jeb barzen, M.S., B.S.

Private Lands Conservation, LLC; Chair, Wisconsin Prescribed Fire Council

Jeb has spent most of his 40-year career studying birds and applying ecosystem restoration tools in wetlands, grasslands, and savannas worldwide.  This includes conducting 925 prescribed burns in the Midwest, Vietnam and in the Russian Far East, totaling over 7,800 ac.  While teaching prescribed burning in Russia, Jeb​ can uniquely claim to be the only person to be quoted by Pravda as an ‘expert American arsonist.’  Early on in his career, it became clear that the most interesting projects would last well beyond his own lifetime, so Jeb soon began to focus on teaching, mentoring, and advancing the tools that we depend upon to improve ecosystem restoration – chief among them – prescribed burning.   To that end, Jeb collaborated with the Wisconsin Prescribed Fire Council, the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, Department of Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture, UW Arboretum, The Wisconsin Chapter of The Nature Conservancy and numerous local NGOs to create a course on fire ecology and prescribed burn implementation at the UW-Madison which currently matriculates 48 students each year. 

Michael Demchik, Ph.D.

Professor of Forestry, College of Natural Resources, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point

Michael Demchik is a professor of forestry at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. He teaches a wide range of courses at UWSP and is involved in research that addresses using silviculture to reach landowner goals. He is particularly obsessed with developing methods to teach students to mark timber better, faster, and with more confidence in their decisions. He has had several jobs across federal, state, and private natural resource management in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

Dan Dey, Ph.D.

Retired Research Forester, U.S. Forest Service Northern Research Station

Dr. Dan Dey (retired) was Science Advisor for the USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station. Dan has been a Research Forester since 1987 to present. His personal research emphasis is the ecology and silviculture of eastern forests, woodlands and savannas. He received his Ph.D. in 1991 from the University of Missouri, and since then has worked as a research forester for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, the Missouri Dept of Conservation and the USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station. He has been conducting research for the US Forest Service since 1998. Before becoming a scientist, Dan worked as a forester on the Ketchikan Ranger District, Tongass National Forest and the Red River Ranger District, Nez Perce National Forest.

Brad Hutnik

Forest Ecologist/Silviculturist, Division of Forestry – Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

Brad Hutnik is a forest ecologist / silviculturist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Since 2012, Brad has served as a member of the WDNR Silviculture​​ Team. As such, Brad currently works statewide on forest ecology and silviculture issues and has been involved with prescribed fire as a management tool throughout his career. Brad previously served as the Lower Wisconsin State Riverway forester (2002-2012) and worked as a staff forester at Clark Forestry, Inc. (1997-2002). Brad received a bachelor’s degree in forest management at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in 1997. He is a Certified Silviculturist (USDA-FS) and co-host of UWSP’s SilviCast podcast.​​

Keith Phelps

Working Lands Forestry Educator, Natural Resource Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension

Keith is a Natural Resources Educator in Forestry located in Appleton, WI. Keith develops statewide programs and outreach to improve forest resilience, promote ecological stewardship, and increase awareness of forest carbon markets in partnership with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

Prior to joining UW-Madison Extension, Keith worked in ecological restoration and wetland consulting and holds a master’s in forest resources from Clemson University. In his free time, Keith enjoys hiking, cooking, drawing, writing poetry, and playing guitar.

Ian Remus

Forester, Black River State Forest, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

Ian grew up near Black River Falls and is a 2009 graduate of UW-Stevens Point. He has a variety of professional experience, including four years in the timber industry, four years in the county forest system, and nine years with WI DNR. He’s been a Forester on the Black River State Forest since 2020. Ian cut his teeth learning oak management techniques while working on the Clark County Forest using a combination of methods including prescribed fire, scarification, timber harvesting, and mechanical/chemical release. He is concerned about the conversion of oak forests to other forest types and what that may mean for the future. Ian’s job duties include timber sale establishment and administration, forest reconnaissance, and wildfire suppression. Ian is also a certified burn boss. Outside of work Ian is an avid turkey hunter, which dovetails into his interest in oak management.

Emily Ritter

Master’s Student, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point

Emily is currently a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. She received her undergraduate degree in biology with a focus in animal behavior from Millersville University of Pennsylvania in 2021. Since then, Emily has had various avian related conservation positions from raising endangered prairie chickens and captive parrot care to penguin counting and hawk watching. As an experienced birder passionate about avian conservation, her preferred positions have been avian point count surveying jobs in the intermountain west. Emily’s current research uses avian point count data and vegetation data from forested parcels in central Wisconsin where bird-focused forestry has occurred to understand how the birds are responding to changes in forest structure. These ecological restoration methods planned and completed under her advisors’ mimic natural disturbances, while braiding together traditional and local knowledge of the ecosystems. These methods have shown promise to increase breeding habitat for struggling neotropical migrant songbirds and game birds by increasing heterogeneity on both the landscape and microhabitat scale.

Michael Tiller, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Forest and Fire Management, College of Natural Resources, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point

Michael grew up in Northern California where he enjoyed an active outdoor lifestyle hunting, fishing, camping, and skiing in the beautiful Sierra Nevada Mountains and coastal redwoods. He enjoyed a 10-year career with Cal Fire serving as a Firefighter and Fire Apparatus Engineer. In 2006, he moved to College Station, Texas where he attended Texas A&M University and earned a B.S. in Wildlife and Fisheries Science. After completing his B.S. degree, he attended Stephen F. Austin State University where he earned an M.S. degree in Environmental Science and Ph. D. in Forestry, both with a research focus on understory fuel flammability in forest and rangeland ecosystems. Michael also served as a Wildland Urban Interface Specialist for the Texas A&M Forest Service for 2-years where he was actively engaged with fuels management and prescribed burning. He recently accepted an Assistant Professor of Forest Ecology position at UW-Stevens Point where he leads the fire science program and serves as an adviser for the UWSP Fire Crew.