Forest, Planted By Students, Donated Back to UW Stevens Point

Thirty-nine acres of high quality forest have been donated to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point from the estate of a well-known conservationist, planted sixty years ago with the help of students.

The 39-acre working forest was donated by the estate of George and Jeanette Rogers by their children, Jim and Jane. George Rogers was a Stevens Point native, a writer and a conservationist whose legacy stretches back decades, according to Christine Thomas, dean of the UWSP College of Natural Resources.

“We are very grateful to the Rogers family for this generous gift, and we are honored to carry on the legacy of stewardship that George started on the land more than 60 years ago,” she said.

It was in the 1950s that George Rogers acquired the 39 acres of largely open land. He planted more than 40,000 red pine seedlings and 500 white pine seedlings with the help of UWSP students. Thomas says a new generation of students will soon be taking field trips on the forest they created.

“There’s this high level of quality,” said Thomas. “This is an extremely well-managed parcel. That, coupled with the fact that it’s only a few miles from our campus is the really unique thing.”

The George Rogers Living Forest will be used both as an outdoor laboratory and as a teaching tool for management skills like marking and harvesting trees. In a prepared statement, Jim Rogers said, “Dad believed that preserving green spaces in an increasingly urbanized landscape is a top priority for maintaining quality of life.”

George Rogers died in November of 2014; Jeanette died in late April.