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Calvin Norman

@functionalforests.bsky.social
157 followers 126 following 150 posts

Let's talk about trees! 🌳 I'm a consulting forester and wildlife biologist. I’m also a host of Seedpod—a podcast about the natural world!

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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 11h
Bradley has begun using slippers. That means it officially fall
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Today, I got rained on for a few hours, sweat a ton cause it was 80 and 100% humidity, stung by some wasps, and def got poison ivy. I’m so stupid for loving this field
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
I switched my surfactant to to one that is d’limonene based and I can feel the citrus base on my teeth
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Heat index: my stomach hurts and I have a mild headache. Is that good?
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Sometimes I read about nobles charging into the desert and getting 10k dudes killed because they forgot people need water in the desert and I wonder how that could happen. I remember if today was 1400,Theo Von would be in charge and it all makes sense
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
This just in: an invasive species bred to grow fast grows fast
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Eliminating inspectors seems like such a good idea. I sure hope there’s not a famous book written about deregulating meat packing… www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Trump pledges to allow cattle ranchers to process own food amid beef imports backlash
President faces criticism over plan to import up to 300,000 metric tons of foreign beef without charging higher tariffs
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Feral horses and burros are invasive. For the health of native ecosystems, they need to go. This is one of easiest problems on conservation to solve. Blindly doing the opposite of Trump admin is not how you make good long-lasting policy
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
I got my car stuck in the woods again. I think I might have to break down and get a truck. Do they make one that’s under 50k, gets decent gas mileage, can go in the woods, and isn’t chud coded?
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Removing feral horses is a good thing. They’re very damaging to the a number of ecosystems: they have no meaningful predators, drink a lot of water in dry ecosystems, eat tons of native plants, and drive native wildlife off from waterholes. The adoption program hasn’t been successful
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Just a quick reminder: most raccoons carry a brain worm that is lethal to humans and is found anywhere there are raccoons. Let wildlife be wild! www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
theatlantic.com
Are Raccoons Evolving Into Pets?
The myth and science of the country’s favorite floofy, fluffy cuddle-badgers
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Listen to @bloodwork.show
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Ranchers never cease to amaze me. So much of USDA and our public lands system is built for them and it’s never enough idahonews.com/news/local/f...
idahonews.com
Firefighters pulled from fires after threats, harassment along Idaho/Oregon border
Ranchers at odds with the U.S. Forest Service's methods of fighting wildfires is causing confrontations on the Tartar and Fox fires along the Idaho/Oregon borde
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
I had to explain to NRCS that half an acre of a project will be left untreated because some catbirds beat me up…
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Replace a pair of work boots is a little emotional. I’m proud of the work I did in them but sad about loosing a good helper. Plus, good boots aren’t cheap
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Homer’s writing career is kinda wild: The Illiad, The Odyssey, 3,000 years of writers block, then a film based on his last book
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
This week on SeedPod, we wrap up our first series on beavers. We talk about how the fur trade built Canada, how important beavers are, and I become the first person to catch a southern flying squirrel while recording open.spotify.com/episode/1tHy...
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Listening to @bloodwork.show
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
The frass tube means that my hack and squirt is working
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Yesterday, I wrapped up a spray project on 40 acres of stiltgrass and fern. There are like 10 plant species across the whole understory. After I get the fern/stiltgrass under control, I’ll be planting native trees, shrubs, and forbs.
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
The site I was at yesterday had both shingle oak and shrubby Saint John’s wort! Check out the Saint John’s wort—it’s such a neat little dude
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
We had the wonderful @bosh.worstpossible.world on SeedPod to talk about how the awesome the Great Lakes are! open.spotify.com/episode/1tHy...
open.spotify.com
BEAVERCAST PART 2: Too Castor, Too Canadensis
SeedPod · Episode
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
A funny thing about being a forester is that I go to places on a property where the owner hasn’t been. I was bidding on an invasive control job and the client couldn’t understand that I was going to set foot on every inch of his 50 acres
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
You know a property is bad shape when the land clearance guys pass on it…
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
Monday is going to be a bad day to a privet
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Me rn (I prescribed a femelschlag)
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
This shouldn’t have been a court case—it’s been well proven that glyphosate doesn’t cause cancer. People want to blame glyphosate for higher cancer rates in ag workers because that’s easier than looking at the systemic issues that hurt rural/low income communities
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
Smokey does need to say this
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Big day today, it was my last day at Penn State and I saw a bunch of neat buddies in the woods
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
If you haven’t heard about the destruction of Forest Service Research read this. I cannot express the damage this move has done to the management and understanding of forests and natural resources around the world www.npr.org/2026/06/06/n...
npr.org
The Forest Service wants to close research hubs to save money. That could be costly
The Forest Service is trying to shut down research hubs because it says it needs to live within its means. But the agency plans to close facilities that cost less than $1 to rent while keeping open on...
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Got roped into some silvopasture work. The owner wants to thin it again. I had to ask what he was going to cut—haha
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
I’m running a free webinar and poetry reading about the war in Ukraine’s impact on people and the environment. It’ll be recorded if you can’t make to the live webinar extension.psu.edu/ukrainian-na...
extension.psu.edu
Ukrainian Nature in Danger: A Panel Discussion
Explore the environmental impact of war in Ukraine and hear experts discuss efforts to restore ecosystems and protect the country’s natural future.
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
Here’s some great reporting on a sad story www.npr.org/2026/04/11/g...
npr.org
The Great Green Wall's one of the world's most ambitious eco-projects. Is it working?
It's a global effort with a multibillion dollar price tag. Among its aims: re-greening nearly 250 million acres, planting 4,000 miles of trees, helping farmers, creating jobs, sequestering carbon.
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
Yesterday, I worked on turning this almost acre of turf grass into a native meadow. In two weeks, the grass will be dead and I’ll be planting ~20 native forbs and grasses, and in a year this ecological desert will bloom!
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
I touched up a native meadow. It had a little issue with plantain and turf grass invasion. This was an acre of lawn, but now it’s ~20 species of native grasses and forbs (and also mammoth sunflower)!
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
I have another webinar about the environmental impact of the war in Ukraine extension.psu.edu/ukrainian-na...
extension.psu.edu
Ukrainian Nature in Danger: A Panel Discussion
Explore the environmental impact of war in Ukraine and hear experts discuss efforts to restore ecosystems and protect the country’s natural future.
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Let’s go!!!!
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
The Forest Service is proposing a 2/3 reduction in staff for 2027. Their current budget calls for them to go from 30k employee to 11k. If this goes through each employee will need to manage 17,545 acres of land… www.usda.gov/sites/defaul...
usda.gov
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Why are Ohio and Maine in the block but New Mexico and Arizona separate?!?! The Apache–Sitgreaves National Forest is in NM and AZ. Both states have similar forests and no timber industry. What to Ohio and Maine have in common?
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
This makes no sense! To be closer to lands!? There are millions of acres of Forest and people who depend on them in the East! Why move it Utah? PA has a better claim to the FS than Utah. We have the first forestry school, a bigger industry, and the Giff is from here www.hcn.org/articles/for...
hcn.org
Forest Service overhaul sows confusion, concern - High Country News
In the Trump administration’s reorganization of the struggling agency, painful echoes of BLM’s past moves.
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
In a little good news, monarch butterfly populations are up! There still at risk of extinction, but good things are possible with work! news.wttw.com/2026/03/18/m...
news.wttw.com
Monarch Winter Numbers Up From Last Year as Endangered Butterflies Begin Northern Migration
A newly released survey of the eastern monarch’s 2025-26 winter population in Mexico showed a 64% increase over 2024-25.
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
Welcome back Project Plowshares
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
The Secretary of Ag is making a big push against estate taxes claiming it’s the leading threat to American ag. Estate taxes kick in at 30 million dollars for a couple. If you can’t make a farm work with 30 million dollars, it was never going to work!
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
Got out and marked a prep cut to create warbler habitat and regenerate oak
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
Got out and marked a prep cut to create warbler habitat and regenerate oak
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
What a happy little pawpaw
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
In more bad Fed news, the BLM canceled grazing permits for American Prairie’s bison program. It’s bad for a number of reasons, the worst is that bison *still* aren’t managed as wildlife. Why do does AP need to buy permits to run bison?!? They should be everywhere www.outdoorlife.com/conservation...
outdoorlife.com
BLM Says American Prairie's Bison Can No Longer Graze on Public Lands
The U.S. Department of the Interior has decided to revoke American Prairie's bison grazing permits on BLM land in Montana.
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
I’m 2/3 on catching flying squirrels in the house. My wife thinks this is something I should be 3/3 on…
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
Read Death of the Great Lakes
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