The meeting was a huge success. Perfect site, fantastic presentations with “spot on” topics, and great interactions among the group as a whole, plus good food, the ever popular silent auction, and social hour! As Director Jack Stickney noted, Berea College Research Forest is the “Best Demonstration Forest in Kentucky for small scale landowners.” The adjacent Forestry Outreach Center also provided a nice indoor meeting place for us. Of course, you had to be there to experience it, but we will have more coverage in the summer issue of our newsletter and here on our website. The agenda topics speak for themselves in terms of relevance for woodland owners. The presentations and discussions truly showcased the outstanding forestry professionals who work every day to improve the health and productivity of our woodlands. The interactions among these professionals and our members reflects the vigor and vitality of our Kentucky Woodland Community. Whether you’re new to woodland management or simply want to stay abreast of the newest information, our community is here to help you learn and stay up to date on the topics that matter. The Meeting took place March 25-27 at the Berea College Forest Outreach Center. You can still take a look at the awesome lineup for speakers for the 2024 Annual Meeting at the links below. Click here to see the full agenda.
As KWOA members and partners you were invited to KWOA November 9, 2023, board meeting at the Kentucky State University Harold R. Benson Research and Demonstration Farm. We are grateful for the support of KSU in allowing us to use their wonderful facility and providing such a delicious lunch. The morning focused on partner reports. Special guest, Jason Meyer of the White Oak Initiative gave an enlightening presentation on their efforts to build resilience of white oak. A Working Forests Panel led by Dr. Jeffrey Stringer, filled the afternoon with lively discussion. We appreciate all our partners reporting and especially Dr. Stringer and the panelists, Logan Nutt, Bob Bauer, Jon Schultz, and Scott Taylor who took time from their busy schedules to join in this important conversation. Thanks to Billy Thomas and UK Extension the panel discussion was recorded. We will continue to work with our partners to explore the concepts that came up in the discussion. A few key takeaways for woodland owners are:
It was a terrific day; the themes and ideas generated that day gave us much to digest and act upon in 2024 and beyond. Stay tuned for more in depth take-aways, discussions, and action items. Resources from the Meeting
KWOA directors attending the signing ceremony for historic agreement include [L to R & front to back]: Gail Lincoln, Rodney Bruce, Jerry Brown, Frank HIcks, Portia Brown, Greg Kuhns, Doug McLaren. Scott Taylor, Mike Smith, Karen Marshall, and Jim Vincent ( with wife Kay). More coverage coming in the Fall KWOA Kentucky Woodlands Newsletter. Previously reported here. The 2024 annual meeting scheduled for March 25,26 & 27 at the Berea College Forest Outreach Center is shaping up to be what we hope will be a very informative meeting.
We will be making some changes to how we organize the meeting. The meeting will begin at 1:00pm on Monday and end Wednesday at Noon. We will be covering topics such as prescribed burns, the White Oak Initiative, and we’ll look at how a changing climate might impact how we manage our woodlands, just to name a few. Stay tuned for updates! Take a look at the tentative agenda by clicking the button below! The KWOA & KWOF Boards meet quarterly (usually the second Thursday of February, May, August, & November plus at the Annual Full Membership Meeting); the meetings are either in person or by zoom. Board meetings are to address business matters and generally include updates from our partners & committee reports. If you are interested in attending please email us at info.kwoa.net prior to the meeting date, so we can send you details on times, location, or zoom connection.
WHO: Open to All Woodland Owners & KWOA Members
WHAT: KWOA First Official Regional Dinner Meeting WHEN: August 1, 2023: 6:00 – 8:00 PM CST WHERE: Ohio County Extension Office, 1337 Clay Street, Hartford, KY 42347 Reservations Due By July 25: Free but Reservation Required for meal planning purposes RSVP to Phone:270-298-7441 or Email: ohio.ext@uky.edu AGENDA:
Open to All Woodland Owners August 1, 2023: 6:00 – 8:00 PM CST Ohio County Extension Office 1337 Clay Street, Hartford, KY 42347 Free but Reservation Required for meal planning purposes Reservations Due By July 25 RSVP to Phone:270-298-7441 or Email: ohio.ext@uky.edu
This is the first ever official KWOA Regional Meeting! The concept of KWOA regional meetings (originally put forth by past president, Joe Ball) is to allow woodland owners to come together in focusing on the challenges they face locally. Regional meetings can help connect us with each other and available resources. We hope to attract KWOA members and woodland owners who have not been engaged with KWOA to join KWOA. After this initial meeting KWOA members and guests can continue to meet regionally according to their own schedules and topics of interest. The KWOA Board will work with local groups to connect you with professional resources inn your areas of interest.
KWOA is partnering with the Ohio County Extension Office and UK Forestry and Natural Resources Extension to host this event. KWOA members and partners enjoyed being together and taking in the great educational programs. The summer issue of our Kentucky Woodlands Newsletter will provide a brief recap of these programs; but, of course, you learn so much more by being there. Planning is already underway for the 2024 KWOA Annual Meeting.
Carbon Credits were addressed with open-ended discussions. The consensus is that it is too early to tell how this will play out. Only one company is active in Kentucky at this time; we expect more programs to be offered this Fall. In the meantime, we continue to gather information. If you have worked with any of the carbon credit programs, we would love to hear about your experience. You can share your reactions, by emailing info@kwoa.net attention to Jack Rentz. The Board of Directors Slate was approved at the Annual Business meeting, and the directors elected officers for both KWOA and KWOF. See the new board member listing here. To help us focus on who and where we are, we put a map up at the annual meeting for attendees to put a sticker on the county(s) where they have woodlands. Based on the information we currently have member woodlands are in 64 of the 120 counties: 80,000 acres (125 square miles) reported across the state from Fulton Co far west (70 acres) to Pike Co far east (88 acres). We have owners residing in 10 states. When a person joins KWOA they are asked to fill in their woodland county(s) and the number of acres. Alas, many members skip over this section. New KWOA initiatives are being discussed to better serve our members and our mission; having a good count of the counties and acreages we serve can help us plan. We encourage you to share this information if you did not previously do so. We'll make sure to keep you posted as the board works on some new ideas for regional outreach. We are always happy to hear from our members. Email to info@kwoa.net reaches several directors and a board member will get back to you. The KWOA & KWOF Boards will meet on the dates shown below, either in person or by zoom. If you are interested in attending please email us at info.kwoa.net prior to the meeting date, so we can send you details on times, location, or zoom connection. All board meetings are open to members and partners.
2023: May 11, August 10, November 9 2024:February 8 |