Lyon County is 48% forested (86,632 acres) with 41% of the acres privately owned. There are an estimated 44 million trees of greater than 1 inch diameter trunk. There is approximately 4,791 board feet of timber per forested acre representing a total of 415 million board feet of timber.

From a timber value perspective, higher-quality timber demands higher prices; unfortunately, most of the timber in Kentucky is concentrated in lower grades. The distribution of the net volume of sawtimber trees by grade indicates a high potential for improving the quality of the trees through forest management. From a sustainable forestry perspective, it is important to educate woodland owners about woodland management practices and encourage the use of professional foresters such as those with the Kentucky Division of Forestry or Kentucky Association of Consulting Foresters.

The 2019 Getting to Know Your Woodlands Webinar Series: A Primer for Beginners was targeted at Kentucky’s private woodland owners and designed to assist private woodland owners in the management of their woodlands as well as those with an interest in forests and wildlife. It was a partnership of UK Forestry Extension and numerous Forestry Extension Units from other nearby universities and the Southern Region Extension Forestry team that was hosted by county extension offices with county extension agents/staff serving as local hosts. The program was web-based and offered five evenings of educational programming broadcast to each hosting county extension office.

A total of 36 evaluations and 16 Master Logger Forms were submitted from Lyon County to UK Forestry Extension. Results are as follows:

• Participants # of Forested Acres Reported: 3,761.
• 92.5% of Lyon County participants knew who to contact.
• 13.46% planned to contact a natural resource professional in the next three months, a positive change in behavior. 
• Participants were asked the likelihood that they would recommend the webinar to other woodland owners on a scale of 1 (would not recommend) to 10 (highly recommend). The average from Lyon County participants was 7.94.

Long-term impacts from this program will result in participants’ enhanced ability to address a variety of woodland related issues, resulting in increased revenue, increased woodland productivity, and improved woodland health. These benefits occur to the individual, their county, and our Commonwealth.