Renfrew County Outdoor Woodlot Conference

Yesterday was the annual Renfrew County Outdoor Woodlot Conference, organized in partnership with the Ontario Woodlot Association, of which I am a (board) member. And on top of that, the location of this year's conference was the Petawawa Research Forest. Needless to say that I spent all day at the PRF yesterday! The weather was frisk but beautiful and the colours are starting to come out, in other words, perfect conditions! Darwin and I showed the participants the world class Meridian Road study, that looks at white pine regeneration, Craig and Ian talked about red pine management, and Suzanne and Ian explained biomass harvesting. After lunch, the participants were introduced to sugar bush management and how to successfully manage your woodlot to produce maple syrup. Overall, it was a very successful day, and a great way to show everybody that the PRF is still alive and kicking!

Afterwards the Algonquin Section of the CIF had organized a little event to honour some long-time members and researchers, including Ben Wang and Kit Yeatman. 

After a long day, I was really hoping to finally sleep in on Sunday... However, Nolan had other plans :-) He had told Ann that we would meet her downtown for a run. Oh well, it was nice to stretch the legs a bit, even though I ran alone since Ann and Nolan decided to go for a walk (Nolan still was not feeling a 100%, and Ann is slightly injured). The colours are so nice, that I decided to go through the Arboretum. It turned out to be a nice run, until I was getting close to the end of my run. A squirrel ran out in front of me, and a car just came down the road, and hit the squirrel. The squirrel got hit, and was killed instantly. It might have been a good thing that I was pushing myself a little bit at that point, so hopefully most of the blood in my body was used for running, and not for my brains and conscience... Still, it was quite upsetting to see this black squirrel get hit in front of me. You always see so many dead squirrels on the road and every time it breaks my heart. I know, I'm probably a softy, but it does make you realize that life can be over in a heartbeat.  So, enjoy life as much as you can. It's worth it!