The timber industry in Ohio County is of major economic importance to both landowners, with about 49% of the county’s landmass still in trees, as well as, employers, with 7 wood industry facilities in the county. Kentucky’s largest primary wood industry, Dunaway Timber, is also located in the county.  These primary wood industries are supported by the 50-60 Master Loggers located in Ohio County, which must maintain a level of educational CEU’s to remain in business.   

  In February of 2018 UK Forestry Extension broadcast a live Logger Web TV Program to 25 counties strategically distributed across Kentucky, from the Webcast studio in the Forestry Extension Office, in Lexington. Assistance from the county agents and supporting staff was critical to the success of this program. Ohio County opened our office to host the program, assisted with registration, answered and conveyed questions, even provided a lunch at no additional cost to attendees, and much more. By hosting the Logger TV program in this format, 492 Master Loggers were provided quality programing in convenient locations around the state, thus alleviating overcrowding with in-person classes, in this big renewal year. 

 Ohio County was a host site and was able to train 22 Master Loggers. Segments of the training included market updates, new industry market locations, Kentucky forest industry economic update, ash loss, ambrosia beetle devaluation of ash, endangered bat update, endangered KY arrow darter update, hardwood log export update, best management practice inspections from the director of the Kentucky Division of Forestry, basics of a mechanized logging operation, the verso mill closure and its effects on the forest and logging firms, new website apps that can help logging operations in estimating cost of operation, get access to locations of emergency services, and determine if they are operating in a federally protected waterway, and many more topics and interviews. Feedback was very positive to the variety of topics and information provided. Attendees of the day long Logger WebTV program received 6 CEU hours, which they are required by state law to obtain every 3 years to recertify their Master Logger designation.

   A follow up of loggers demonstrated that many loggers saw a direct cost savings and convenience from having classes available closer to home and several counties even provided a lunch at no additional cost to attendees. A program of this scale took more time in planning and coordination on the front end, but allowed for efficiency by being able to effectively reach about 1/5 of the KML community at one time. On average, KML attendees reported a travel time savings of 2 1/2 hours compared to normal KML program attendance and a fuel savings of $32 per logger (the high being $135 in fuel saved). Fuel savings alone allowed for an approximate cost savings of $15,744 for the 492 KML attendees of the Logger WebTV Program, not including travel time, hotel, or lunches provided cordially by county extension offices.