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Calvin Norman

@functionalforests.bsky.social
157 followers 127 following 152 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 · 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 · 03/10/2026
If the back isn’t Christ on cross, idk what they’re doing
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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 · 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 · 08/09/2026
Ecosystem management can do direct capture, but it doesn’t matter if we’re still using fossil fuels. It’d mean we’d have to invest in natural resources which doesn’t happen. The markets don’t work. It’s too hard to measure and management is too localized to be captured. You can’t min/max nature
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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
They are. The horse that was native to North America was Equus scotti. The domestic horse is Equus ferus caballus. Scotti died out at end of the Ice Age along with America lion and cheetah. The other big difference is the domestic horse had been domesticated, so it grows larger and reproduces faster
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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
Not to hand it to the Trump admin, but removing feral horses is a good thing. They’re very damaging to native ecosystems and the mustang adoption program hasn’t been successful. The only reason to not eat them is “The Old West seems cool”
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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 · 09/08/2026
You gotta get one of the 8-inch hatchets. They rip! I’ve cut stumped so many invasives with mine
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Oust XP and glyphosate. Theres a good bit of barberry and multiflora rose buried in there. I’m not sure how clethodim works on fern
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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
It’s really easy. It takes about 30 minutes. Learning to reload and judge distance take the longest. Mine has a crank, so it’s easy to do but you don’t really get follow up shots. It’s got no recoil, is quiet, and the bolts are re-useable. Bolts have serious punch, so you need a special xbow target
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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 · 18/07/2026
It hits all the way up the chain. Every Extension service has a handful of ag people per county. You’ve got dairy, livestock, row ag, green industry, et. Forestry? Pa has 4 educators for the whole state and that’s a good sized team
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Thats why they make TV shows. Podcasts are to be listened to so you feel like there are people around. Without them, you go forest mad and start talking to trees just to hear human speech. I’m sure this is a common experience shared by everyone
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Wild. It’s an audio medium, why would you watch a video of a podcast (WTYP aside)?
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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 · 17/07/2026
I cannot tell you how much it handicaps forestry/natural resources that we’re legally ag. Also, that designation is really flimsy—we compete with farmers for NRCS dollars, but can’t get crop insurance. Hardwood is Pa’s #1 ag product, but the Pa Department of Ag barely supports forests
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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 · 29/04/2026
Daycare for a kid under 1 year old is $400 a week and I have to provide diapers. It gets a little cheaper after that but not much… It’s pretty easy to see afford people struggle to have multiple kids
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Calvin Norman @functionalforests.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
I really wish journalists would stop using “zombie deer”. It’s not remotely accurate. This is a real disease that kills real animals
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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 · 14/04/2026
You gotta watch out for boots. You go from no boots to six pairs in a flash…
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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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