AgEBB-MU CAFNR Extension
Green Horizons
Volume 23, Number 1
Winter 2019
Agroforestry
MU Extension Offers Free Woodland Management Webinars
University of Missouri Extension will be offering a free series of four weekly, live webinars on basic woodland management, Thursday evenings from 6 to 8 p.m. beginning February 21.
February 21: How natural and human factors shaped forests in the region and the importance of this knowledge when developing management plans and practices on forests.
February 28: Basic characteristics of existing hardwood stands, how to evaluate their potential, and basic decisions on future management strategies to make them profitable and sustainable.
March 7: Woodland threats from insects and disease to invasive plants. Basic pest principles and simple practices to help maintain woodland health and productivity.
March 14: Basic wildlife management principles and concepts, and habitat requirements of various wildlife that occur across the region.
The webinars will be "live" in the following 15 Missouri counties: Atchison, Boone, Buchanan, Callaway, Camden, Cape Girardeau, Cole, Crawford, Franklin, Greene, Madison, Marion. Putnam, Phelps, Texas and Wright. The webinars will be taped and offered again in 2019 at other county MU Extension Centers.
Participants will be able to chat directly with the presenters. Plus, natural resource professionals will be onhand at most sites as well. Not every county will be offering every session, so check with the county Extension Center to see what sessions they will offer. Registration is required.
Missouri landowners own roughly 85 percent of the state's 15.6 million forested acres. These same acres support a $10 billion dollar forest products industry in the state. However, roughly 9 out of 10 Missouri woodland owners do not manage their woodlands. This lack of management threatens the health and productivity of their trees. And the threat increases with each passing year of inattention.
Think of your unmanaged woodland as an untended garden. One doesn't plant a garden and then walk away only to return at the end of the growing season expecting to reap the rewards of weeks of inattention. The same can be said of one's woodlands, if on a slightly longer time frame.
Sometimes the hardest step to take on a long journey is the first one. But, you do not have to take it alone. There are natural resource professionals in your backyard to help you. All you have to do is take that first step.