Kentucky Specialty Forest Products Workshop a Success

NTFP’s can offer landowners the opportunity to develop products that will be ready for market in a short period of time and can be sustained on short harvest rotations. In many cases the historic practice of “high-grading” have resulted in lower quality timber stands that are in need of time and management to help them recover. This is a slow process that happens over many years, or even decades. Having alternative income opportunities in the mean time can be a real asset for landowners. Connecting landowners with these types of forest-based economic opportunities and fostering better land stewardship is at the core of the CAFA partnership.

 

Six species were selected for the day’s topics in order to provide a diversified  educational experience for workshop participants. Crops were selected based on their marketability, cost of production/profitability, uniqueness/appeal, history in the region, and for their compatibility with forest management activities. Topics covered included American ginseng, goldenseal, pawpaw, shiitake mushrooms, bee keeping and forage management, ramps, and of course woodland resource management. Speakers for the day included Dr. Deborah Hill and Billy Thomas, extension foresters with the University of Kentucky, Dr. Kirk Pomper, principal horticultural investigator and pawpaw researcher also with the University of Kentucky, and Tanner Filyaw, NTFP Specialist from Rural Action.  In all 40 landowners and natural resource professionals attended the event, representing 4,515 acres of forestland ownership!

 

Overall the organizing partners were very pleased with the turnout and success of the event. We will be looking forward to collaborating on more events like this in the future and expanding sustainable forest management in the region.