Tri-State Workshop Can Help You Get Into Your Woods

This article written by Kurt Knebusch was originally published on the website of the College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Calling all mammals and mushrooms, birds and butterflies, the trees they call home, and their human landlords.

The Ohio Woodland Stewards Program will hold its 2015 Ohio River Valley Woodland and Wildlife Workshop — aimed at knowing, growing and managing the life of a woods — from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on March 28 at the Sharonville Convention Center, 11355 Chester Road in Cincinnati.

The event is designed for but not limited to landowners from Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.

“The goal is to help landowners get the most out of their property,” said Kathy Smith, coordinator of the stewards program, run by the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences at The Ohio State University.

She said sessions will focus on new know-how, tools and techniques. All are meant to further improve the health and stewardship of a woods.

Leading the sessions will be experts from the three states’ land-grant universities — Ohio State, Purdue University and the University of Kentucky. Their talks will cover:

• Woodlands, including maps, land plans, tree identification, woodland certification, determining the value of trees and timber, and invasive species such as the Asian longhorned beetle and thousand cankers disease of walnut trees.
• Wildlife, such as food plots, game cameras, woodland butterflies, deer and wild turkey management, and the insect life in woodland pools and ponds.
• The cool and unusual, like woodland fungi (such as morels), identifying animal skulls and an intriguingly titled topic called “Weird Things in Your Woods.”

Registration, which includes lunch, is $45 by March 17 and $55 between March 18 and the final registration deadline of March 24.

The complete schedule of sessions and speakers is at go.osu.edu/2015WoodlandWildlifeBrochure.  Participants can register and pay online at go.osu.edu/2015WoodlandWildlifeRegister.

For more information, go to go.osu.edu/2015WoodlandWildlife, call 614-688-3421 or email ohiowoods@osu.edu.