Md. Extension Office offers forestry course

June 26, 2007

The Maryland Cooperative Extension has gone high-tech.

Its General Forestry Online Course is now ready for launching.

The course begins Sept. 1 and runs until Dec. 15. Registration opens Aug. 1, and class size is limited to 10 participants on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Like the original paper version, there are no formal classes.

"You work from the comfort of your home, using your own woodlot, a friend's or a public forest while learning the basics of forestry, forest ecology, and forest health in this non-credit course," the Extension office said in a press release.

"The course content is the same as that provided originally in binders. However, with the Web-based version, the text and appendices are electronic; there are interactive exercises to aid in learning, plus access to Master Logger lectures in real time.

"You will learn how to protect your trees from insects, diseases and fire; step-by-step procedures will walk you through a forest inventory and stand analysis; and the details of the forestry business are presented, including tax nuances and the sale and harvest of forest products. Ultimately, the course exercises help you develop the framework for a management plan for your forest."

Admission to the course costs $300. Included in the cost are paper copies of the supplemental readings (A Sand County Almanac, The Woodland Steward, American Forests: A History of Resiliency and Recovery, and a small pamphlet entitled What Tree Is That?), interactive discussion with other enrollees, and a CD of the text and appendices. A certificate of completion is awarded when all assignments are completed.

For more information, go on the Web to www.agnr.umd.edu/extension/elearning/generalforestry/

There, you can read a lesson from the text, view an interactive exercise, read through detailed course information and FAQs.

For more information, contact Nancy Stewart at the University of Maryland Cooperative Extension, Wye Research and Education Center, P.O. Box 169, Queenstown, MD 21658; telephone 1-410-827-8056, ext. 112; or e-mail her at nstewar1@umd.edu

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