Kentucky Woodland Owners Short Course set for July 10

CHENOA, Ky— The general public doesn’t do a lot of in-depth thinking on a nature hike. They see the trees and think, “Oh, how pretty,” or may even be able to identify different types of trees by the shapes of leaves or patterns in the bark. Most landowners and hikers do not look at a tree and think about the history of it. However, forest specialists and landowners alike are becoming more and more aware of the specific kinds of trees on Kentucky property.

Today’s forests suffer from disease outbreaks, repeated injury from fires, and the inability to tolerate environmental stresses that may lead to death of individual trees or even large stands of trees. The average timberland owner may look at their land and think, “Is it really worth it to take the many risks of growing trees for a cash crop or am I better off raising cattle or growing some other agricultural commodity?” The truth is that the timberland industry has not always been this way and it does not have to continue as it is. There are ways in which landowners can grow stronger, more worry-free trees.

Imagine owning a herd of cattle, you may already, and taking the best cows out of that herd to be sold. You are left with a herd of cattle of lesser value that will reproduce poorer cattle with poorer genes. This practice is very similar to the way much of our forestlands are managed today, and have been managed in the past, to give us what we have in our woods today. The practice of harvesting the best trees in a stand of timberland and leaving the weak, diseased, and sick to reproduce and become the next generation of trees is a practice experts refer to as “high grading”. Fortunately, there are ways to fix stands of trees in this condition and to grow high quality trees that will bring not only high revenue to landowners and the timberland industry, but also produce better wildlife habitat for grouse, turkey, deer, and a variety of other wildlife species.

These topics among others will be addressed at the Kentucky Woodland Owners Short Course on July 10, 2007 at the Chenoa Service Area on Kentucky Ridge State Forest.

The Kentucky Woodland Owners Short Course will feature a variety of natural resource professionals that will discuss ways to manage you timberlands and some of the free services they offer to the public. In addition, there will be a mule logging demonstration, as well as a portable sawmill demonstration. Registration is $10 and includes a catered lunch.

Interested individuals in attending should contact Stacy White at the Bell County University of Kentucky Extension Service at (606)337-2376 or Billy Thomas at the University of Kentucky at (859)257-9153 or (859)257-7597 to register. Visit www.ukforestry.org for more information.

For those unable to attend, there will also be a Bell/Knox County Forestry Association addressing many of the same issues on July 30, 2007 at the old Pineville Courthouse. The public is invited to attend. For more information, contact Kentucky Division of Forestry Chief Forester Jared Calvert at (606)337-3011.