Success StoryTree Farmer of the Year Field Day



Tree Farmer of the Year Field Day

Author: Eric Baker

Planning Unit: Estill County CES

Major Program: Woodland Education

Plan of Work: Natural Resource Conservation

Outcome: Long-Term Outcome

Estill County is located in the eastern knobs and eastern coalfield region of Kentucky with 116,480 acres of forest land.  Timber is a very important part of our local economy. Woodland management and sustainable forest practices are very important to Estill County residents Jack, Teresa, and Caleb Stickney. Since 1987, the Stickney’s adopted a sustainable approach to managing their 100 acre woodland and take advantage of the many agriculture and conservation-based agencies and cost share programs to help improve their property. University of Kentucky Department of Forestry and the Kentucky Tree Farm Committee awarded the Stickney’s the 2016 Tree Farmer of the Year and ask to showcase the Stickney farm with a field day. In response, the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Agriculture/Natural Resources agent for Estill County assisted in organizing, presenting on the tour, and execution of a field day on October 5, 2017. Three hours of educational tour stops included timber stand improvement practices, technical and financial assistance programs, advanced agriculture practices, shiitake mushroom production, and wildlife habitat management. We concluded the day with a meal that included a brown rice with shiitake mushrooms sourced from the Stickney farm. The field day was attended by 101 people from the region and several from out-of-state. We receive numerous compliments from attendees and was asked to contribute to the content of the KWOA Kentucky Woodlands Newsletter (volume 26, number 3, Fall 2017). In addition, Jack Stickney was a guest speaker on the Forestry Webinar entitled Mushrooms & More as hosted by the Kentucky Department of Forestry November 2, 2017.






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