Kentucky Master Logger WebTV- Live Program Provides Training Closer to Home

On February 6^th, 2018 UK Forestry Extension broadcast a live Logger Web TV Program to 25 counties strategically distributed around the state, from the Webcast studio in the Forestry Extension Office. Assistance from the county agents and supporting staff was critical to the success of this program. Counties opened their offices up, assisted with registration, answering and conveying questions, and much more. By hosting this Logger TV program from our webcast studio in the format that we did, we were able to provide quality programing to 492 Kentucky Master Loggers (KML) in convenient locations around the state and by doing so alleviated overcrowding pressure on in person classes, in this big renewal year. 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. Green County was a host site and was able to train 29 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.