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Calvin Norman

@functionalforests.bsky.social
159 followers 127 following 153 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 · 09/10/2026
While killing acres of barberry, I stumbled on to a wood turtle. I also saw a grouse, which are rare in Pa due to a lack of habitat and a few non-native viruses like West Nile
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
With the increasing number of regeneration failures, planting is becoming more important in forestry, so our chapter of the Society of American Foresters toured the DCNR Nursery, where 2 million trees start their lives
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Bradley has begun using slippers. That means it officially fall
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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 · 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 · 05/08/2026
Listen to @bloodwork.show
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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 · 03/07/2026
Me rn (I prescribed a femelschlag)
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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 · 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 · 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 · 07/04/2026
Let’s go!!!!
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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 · 15/03/2026
Welcome back Project Plowshares
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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 · 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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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
Me to my daughter: this is what we trained for! The training
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
Hey, so this is bad. Do not do this. Throw the meat out and bleach everything it touched
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 30/11/2025
When I see basal area in metric
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Finishing up the bad place today (80% of the overstory is tree of heaven). I got a nice little treat— to kill a big paulownia
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
It seems like my chimney isn’t as sealed as I thought it was. This southern flying squirrel got in the house, but I managed to catch it before the cats. It was released, largely, unharmed
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
Sedges have edges, rushes are round, and grasses have nodes all the way to the ground—that’s the only grass id you need
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
Look what decided to show up to my invasive plant workshop! It really drove home the importance of the workshop
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 21/09/2025
I collected and gave away a bunch of native plants at the Great Insect Fair because insects grow on plants
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 21/09/2025
We’re getting swamp white oaks and chestnut oaks started! We’re in a drought so I’m not too confident in their fertility…
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 14/09/2025
Only a few weeks old and she’s already taking out spotted laternfly. I couldn’t be more proud of my little girl
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
I finally found where the SLG on this property was coming from
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 20/07/2025
Just a few invasives
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
Spotted laternfly is such a flexible insect! Yesterday, I saw it feeding on at least a dozen species from tree of heaven to white oak to pokeweed
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 22/06/2025
First SLF of the year, and it’s not even on tree of heaven. It was on a multiflora rose. Don’t worry I killed everything in this picture
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
A lawn hates to see me coming—I’m prepping this for conversion to a native meadow
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
Here’s my new record tree of heaven! It was so big I threw a few root hacks on it
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
Big herp day! It’s so fun seeing these dudes and making good habitat for all the critters in the woods
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
This week, I part of a really fun multi-institution event where we trained grad about extension! Teaching people about extension, doing some extension events, and seeing old friends was such a great time!
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Class is over and I’m back in the field! The first project for the summer is killing invasives and getting control of this fern. Once we have everything in shape, which will take two years, we’ll plant roughly dozen native tree and shrub species
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
Some colleagues and I are writing a tree ID and I’m SO proud of how it’s coming! If you need a tree ID book for the Mid-Atlantic, I’ll have one for you next June
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
Who knew CWD had lobbyists!?!
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
The CEO of Colossal is really posting through it. He forgot (or doesn’t know) that science is built by consensus and he SHOULD be concerned about critiques from the scientific community. Posting a 2011 meme instead of data is telling
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
This whole “dire wolf” thing is just Silicone Valley folks doing the Torture Nexus meme, but with Jurassic Park. You know can tell they’re not serious because they started with a long extinct species that had no habitat, didn’t use its DNA, and are trying to use phenotypic species definition!!
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
Invasive plants like this Japanese barberry are the first bud out and the last to lose their leaves this phenomenon is called extended leaf phenology. If you see a plant leafing out before anything else, it’s probably invasive
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