Michael Demchik

Bio

Michael Demchik grew up in southern West Virginia in unincorporated Pond Fork. With the freedom to explore the outdoors, a mountain on one side and a stream on the other, a future career in natural resources just made sense. Demchik is currently a professor of silviculture within the College of Natural Resources at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. His previous positions included an Extension Forester specializing in farm forestry in Minnesota, a state Maple Syrup and Non-Timber Forest Products specialist in Pennsylvania, and a number of other jobs ranging across federal, state, and private industries in West Virginia, Maryland, and Wisconsin.  

Experience and Interests

Teaching Experience

• Associate Professor and then Professor of Forestry, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (August 2004-Present)

Research Interests

• Managing woodlands with a habitat focus
• Savanna and barrens restoration
• Density control for better stem quality in trees
• Methodologies to train foresters to mark timber faster, better, and with more confidence
• Developing American hazelnut into a commercial oilseed and confectionary nut crop

Professional Experience

• I have worked in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Wisconsin and Minnesota across a range of natural resources jobs.
• During the last several years, I have successfully initiated or installed over a thousand acres of wildlife habitat and ecosystem restoration public land demonstration units across northern and central Wisconsin.

Campus Involvement

• CNR Property Manager

Community Involvement

• WDNR Forestry Advisory Committee Member

Professional Memberships

• Standards Committee Member for the Society for Ecological Restoration (member 2006-Present)
• Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner
• Certified Forester through Society for American Foresters
• WDNR Certified Plan Writer
• Association for Temperate Agroforestry (member since 2000 and served in various roles through time, including board member and president)

Fun Facts

Best advice you ever received?

Do work that you are proud of. Your job is to make the world a better place.

What did you want to be when you were growing up?

Forester. From kindergarten until today, the goal has not changed.

One thing about your College that you are most proud of?

Because our forestry program is so large, I am training over 10% of the new foresters that graduate in the country.  The impact I get to have on the standards of practice for forestry in the US is amazing.