Meet Sam Schiela

Family, Values and Continued Education

Shared Ownership- Shared Responsibilities

Sam Schiela bought the property that she stewards in East Dover, Vermont with her mother and siblings; forming an LLC which they have named Will Wood, after her late father. As with any successful group endeavor, the dynamic highlights each of the family member’s strengths. Sam does the forest management and the others help to make big decisions and navigate aspects such as NRCS paperwork. Sam is quick to praise the way that they are each able to bring their strengths to the work at hand, acknowledging that she

would much rather choose a chainsaw over a spreadsheet

while knowing that her family members are uniquely skilled at reading documents for the fine details. While speaking about her mother, Sam said

this is one thing that we do together, and I feel like it’s really helped us learn about each other’s different values and where they fit into managing a place like Will Wood.

What a beautiful legacy Will Wood carries, as a connector for adult family members.

Climate Change and Nonnative Pests

The effects of climate change that Sam is seeing on Will Wood are predominately related to water and nonnative pests. While she doesn’t currently have Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) on the property, she knows that they will inevitably arrive, so she is beginning to prepare for that now. She recently completed a patch cut on her property in order to allow for ash regeneration, hoping that having plenty of young trees will supply genetic diversity and perhaps some will be strong enough to withstand EAB.

With funding from NRCS, Sam is in year one of three of a large tree planting project where she will plant 50 trees a year for three years- 150 trees total. She is planting for a couple of different objectives but predominately to create wildlife and songbird habitat. Sam is planting a variety of soft mast plants and hard mast trees including choke cherries, blueberries, elderberry as well as Burr and Northern Red Oaks. She’s planting the oaks because they are climate resilient species and she’s optimistic they will withstand a changing climate. She is also planting Quaking Aspen, which deer love to browse, in an attempt to distract them from the young ash she recently released.

Active Forest Management as a Learning Opportunity

Sam approaches active forest management as an equally active learning process, she acknowledges that

...a lot of people that have owned land for generations, [management] is just something that they grow up doing. And for me, I really had to seek out information on how to manage the forest…I learned how important active management was versus passive.

Sam may have grown up in Long Island, far from the forest that she is now caring for but she’s a perfect example that when something is important to you, you can dive in and find the answers.