{"id":5230,"date":"2025-12-11T13:52:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T19:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/campdeerpark.org\/?post_type=encyclopedia&#038;p=5230"},"modified":"2025-12-11T13:52:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T19:52:13","slug":"forestry-stewardship","status":"publish","type":"encyclopedia","link":"https:\/\/campdeerpark.org\/es\/kb\/forestry-stewardship\/","title":{"rendered":"Forestry Stewardship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Forestry <a href=\"https:\/\/campdeerpark.org\/es\/kb\/stewardship\/\" target=\"_self\" title=\"Stewardship is the acknowledgement and practice that everything belongs to God, and as his children in fellowship with Him and following the model of the Son, we are empowered to sustainably use all that is entrusted to us for the good of all He loves. Stewardship is one of Camp's Initiatives: four major area of focus across Program and Projects that are derived from our Mission &amp; Values. Camp applies Stewardship to human resources, financial &amp; material resources, and creation resources, and sees all these areas as intertwined in an integrated whole. Want to get involved? We are always looking&hellip;\" class=\"encyclopedia\">Stewardship<\/a><\/strong> is a program under <a href=\"https:\/\/campdeerpark.org\/es\/kb\/camp-deerpark\/\" target=\"_self\" title=\"Camp Deerpark, officially Camp Deerpark Inc., also known as CDP, and Camp, is a four-season camp and retreat center serving youth, families, and churches in the New York City region in a Christian Camping environment. Camp offers retreats to churches, youth groups, and ministries year round in a lodge, cabins, and motels and hosts 5 weeks of Summer Camp in July and August. The Camp is located on Grounds composed of 395 acres with spacious lawns and mountain forest outside the village of Westbrookville in the Town of Deerpark in the Shawangunk Mountains in Orange County NY. Camp is a&hellip;\" class=\"encyclopedia\">Camp Deerpark<\/a>&rsquo;s Stewardship Initiative tasked with managing the approximately 360 acres of forest owned by the Camp.  Like all Stewardship programming, Forestry stewardship sees humans as part of creation that have a unique God-ordained role in managing living things and resources according to his way and will.  The current program was founded in 1997 by members of the North Bronx Mennonite Owner Church and friends who began to advise Camp on sustainable practices informed by work on community forest management by Dr. Chuck Peters (see <a href=\"https:\/\/campdeerpark.org\/kb\/forestry-stewardship-history\/\">this history<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Projects<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>10% Inventory<\/strong> &mdash; from 1998-2000 approximately 10% of our tree species were inventoried and the results compiled by Kevin Coffey from New York Botanical Garden to create an overview and understanding or our land, resources, and forest health. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>A Time To Build Cabin Construction Project <\/strong>&mdash; Forestry Stewardship developed a plan for sustainable harvest of White Pine to build post-and-beam cabins for the <a href=\"https:\/\/campdeerpark.org\/es\/kb\/promise-woods\/\" target=\"_self\" title=\"Promise Woods is an area of Camp including the Promise Center meeting space and timber-framed Cabins to the North East of Main Camp. It is reached by taking Promise Woods Road out of the main parking lot past the Children&rsquo;s Forest. This map also available in: PDF | SVG Buildings Promise Center Staff Cabins: Cabin 1 | Cabin 5 Bunk Cabins: Cabin 2 | Cabin 3 | Cabin 4 | Cabin 6 | Cabin 7 | Cabin 8 Water System Building Infrastructure PW Water System PW Electrical System PW LP Gas System Related Threads Related threads use the Promise Woods&hellip;\" class=\"encyclopedia\">Promise Woods<\/a> village.  This project removed mature pine to improve biodiversity and restore the more productive oak-heath community.  Forestry Stewardship volunteers advised on harvest areas and marked trees.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Annual <a href=\"https:\/\/campdeerpark.org\/es\/kb\/woodcutting\/\" target=\"_self\" title=\"Woodcutting refers firewood harvest as part of our Forestry Stewardship program. Typically, youth and young adult Volunteer Groups harvest, haul, split, and stack Firewood for heating purposes in the Fall and Winter. The target amount of wood is 40+ cords. Historically, Mercersburg Mennonite, Bowmansville Mennonite, and Conestoga Mennonite have participated. In more recent years, a community of families and young adults from the area around camp have participated. Related Threads Related Threads use with Woodcutting tag.\" class=\"encyclopedia\">Woodcutting<\/a><\/strong> &mdash; Camp heats several buildings with firewood and welcomes volunteers &mdash; especially Youth and Young Adults &mdash; harvest, haul, split, and stack firewood.  This project converts deadwood and low-value trees into a valuable resource and can provide a carbon-neutral alternative to fossil fuels with proper woodlot management.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Periodic Inventories and Monitoring<\/strong> &mdash; Camp continues to measure and monitor our forests.  When sustainable management began, our forest was yielding approximately 26,000 board feet\/year of &laquo;merchantable wood&raquo;.  Management has increased this number to 45,000 board feet\/year with healthier forest lands.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Harvest and Sawmilling<\/strong> &mdash; Camp maintains small-scale harvest equipment and a portable sawmill and projects have continued to harvest and created value-added products for the Camp and other nearby organizations such a local school district and nearby Christian Camps.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>2023 Comparison Study<\/strong> &mdash; Graduate Student Missy Poff compared the South Woods around Orange Trail with the newly purchased North Woods from &laquo;The Mehr Parcel&raquo;.  Since the later had not been subject to our management practices, it was a good reference to compare and determine results from our program.  The study did confirm the South Woods were healthier and more productive than non-managed lands.  Also, future recommendations for the Forestry program were developed from this study.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Membership for the Forestry Stewardship team is open to a variety of volunteers with different skill sets and experiences.  <a href=\"https:\/\/campdeerpark.org\/contact\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"997\">Contact Us<\/a> to join the team or to schedule your family or group for a forestry related retreat of volunteer experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tags":[],"encyclopedia-category":[337,79,121,149,331],"class_list":["post-5230","encyclopedia","type-encyclopedia","status-publish","hentry","encyclopedia-category-biodiversity-stewardship","encyclopedia-category-grounds","encyclopedia-category-program","encyclopedia-category-projects","encyclopedia-category-stewardship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/campdeerpark.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia\/5230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/campdeerpark.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/campdeerpark.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/encyclopedia"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/campdeerpark.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/campdeerpark.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia\/5230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5231,"href":"https:\/\/campdeerpark.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia\/5230\/revisions\/5231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/campdeerpark.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/campdeerpark.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5230"},{"taxonomy":"encyclopedia-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/campdeerpark.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia-category?post=5230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}