Woodland Course Offered 

According to the USDA Kenton County has nearly 50,000 acres of forestland, and 90% of this forest land is privately owned.  During the fall 2016 meeting of the Kenton County Agriculture Advisory Council, they asked the ANR agent to consider a program that would benefit any landowners that wished to manage their forestland.  The Agriculture agent asked the UK Department of Forestry to consider bringing a session of the Woodland Owner’s Short Course to our region to meet the need of the local landowners.  The program was held on September 23, 2017 at the Kenton County Public Library and on adjacent property owned by the Kenton County Cooperative Extension Service. Attending were 69 woodland owners, representing 5800 acres of privately owned woodland. A pre-test and post-test was administered to determine short term impacts.  After attending the class, 100% of them indicated they were better prepared to manage their forests.  The was a 65% knowledge gain increase, and comments from the class included topics around; developing woodland management plans, motivation to clear invasive species, and continue their own education on woodland management.  Intermediate impact indicated that 95% of the participants would use the information from the class to improve their forests.  By implementing these practices a long term impact will result in increased revenue earned from timber sales, improved wildlife habitat, and added value to their property.  Participants were asked what type of future program would they benefit from, and the top four were woodland health, managing wildlife, growing timber, and growing non-timber forest products