The Kate Ireland Memorial Golf Tournament and Auction will be held in late September at Glen Arven Country Club in Thomasville, GA. Named in memory of longtime Tall Timbers friend and benefactor, Miss Kate Ireland who passed away earlier this year, this very special event is our largest annual fundraiser and critical to our operating budget. Please make plans to join us again this year for another fun-filled event in beautiful Thomasville.
The silent and live auctions provide you with the opportunity to bid on once in a lifetime trips, hunting and fishing excursions, family vacations, original artwork and much more. Come join the fun at Glen Arven on Sunday evening, September 25.
For the golfers, the challenging and historic Glen Arven course will test your skills on the links with a traditional four-man scramble tournament on Monday morning, September 26.
Last year’s event raised over $120,000 in support of the research, conservation and education programs of Tall Timbers. Formal invitations will be mailed to all Tall Timbers donors in August – but mark your calendars today and save the date!
In these times of financial uncertainty, it is critical that we remain focused on our mission: Promoting good land stewardship through research, conservation and education. For over 50 years now, Tall Timbers has remained at the forefront of critical research in the areas of fire ecology, forestry and wildlife management. Tall Timbers continues to be a vocal advocate for private landowner rights, helping shape public policy decisions on wildlife management, prescribed fire and land conservation. It is our hope that you will continue your investment in the future of Tall Timbers by renewing your annual gift this year.
You can be assured that your financial investment in Tall Timbers is being put to great use. Our research and conservation staff is able to leverage the support of our membership program by finding matching grant dollars from foundations, government agencies and corporate resources to help fund our programs at full capacity. In many cases, for every $1 contributed to our membership program we are able to find an additional $3 to match it from outside sources.
If you have already renewed your membership gift this year, we thank you. If not, you can easily renew online www.talltimbers.org/membership.html. If you know someone who might benefit from our work, please share this link and encourage their support. Our current donors are our best salespeople. With your help we can reach our annual goal of $400,000 by the end of the year.
Thanks as always for your support of the research, conservation and education programs of Tall Timbers.
By Vann Middleton, Director of Operations & Support
Did you know that over 85% of your gift to the Tall Timbers Membership Program goes directly to on the ground support of our Research, Conservation and Education programs? In this day and age where all non-profits are carefully scrutinized for the amount of administrative and fundraising costs in relation to dollars contributed, Tall Timbers is proud to rank among the most efficient charitable organizations in the country.
While administrative costs are a part of operating most any non-profit, Tall Timbers strives to ensure our donors that 89 cents of every dollar given to our membership program goes directly to the programs that they aim to support. We greatly appreciate the generous support provided by all of our members and donors. The success of Tall Timbers relies on the continued support of people like you. As a charitable organization, we hold ourselves accountable to all who have made an investment in our future. Tall Timbers is committed to efficiently managing the financial resources that have been bestowed upon us.
Our pledge to you as a member is to be fiscally responsible stewards of your investment while ensuring that your gift makes a direct impact on the programs for which it was intended.
With only a few short weeks left in 2011, our annual Membership campaign is drawing to a close. We have an ambitious goal of $400,000 for the year. With your help and participation, we can reach that goal. Please consider renewing your financial support today. You can do so securely online at: http://www.talltimbers.org/membership.html. If you have already done so, we hope that you might consider giving a gift of membership to a friend or colleague that you think would enjoy the benefits of becoming a member.
In this time of giving, we wish to give thanks to each and every one of you who have given of your time, talents and treasure to Tall Timbers in 2011.
Slurp, Ahhhh, how I love sweet tea. As you well know the best sweet tea is found in the South! And, real sugar is the key to making quality sweet tea – forget all those sweetener alternatives, Aspartame, Splenda, and the like… they just aren’t the same. I was at a restaurant in Maryland a few weeks ago, and I asked if they had sweet tea; I should have known the obvious, natural response, "Nope, but we have un-sweet tea with sugar and sweetener right there." I’ll have water thank you very much. Now don’t get me wrong, there are obvious advantages to these sweeteners like fewer calories, but personally I simply don’t wish to settle for anything less than the "real" deal.
I have to say, I am so privileged to become a part of a such premier research station. From the scientists to the staff to the phenomenal views and thundering covey rises, Tall Timbers Research Station & Land Conservancy is the REAL DEAL! During the past three years as a post-doctorate scholar here at Tall Timbers, and already during the past couple of months in this new position, I have quickly learned that the success of Tall Timbers is rooted in the steadfastness of its contributors and members as well as the generosity of the plantation community who are willing to help out, share management knowledge (or secrets; well, at least some of them) and open up their properties for research, conservation, and educational purposes.
The Red Hills region is steeped in tradition and is in its own right unique, picturesque and richly diverse. Here there not only exists a cornucopia of flora (plant) and fauna (wildlife) but a wealth of land management knowledge and a stalwart, communal effort for conservation. With that said, I am struggling with whether this is going to make my job as an Outreach Coordinator easier or more difficult. What can an Outreach Program possibly do to benefit an already thriving region and community? In my mind, this is a question that can only adequately be answered as we move forward and continue to get to know one another and continue to cooperatively work together.
I hope to be able to benefit the Red Hills and Albany area communities by working closely with plantation owners, land managers, and conservation enthusiasts to develop resource and land management tools to save them time and money; improve communication among landowners, managers and other properties; increase the link between land management and research; and provide a conduit for information exchange. An example concept is hosting Land Managers’ Luncheons to come together more frequently as a plantation community, while learning about new tools available for land management. For more information about some of these ideas you can visit us on the Outreach web page. As we continue to develop and refine the Outreach Program over the course of the next several months, we hope to glean valuable insight from the Red Hills and greater Albany communities as to how we can better serve you through resource and land management tools, and educational and extension services.
I am excited about the vast research, conservation and outreach opportunities we have in this wonderful region and at Tall Timbers, and I am especially excited to get to know you and learn more about where you are, what you do, and how you do it. Although I come in afresh to this position with several novel ideas and perhaps grand visions of what could be, I DO NOT want to provide unnecessary alternatives to what is already the "real" deal. My intent as the Outreach Coordinator is to "keep it real" with no gimmick-alternatives, no additives and no preservatives, but I can’t possibly imagine being successful without your help! Please contact me with any thoughts or ideas that you might have where we can better serve you and the Red Hills community . . . OR, call me (850.893.4153, x268) . . . I’d love to sit down with you and have a nice cold glass of sweet tea and chat about quail, land management or the like.
The M-CORES program, which includes the proposed Suncoast Connector Toll Road in Jefferson County, passed through the Florida Legislature at breakneck speed with little review or analysis. Tall Timbers has a number of concerns given the potential for significant and wide spread impacts. These include fragmenting public and private conservation lands, robbing business from Main Street Monticello, impacting our rivers and other water resources, and making prescribed fire more difficult and costly.
Join us in asking the Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners to OPPOSE the Suncoast Connector toll road and its path through Jefferson County.
Take action now with our easy email form.
Send an email to all five Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners with one click!
Burn prioritization modeling seminars and fire modeling tools are supported by Wildland Fire Science to train managers in the important planning stages of prescribed fires.
Educating and guiding the next generation of fire researchers and managers is a key goal of Wildland Fire Science and a resource for testing new ideas in fire research.
Tall Timbers hosts the premier fire technology transfer organization—the Southern Fire Exchange. This JFSP funded effort helps connect research to management through webinars, workshops, and support of the Prescribed Fire Science Consortium.
Working with partners in the Prescribed Fire Science Consortium, the program is building nexgen 3-D fuel beds using terrestrial LiDAR and novel sampling techniques to power new fire behavior models for prescribed fire managers. This work links to Tall Timbers work in wildlife habitat usage and ecological forestry.
The Longleaf Legacy landscape prescribed fire burn team arm of Wildland Fire Science works directly with landowners and partners to effectively put fire on the ground and promote prescribed fire throughout the region.
Tall Timbers is leading an effort to map fire regimes at the landscape scale. Staff work with numerous agencies to evaluate fire records and satellite imagery to build this critical conservation database. https://skfb.ly/6DqOY
Tall Timbers hosts the Prescribed Fire Science Consortium, a national network of researchers and managers who promote integrated research and management to advance next generation tools for fire practitioners. https://arcg.is/1DSjDT
We are linking physics and field observations to understand the fluid dynamics of fire behavior surface fire regimes. Our work combines field observations using advanced thermal imaging techniques, laboratory studies, and coupled fire-atmospheric modeling to help managers improve outcomes of managed fire regimes.
Selected Publications authored by Wildland Fire Science staff.
Staff and researchers support Federal fire training by serving as a cadre for NWCG training courses, ranging from basic wildland fire to advanced fire effects.
(PFTC) specializes in training fire fighters the principles and techniques of prescribed fire through practical hands-on experience. https://www.fws.gov/fire/pftc/
Private land owners are the largest source of prescribed fire in the country. These land owners and the culture of fire that was maintained by them during decades of suppression are a part of why Tall Timbers is a world-wide center for prescribed fire science. Workshops and fire training are a critical focus of the Longleaf Legacy Landscape Burn Team and our support of the Georgia Forestry Commission Prescribed Fire Center in Marion County.
The conserved lands of the Greater Red Hills region are found on working, income-producing properties that support agriculture, forestry, and recreational hunting. These properties contribute $272 million annually to local economies and support 2,300 jobs. [link to Planning & Advocacy section] The landowners’ strong stewardship ethic preserves their working lands while replenishing drinking water supplies, protecting water quality, and providing wildlife habitat for dozens of rare and endangered species. Tall Timbers’ conservation easements on these working properties encourage landowners to retain their traditional livelihood by keeping farms in family ownership.
Home to world-class wild quail populations, the Greater Red Hills region contains the largest concentration of gamebird preserves in the United States. These preserves also support the largest community of Red-cockaded woodpeckers on private lands. Indicators of high quality habitat found here include the gopher tortoise, Bachman’s sparrow, fox squirrel, and many amphibians. Tall Timbers’ conservation easements identify and protect the critical habitats of these species.
The region also boasts outstanding aquatic resources. Large river systems, like the Flint/Apalachicola, Ochlockonee, and Aucilla, flow from Georgia and feed into the Gulf of Mexico to support some of the world’s most productive estuaries. Large disappearing sinkhole lakes, like Iamonia, Miccosukee, and Jackson, provide habitat for an array of aquatic species and migratory birds. Tall Timbers’ conservation easements protect these vital watersheds and wetlands that are the lifeblood for the ecological health of the region.
Once dominated by longleaf pine, our pine woodlands support abundant wildlife and local economies. These forests need prescribed fire to stay healthy. Herbert L. Stoddard and his associates Ed and Roy Komarek were pioneers in this emerging scientific field during the mid-20th century. Tall Timbers continues that legacy with applied research on prescribed fire and land management. Today, there is a tremendous need to expand prescribed fire use beyond the Red Hills to ensure ecosystem health and reduce wildfire risk. Additionally, Tall Timbers uses conservation easements to permanently protect private woodlands while balancing the need for economic return from selective timbering.
