Families own over 75% of the 12.3 million acres of woodlands in Kentucky. Unfortunately, these family woodlands are facing unprecedented threats from invasive insects, invasive plants, climate change, poor timber harvesting practices, woodland fires, and timber theft/trespass. To continue to support these families during the COVID-19 pandemic and connect them with forestry and natural resource organizations who can assist them the University of Kentucky Department of Forestry and Natural Resources Extension team (UKFNRE) developed the Virtual Kentucky Woodland Owners Short Course (WOSC).

A team approach, including the involvement of seven partner organizations (Kentucky Natural Resources Conservation Service, Kentucky Division of Forestry, Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, Kentucky Tree Farm Committee, Kentucky Woodland Owners Association, Office of the Kentucky State Nature Preserves, and the Kentucky Association of Consulting Foresters), allowed UKFNRE to plan and develop an online woodland owner educational program consisting of:

• Eight woodland management educational sessions for beginning and experienced woodland owners.
• Seven partner videos of key woodland management organizations in Kentucky who work with woodland owners on the management of their land. 
• A WOSC partners webinar for attendees to interact with key woodland management organizations.
• Twelve videos highlighting Kentucky's state forests and the woodland management practices implemented there to provide a field experience for the WOSC attendees. 
• A state forest webinar for attendees to interact with Kentucky Division of Forestry foresters and discuss woodland management practices.

The WOSC was spread out over five evening and one Saturday session. The beginning track targeted inexperienced woodland owners and featured presentations by UKFNRE on: Tree Identification, Are My Woodlands Healthy?, Basics of Woodland Management, and Basics of Wildlife Management. The experienced track targeted experienced woodland owners and featured presentations by UKFNRE on: Forest Health Considerations, Adaptive Forest Management, Advanced Wildlife Management, and Small Scale Logging. Over 500 woodland owners who owned 40,785 woodland acres participated. The extensive content developed has been packaged so that others can now view the videos and recorded sessions.