buyers.

A third Friday tour option will help members in recognizing diversity and change in Wisconsin’s plant life. Plant life in Wisconsin is complex, since our state is a convergence point for six regional floras with overlapping distribution and outstanding diversity. Woodland owners witness a variety of plants on their property as the floral landscape both remains constant and yet changes over time. This session will engage members in recognizing and understanding the floristic elements—plants of all sizes and shapes—on their property. Participants will learn skills to locate interesting plant life, use tools, printed and online, to identify, collect, preserve and define flora, and be introduced to programs in Wisconsin aimed at locating and preserving endangered plant species. There will be several brief sessions, alternating between discussions, hands-on practice and actual field explorations at a regional park or preserve, over the course of the day. Jessica Ross, WDNR Conservation Biologist and WWOA member, Dr. Michael Nee, a professional botanist and plant taxonomist will lead this tour.

Our Friday woodland tour will be held at Dick and Mary Czaja’s DMC Tree Farm near Pittsville. The Czajas were recognized as the 2016 Wisconsin Outstanding Tree Farmers of the Year by the Wisconsin Tree Farm Program. They purchased this 38-acre woodland in 1992. Since then, they spend almost every day in the woods doing the management work with the help of family and friends. This tour will focus on tree planting including soils, vegetation, planting techniques and equipment. What should you consider before ordering seedlings, how to care for the seedlings once you pick them up from the nursery, and what are your options for getting them in the ground and off to a good start? The Czajas and WDNR staff will share their experiences and expertise to help you be successful at tree planting.

Saturday 

Saturday, September 28, starts bright and early with the opening of the exhibit hall.  Saturday includes WWOA’s Annual Business meeting, our Keynote speaker, the Landowner Cafe (tables staffed by experts to answer your questions), afternoon concurrent sessions on a variety of topics, and possibly a craft session.

WWOA’s 45th Year Annual Business Meeting will be chaired by President Don Hoffman.  It will highlight WWOA’s achievements for 2023-24 and some of our goals for 2024-25. We will recognize retiring WWOA Board members and present Memorial plaques to families that have chosen to donate to WWOA in their loved one’s name.

Saturday evening’s Awards Banquet kicks off with a cash bar, delicious dinner, and time to visit with friends.  After dinner, tickets will be drawn for the Annual Fundraiser prizes and the Chapter Basket Raffle. Then help us recognize the WWOA’s Forestry Leader Scholarship recipient, Wisconsin Tree Farm Committee award winners, and fellow WWOA members (submit your nomination) who have given so much of their time and energy to WWOA and our mission.

Sunday

We are still searching for a host for the WWOA’s Sunday Field Day.

WWOA’s 2024 Annual Meeting will offer a variety of registration options. Come for a tour, a day, or the whole weekend. The 2024 Annual Meeting packets will be emailed out to members in July. Please make sure WWOA has your current email address on file. If you do not have an email address, you will receive a packet in the mail. If you prefer a packet mailed to you, contact the WWOA office or call the office at 715-346-4798 and let us know.

WWOA values the health and safety of our members, guests, and staff.  If you are feeling sick or have COVID-19 symptoms, please cancel your meeting registration and stay home for everyone’s safety.

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Annual Meeting Fun!

Why should you consider attending if you’ve never come before? Hear what our members said on the 2023 Annual Meeting evaluations:

  • “Connect with others who have a passion for woodlands.”
  • “Very informative and friendly atmosphere.”
  • “They don’t know what they don’t know!”
  • The interactive opportunities with both specialists and people, offers a wealth of information.”
  • “Because there’s a lot to do, see, and learn. Just being with others who share a love for the woods- it’s a learning experience like no other.”
  • “The family member may inherit the land. Get that person involved and it may spark interest, they could love the land more.”