Forest and Friends, Jan 2026
Welcome to the new year, time to add another growth ring and get back together to talk trees!
The winter months this year are particularly strange, way too warm for the season locally with not enough snowcover to keep things wet late into the year – despite some areas getting absolutely dumped on. That could mean we’re looking at an extreme fire year, but we’ve been quiet on the fire front for a few months which is a welcome break from the last couple years. The one thing we can count on is that our past experience is rapidly losing value – past behavior will increasingly mislead us as we move into new conditions. A side effect of that is that new ideas are needed in climate work, the context and history of past behavior no longer completely determines usefulness in thinking about how best to care for our forests.
These months are often filled with planning work and recovery – a natural time to take stock and think about the forestry year ahead. The start of each year is the best time to step up and take action to support healthy forests, the only excuse available is if you are too busy continuing the stewardship you started last year! For my own part, I have been supporting a continuous commercial deployment for the last few months, spending some time in the field and learning the lessons that only real-world performance can teach. It has been exciting to see everything come together and is encouraging and exciting to think about what 2026 is going to bring.
Before the year gets underway, however, we should take the time to come together and talk forestry with friends. I’m looking forward to meeting new people and talking forestry, climate, startups, and what we can do in the coming year to serve our collective forest stewardship obligation. This’ll be a great month to come on out and join us for the first time.
Feel free to join us for pizza and a pint as we talk about climate! We’ll be geeking out, enjoying the taplist, menu, and friendship while we talk forests, startups, GIS, policy, etc. I’ll be wearing a hardhat and cruising vest – feel free to walk right up and join our table.