By Reader Staff
Men in beards and flannel move over, women are headed into the forest for the second annual Women in the Woods Field Day, Friday, May 10 in Sandpoint.
While the event is open to everyone, this opportunity provides a wide range of training geared for women by women foresters to give them hands-on experience, inspiring more active participation in managing family-owned forests.
The event will be facilitated by women foresters from the Idaho Department of Lands and University of Idaho Extension but will include women instructors from a variety of agencies.
The Kaniksu Land Trust will be sponsoring lunch and hosting the event at Pine Street Woods community forest.
“We had a fabulous event in April with nearly 30 attendees participating in the Women in the Woods workshop,” stated Erika Eidson, IDL Forest Health specialist and workshop co-host. “Landowners brought in photos of their forest and received personalized management assistance from the fleet of instructors.
“The field day is another opportunity to interact with professional women foresters on the ground,” she added. “We will work in small groups so it’s easy to ask questions and gain confidence in managing family forests.”
There are new topics and tracks this year, including forest management and forest ecology. This year, participants may choose to focus on one area for half of the day.
Attendees will be out in the woods, rotating through different exercises covering forest assessment and forestry work on the ground.
Attending the previous workshop is not a requirement.
The field day will take place from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. on Friday, May 10 at the Pine Street Woods. There is a $10 registration fee, and lunch will be provided. Scheduled activities include tree identification, insect and disease, tree measurements and marking, forestry tools, thinning and pruning, wildfire safety, understory plants, wildlife habitats and soils.
Register online by Friday, May 3 by visiting bit.ly/WomenFieldDay. Direct questions to Audra Cochran at [email protected] or 208-937-2311.
