Is your forest healthy? How do you know? When harvesting timber, what is your fair share? Is a handshake good enough? How do you enhance wildlife habitat and protect your land from wildfire? How do you harvest timber sustainably without trashing your land?
The Coached Planning Shortcourse will help you answer these questions. Beginning March 19 through May 7, an outstanding series of weekly classes will be conducted for owners of small-scale family forests (typically 5-500 acres). You can become eligible for cost-share assistance to implement practices, be considered for reduced property taxes, and become a certified forest.
This award-winning program is known as the Coached Planning Shortcourse, and is conducted by WSU Extension and the WA Dept. of Natural Resources. It is called “Coached Planning” because a major part of this training involves “coaching” participants as they develop simple management plans for their forests. Among the topics to be covered are: forest ecology; forest health; applied silviculture; wildfire protection; reforestation; responsible timber harvesting; forest soils; riparian area management; fish and wildlife habitat; cultural resources; special forest products; forest recreation; and more.
Course fee is $75 per person, family or land parcel. Participation is limited to 30 registrants on a first-come, first-served basis upon receipt of the registration and fee. Classes will be held weekly on Monday evenings from 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. at the Cle Elum Ranger Station in Cle Elum, WA. The course is taught by the state’s recognized experts from WSU, DNR, and other natural resource agencies. The course has not been held in Kittitas County for 20 years, so take advantage of this unique opportunity. If you are interested in this training, please call the WSU Extension office at (509) 667-6540. To download a brochure/ registration from the web, go to https://forestry.wsu.edu
