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The 7th annual West Virginia Woodland Stewards workshop will be held at Camp Caesar on October 9-12. This workshop is intended to provide broad exposure to educators, forest landowners, and farmers on forest and wildlife management topics. This is an information-packed, three-day training workshop. The first session begins on Thursday evening and the last at noon on Sunday.

Room, meals, and educational materials are free to participants. The workshop is funded by the West Virginia Division of Forestry to promote forestry education and wise use of forest resources on private lands. There have been over 120 people trained in the previous six workshops.

Thursday evening participants will hear about the history of West Virginia forests. Early morning sessions give an introduction and practice in tree identification. After a hearty breakfast, participants listen to lectures on forest ecology, game management, nongame wildlife, best management practices, urban wildlife, ruffed grouse management, silviculture, and developing a stewardship plan.

After lunch the workshop moves to the forest, where they see examples of forestry and wildlife management on National Forestlands and learn how to measure trees and make decisions for forests based on specific landowner objectives. After dinner presentations feature a not-to-be-missed reptile event on one evening and an informative lecture on timber contracts the next evening.

Lecturers are professional managers, scientists, and practitioners from the West Virginia University Extension Service and WVU Division of Forestry and Natural Resources, West Virginia Division of Forestry, West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, Natural Resources Conservation Service, the West Virginia Forestry Association, and the USDA Forest Service.

The workshop is open to everyone. If you are interested in participating in this year’s West Virginia Woodland Stewards workshop, please contact Dr. Dave McGill (dmcgill@wvu.edu; 304-293-2941×2474) for more information.