| The NYSAF Annual Meeting will be held January 28 – 30, 2026 at the DoubleTree Hotel in Syracuse, NY. The focus will be Roots and Results: Connecting Research with Practical Management. For more information and a detailed schedule click here. Deadline for Early Bird registration is Saturday, December 27, 2025.
The deadline for the hotel room block at the DoubleTree Hotel is January 7, 2026 You can book your room for $122 per night here. Deadline for this block is Friday January 17th. This year’s meeting is bookended by two hands-on field workshops. We begin with a workshop led by Dr. Christopher Nowak of SUNY ESF, where attendees will learn practical techniques to tackle challenging stands and make confident marking decisions. During this 4.5-hour session learn innovative methods for developing marking guides to control forest stand density, structure, and species composition and character when stocking charts are unavailable.
The meeting concludes with a second field session on practical management, led by 2025 Forester of the Year Pat Sadler. Pat will guide participants through marking stands suited for today’s larger harvesting equipment—ensuring your landowner and your logger are satisfied. Be ready to put some paint on trees!
Throughout the meeting, you’ll hear from speakers representing a wide range of expertise. Erin Kessler, Executive Editor of Northern Logger magazine, will kick off the conference. While her byline is familiar on the coffee tables of forestry offices across the Northeast, Erin’s work extends well beyond the desk. She will share stories from the field and discuss how she builds connections with loggers and equipment operators to bring real-world insight to her readers.
We will also receive updates on the State of Forestry in New York from Fiona Watt and John Bartow; important 480-a updates and a consultant-focused workshop with Jason Drobnack; new research from SUNY ESF’s Tree Restoration Lab; and a timely session from the Upstate Tick Laboratory on the rise in tick-borne illnesses in New York.
Additional topics include AI tools for foresters with Donn Downey, the Family Forest Carbon Program with Chris Zimmerman, and a panel discussion on recruiting the next generation of loggers and forest managers.
And of course, there will be numerous opportunities to connect with colleagues—at the Branching Out mentor session, the Women in Forestry gathering, the graduate student poster session, and new this year, the Log-a-Load for Kids Cornhole Tournament.
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