Instructors
Russell Kidd, M.S. - Russell has served as District Extension Forestry Agent for MSU Extension since December, 1982. He is based in the Roscommon County MSU Extension office and covers a 21 county region in the Northern Lower Peninsula. For over 25 years, Russell has conducted extension education programs for private forest landowners, maple syrup producers, Christmas tree growers, loggers and wood industry clientele, youth groups and many others. In addition to his work experience, Russell earned both his Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Forestry from Michigan State University in 1977 and 1981, respectively.
Georgia Peterson, Ph.D - Georgia received her B.S. degree in Forest Management in 1989 from Purdue University, followed by her Masters in 1991. She then worked for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources for four years before moving up to Michigan State University to complete her Ph.D. Georgia has been working for MSU Extension and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources since January 2000, serving as the liaison between the MSU Forestry Department and the Michigan DNR Forest, Mineral, and Fire Management Division in Lansing. One of her primary responsibilities includes helping private forest landowners get the information they need to sustainably manage their forested land to meet their personal goals. She has worked with members of both MSU Extension and the Michigan DNR to develop bulletins, worldwide web resources and face-to-face workshops covering a variety of forestry topics.
Karen Potter-Witter, Ph.D - Karen is professor of forest economics in the Department of Forestry at Michigan State University. Her research and extension work is in timber supply, forestry investment analysis and taxation and private forestland policy analysis. She has published more than 60 articles and extension publications on these topics. Dr. Potter-Witter teaches forest economics, and has taught forest and natural resource policy, and timber management at MSU.
Dean Solomon, M.S. - Dean is the Charlevoix County Extension Director. During his 26 years with MSU Extension, he has helped landowners in a wide variety of woodlot stewardship issues and is a frequent speaker at forestry education programs. Prior to his current role, Dean was the District Natural Resources Educator and Extension Coordinator at the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station in Southwest Michigan. He specializes in natural resoruces stewardship and local land use policy. His bachelors and masters degrees are in forest management and forestry extension, respectively.