About Us
About Us
The Extension Forestry team leads classes and build programs to engage landowners in the sustainable stewardship of Wisconsin’s privately owned forests.
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Our staff
Johanna Desprez
Natural Resources Educator
johanna.desprez@wisc.edu
Madison, WI
Johanna runs a program to help connect Wisconsin landowners with foresters to develop land management plans for the landowners in partnership with Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
Prior to joining UW Extension, she led the creation and launch of the Assessing Vegetative Impact of Deer (AVID) citizen science project with University of Minnesota Extension. While earning her master’s degree in forestry, her research focused on spatial temporal changes of tree species in the Eastern United States, and the impacts of climate change.
Scott Hershberger
Forestry Communications Specialist
scott.hershberger@wisc.edu
608-263-5804
Madison, WI
Scott creates content for the Extension forestry website, social media, and newsletter and helps develop communication strategies for several of the forestry team’s projects.
Scott holds an M.S. in Life Sciences Communication from UW–Madison with a focus on communicating about the changing climate. During grad school, he worked as a project assistant on the Extension Maple Syrup Program. Prior to that, he was a science writer at Scientific American, Fermilab, and the American Mathematical Society. Outside of work, Scott enjoys playing piano, composing music, riding his bike, and birding by ear.
Tony Johnson
Working Lands Forestry Educator
anthony.johnson@wisc.edu
608-386-8900
Horicon, WI
Tony specializes in working lands forestry outreach, including agroforestry practices such as forest farming and maple syrup production.
Prior to joining Extension, Tony worked for the National Park Service, the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Army Corps of Engineers, and in private sector conservation. Tony’s educational background includes a biology degree from UW-Milwaukee and a master’s in natural resources from Cornell University.
Olivia Kovacs
Natural Resources Educator
olivia.kovacs@wisc.edu
Portage, WI
Olivia designs and delivers outreach and education to forest landowners and supports the implementation of the DNR Division of Forestry’s Private Forestry Education and Outreach Strategy.
Olivia began her role at Extension in early 2023. Before joining Extension, she worked for the US Department of Agriculture helping implement farm bill programs in southern Wisconsin. Prior to this, she worked in environmental education at schools in South and North America. She loves fostering connections to natural spaces and hearing about your latest stroll in the woods.
Keith Phelps
Working Lands Forestry Educator
keith.phelps@wisc.edu
920-840-7504
Appleton, WI
Keith specializes in woodland and forest climate change resiliency. Keith holds an M.S. in Forest Resources from Clemson University. At Clemson, he focused on prioritizing forest restoration areas for timber harvesting and prescribed fire using GIS models in the Southern Blue Ridge Mountains of South Carolina.
Before joining Extension, Keith worked in Wisconsin for 8 years in ecological restoration, wetland delineation, and wetland permitting. Keith has extensive experience assisting private landowners with invasive species removal, prescribed fire, and natural resource mapping/surveys. In his free time, Keith enjoys hiking, cooking, drawing, writing poetry, and playing guitar.
Kris Tiles
Forestry and Wildlife Program Manager
kris.tiles@wisc.edu
715-261-1254
Wausau, WI
Kris has been working with Extension since 2004. Kris’s work covers the areas of forestry outreach to woodland owners and water quality improvement through soil health. She has been part of the team leading a program of broader outreach called Learn About Your Land, for new and beginning woodland owners. She has also worked with communities to facilitate dialogue around sense of place and the environment.
Prior to joining Extension, Kris worked for Cooperative Development Services working with private forest owners. She also worked for Oregon State University as a researcher looking at spotted owl habitat and in the Peace Corps as an agroforestry volunteer in Haiti.
Affiliate faculty
The UW–Madison Extension Forestry & Wildlife Program includes several affiliate faculty at UW–Madison and UW–Stevens Point.
Jamie Nack
Extension Senior Wildlife Outreach Specialist
Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, UW–Madison
jlnack@wisc.edu
Madison, WI
David Drake
Professor and Wildlife Extension Specialist
Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, UW–Madison
ddrake2@wisc.edu
Madison, WI
Scott Bowe
Honorary Associate, Professor, and Wood Products Extension Specialist
Kemp Natural Resources Station, UW–Madison
sbowe@wisc.edu
Woodruff, WI
Jason Riddle
Extension Wildlife Specialist and Douglas R. Stephens Chair in Wildlife
Wisconsin Center for Wildlife, UW–Stevens Point
jason.riddle@uwsp.edu
Stevens Point, WI
Photo credits:
- Sugar maple canopy in Peninsula State Park: Scott Hershberger, CC BY-NC 4.0