Join the Illinois Forestry Association for the first webinar in the series as we explore woodland wildlife management, beginning with a focus on birds. This program highlights how forest stewardship and habitat management directly support bird species that depend on healthy oak ecosystems, including the Cerulean Warbler and Red-headed Woodpecker.
Raymond Bieri will introduce the Illinois Forestry for the Birds Pocket Guide, discuss a new U.S. Forest Service partnership centered on Cerulean Warbler habitat, and provide updates from the Shawnee RC&D ecosystem monitoring project, demonstrating how bird-focused management can enhance long-term forest health.
Ysabella Freeman will share her work with the American Bird Conservancy’s Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) in partnership with NRCS, highlighting how oak restoration efforts in southeast Wisconsin and northeast Illinois are creating critical habitat for focal bird species and strengthening regional ecosystems.
Designed for landowners, natural resource professionals, conservation partners, and bird and forest enthusiasts alike, this webinar offers insight into on-the-ground projects and collaborative approaches that benefit birds, forests, and communities.
Discover how intentional forestry practices and strategic partnerships are shaping healthier habitats from the canopy to the understory.
Register here
Presenter Bios
Raymond Bieri is the Executive Director of the Shawnee Resource Conservation & Development Area Inc. (Shawnee RC&D). With a background blending forestry, psychology, and social science, he works with private landowners, community members, and natural resource professionals throughout the region to plan and implement landscape-scale oak ecosystem restoration, community wildfire defense, and watershed restoration.
Ysabella Freeman is a forester for the American Bird Conservancy, based in Chicago, Illinois. Her work focuses on assisting private landowners in the Chicagoland region who are seeking to restore and maintain oak ecosystems, thereby creating habitat for birds, primarily the Red-headed Woodpecker and the Cerulean Warbler. She graduated from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale in 2021 with a degree in Forestry-Wildlife Management and a minor in Environmental Science and has worked a variety of jobs in the natural resources field, including a Wildlife Technician capturing White-tailed deer fawns, Timber Sale Prep Technician with Americorps in California, Consulting Forester in the southern Illinois and St. Louis region, Recreation Technician for the US Forest Service at the Umpqua National Forest in Oregon, and as an Urban Forester/Inventory Arborist for Davey Resource Group in the NE Illinois and SE Wisconsin region.
