Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 03/10/2026My father was a flooring installer. I worked with him weekends/summers from age 12-18. At 17 when I suggested I may want to do the same job instead of go to college he got more angry at me than at any other time in my life. He turned bright red and cussed me out and he never used those words. 1190
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 02/10/2026We had a woodstove like that in UT (and radiant heat) so we always had a kettle on top to help humidify. In our current house in MI (also radiant heat) we only have a fireplace insert and the air gets so dry. I miss the kettle- air humidifier. 010
Reposted by Steve VoelkerLizz Waring @lizzwaring.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Hi all, I am trying to raise funds to support the field-based courses I teach so we can keep the cost of these trips as low as possible for the students. If you would like to support the next generation of field scientists consider donating to the NSU Foundation. It is tax deductible. 166
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Also, there is the Multiple Use Sustained Yield Act, so... 000
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 01/10/2026I did get STR funds from a competitive grant process to support a grad student (no $ for me, personally) and I fully support the STR mission. I do not support the mission of the John Muir Project, to "end the Federal Timber Sales program". Timber has its problems but is a useful conservation tool. 100
Reposted by Steve VoelkerNick Smith @nickgregsmith.bsky.social · 30/09/2026I am hiring a full-time lab technician for my new lab at UNL. The full position description can be found at: employment.unl.edu/postings/102... The position is for 1 year, with renewal possible for up to 2 additional years. Pay is $23.50/hour. Please share!employment.unl.eduResearch Technician-Plant Ecophysiology (Temporary)The Lab of Dr. Nick Smith in the School of Biological Sciences at University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) is seeking a Temporary Research Technician. The lab examines the responses of plants and ecosyste... 01112
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 30/09/2026If you think the timber industry is spending $$$ on forest ecology you are very mistaken. If you think scientists studying these forests and coming up with plans on how to save them have a soft spot in their heart for the timber industry you are also mistaken. 020
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 30/09/2026There are some "scientists" that regularly present evidence including pictures in a biased manner. Here is a link to Save The Redwoods League efforts to do this kind of work in good faith instead of for grifting: www.savetheredwoods.org/explore/stor...savetheredwoods.orgSo long, Long Meadow, we’re packed for Packsaddle!A toast to the League's productive risk-reduction and wildfire resilience work in Long Meadow Grove, which burned in the 2021 Windy Fire. 100
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 30/09/2026There is a money issue going on. If you have a job depending on you being known to be a scientist who opposes all forest management activities, you have an incentive to create scientific findings that purportedly show that all forest management activities are bad. 100
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Did you reach out to any other potential sources for their knowledge or opinion on this particular situation? Looks like quotes from Chad Hanson bookended by abhorrent legislation put forward by Republicans. 000
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 30/09/2026I am not on the front lines of this debate. So I don't know all the details. However, there are real scientists and those with enough knowledge of science to design studies in a way that supports their preconceived conclusions about a subject. 100
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 30/09/2026This is a bullshit take -- I don't think Hanson's views should be given any more air than they already get from ill-informed media. Chad Hanson in particular has been standing in the way of scientifically informed forest management by denigrating carefully planned forest management as "logging". 131
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Here are some freshwater jellyfish we captured at the UP lake were we have a cabin. We put them in a big glass pitcher to have a closer look. The finger poking them is my 9yo daughter. Here is more about them: www.sciencefriday.com/segments/fre... 0142
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 28/09/2026I have this too, but this is the first time I have seen it named. 030
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Friend in the rural UP has a house heated with fuel oil and he just paid >$1600 to fill his tank for what would be a month of heating during winter if he doesn't burn wood. 291
Reposted by Steve VoelkerOregon 🕎🎲 @oregonthedm.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Most riveting thing I've seen all week 385113233077
Reposted by Steve VoelkerTim Osborn @timosbornclim.bsky.social · 24/09/2026My 3-panel SOI graph inadvertently highlights multidecadal variations in ENSO activity. Relatively active in the top/bottom panels, more quiescent in the middle panel. 161
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 24/09/2026For <30 I learn the names in a few weeks. In classes of 30-70 students I eventually learn the names during the semester but retain very few after the class is finished. For more than 70 I usually only learn names of the most engaged students because I usually have a TA, reducing student interaction. 020
Reposted by Steve VoelkerSteph likes native plants @dendromecon27.bsky.social · 22/09/2026I am listening to The Daily on the Endangered Species Act. And it's good. But I need NYT to understand that the ESA isn't JUST FOR ANIMALS. And the ESA does not only protect plants when they form critical habitat for animals. It protects actual endangered plants. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/21/p...nytimes.comThe Trump Administration Defangs the Endangered Species ActA new interpretation of the law would mean that only the intentional killing of animals, not collateral harm, would be illegal. 3229
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Ran an errand tonight and the local Classic Rock station DJ gave a stern warning to listeners not to use AI (ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, etc) for anything they would not feel comfortable sharing with employees where they work. Then he played Journey. Feels like an inflection point. 0101
Reposted by Steve VoelkerDrew Peltier @peltierdrew.bsky.social · 18/09/2026And here is the link to apply careers.nau.edu/jobs/postdoc...careers.nau.eduPostdoctoral Scholar - Flagstaff, Arizona, United StatesSpecial Information This position is an on-site position which requires the incumbent to complete their work primarily at an NAU site, campus, or facility with or without accommodation. Opportunities... 01011
Reposted by Steve VoelkerJoe Mason @moreorloess.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Part of a map, probably from 1846, showing the area covered by the Public Land Survey at that time in Wisconsin (two years before statehood). Someone sketched in what look like potential road or railroad routes, in red pencil. From the Library of Congress. 3143
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Among many other things it is fun to see Wisconsin Rapids = Grand Rapids and Stevens Point = Plover Portage. 020
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 16/09/2026It can be removed pretty easily but a wall-mount TV over the fireplace in any style of home makes me so angry every time. 030
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 14/09/2026Went to the Lake Superior [Keweenaw] shoreline during the second day of a gale. There were a dozen or so surfers combined at two stops, which is about a dozen more than usual. 1141
Reposted by Steve VoelkerAntoine Cabon @acabon.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Great team effort based on the work of dozens of people through the years! 094
Reposted by Steve VoelkerAbigail Swann, PhD @ecoclimatelab.bsky.social · 09/09/2026We have a new paper on the response of land carbon to zero, declining, and negative emissions of CO2 across Earth System Models! w/ @ckoven.bsky.social @cristiproist.bsky.social @rosieafisher.bsky.social @benmsanderson.bsky.social & more (1/6) esd.copernicus.org/articles/17/...esd.copernicus.orgLand carbon response to positive, zero, and negative CO2 emissions across Earth system modelsAbstract. Land carbon sinks are responsible for removing about a quarter of anthropogenic CO2 emissions, and make up approximately half of total global carbon sinks. Uncertainty in the response of lan... 14423
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 09/09/2026Say you own 40 acres of conifer peatland in NE Wisconsin, what are you gonna do with it? I am betting it is not whatever this is. FYI I was actually doing research trying to re-locate white pine stands measured ~100 yrs ago before this distracted me for the past 15 mins. 1162
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 04/09/2026Doing some archive work and came across our smallest "sunken log" sample. It dates from 1514 to 1729. It had an avg ring-width of 0.42 mm. I am certain it is an old branch given the extensive compressionwood. The wood barely floats indicating it has a density approaching 1 gm/cm3. 180
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 04/09/2026After being proposed for closure by the Forest Service reorganization, the Houghton Forest Research Station (next door to our college) is officially staying open, which is great news for colleagus here and for the forests of this region. 1201
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 03/09/2026I do want to return to research on the climate of the deglacial period and Younger-Dryas, if funding allows, because so many aspects of our knowledge and ability have advanced in the past 15 years. 010
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 03/09/2026The paper I wrote used 14C-dated wood from across the Midwest. What still haunts me is that I have a wood sample collected from a roadcut in Iowa by Samuel Epstein that dates to the formation of the Brady Soil. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_... I Id'd the wood as Yew based on anatomy. Yew in Iowa!en.wikipedia.orgSamuel Epstein (geochemist) - Wikipedia 120
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 03/09/2026Ah, yes it is coming back to me. I did cite this article (and Mason 2001 in Quaternary Research). I did a lot of reading then, but having moved on to many other jobs and research in other regions I forget some things. It is good to revisit this now that I know who wrote the paper. 110
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 02/09/2026Do you have a go-to publication that best interprets what the climate conditions were that produced the Brady Soil. Could be one of your own or from someone else. I studied the paleoecology of that period and adjacent areas (northern MO) from a different perspective. 130
Reposted by Steve VoelkerGrumpyUncleSean🔥 @grumpyunclesean.bsky.social · 01/09/20261/5 New paper in PNAS led by Andreas Wion! 🔥🌍🧪 For centuries, dry-conifer forests in the western U.S. burned frequently, but mostly at low severity, meaning most trees were not killed by fire. Read on for details ...doi.orgPNASProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans... 25726
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 02/09/2026Just found out that a prof here at MTU graduated from my high school of ~400 students one year ahead of me. We see each other all the time (for work, kids in the same grade) but have absolutely no recollection of each other in HS because he was a jock and I was a band nerd. Life is weird. 050
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 24/08/2026To make room in the lab this summer I brought home ~2 cubic yards of sunken white pine log "extra pieces" to burn this winter. These trees started growing, on average, around 1550, so it is a shame to release this carbon. But these were only small samples of the whole logs still in the lakes. 040
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 24/08/2026It was just a regular weekend. A bar called Max's or something like that along crow creek pass road. It was packed and a lot of fun. I didn't really have $ for eating at restaurants then. 110
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 24/08/2026Last jam band I saw live was in Girdwood, early September 2001. There was a minor earthquake during the first set, the lights flickered and the band stopped for ~15 seconds. And then the band started jamming again. Slept next to the river that night and hitched into Anchorage the next day. 100
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 24/08/2026No cheating. Share the past photo of the sky in your camera roll. This is the last pic of the sky that doesn't feature my daughter or family. A couple weeks ago in Sylvania Wilderness. 351
Reposted by Steve VoelkerJacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 21/08/2026Hey folks, this hasn’t gotten much attention, but remember those proposed OMB rule changes we all commented on recently? There’s a new attempt to sneak them just for NSF. We have three days to comment. Please don’t sleep on this! 7756637
Reposted by Steve VoelkerNick Smith @nickgregsmith.bsky.social · 17/08/2026Today is my first day as Davison & Fuller Chair in Life Sciences and Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln! I will be looking for graduate students, a postdoc, and a lab manager to join me at UNL (ads coming). Please reach out if interested! 74319
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 17/08/2026It is a 2 hr drive from campus. So, not ideal for classes, but maybe useful for individual research projects. 010
Steve Voelker @thetreecorener.bsky.social · 17/08/2026This past year 80 acres was donated to our college. It is in one of the more remote areas of the UP and requires a steep 1.5 mile hike to get up to it. Initial visit exceeded expectations: Many old trees with no apparent history of logging -- and a beautiful pond rimmed by bedrock and bogs. 5470
Reposted by Steve VoelkerNature @nature.com · 14/08/2026Nature research paper: Species intraspecific variation drives tropical forest drought resistance go.nature.com/4i5VxKHgo.nature.comSpecies intraspecific variation drives tropical forest drought resistance - NatureSubstantial intraspecific variation, together with species turnover, drives coordinated shifts in drought resistance such as increased embolism resistance and wider stomatal safety margins in drier forests. 02115
Reposted by Steve VoelkerJames Dinneen @jamesdinneen.bsky.social · 13/08/2026New in @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/d41...nature.comAncient rise in CO2 was catastrophic for forests: what that means for today’s plantsA widespread dieback of forests due to climate change 56 million years ago has parallels with today. 02817
Reposted by Steve VoelkerJeffrey Ross-Ibarra @jrossibarra.bsky.social · 12/08/2026I am excited to announce a job for an Asst Prof in Plant Evolution in the dept. of Evolution and Ecology at @ucdavis.bsky.social. We're looking broadly, from macro (speciation, comparative genomics, evo-devo) to micro (pop biology, adaptive evolution, evo-eco). recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07777recruit.ucdavis.edu 2127161