We lived in Northern Kentucky for about four years before moving back to Cincinnati, Ohio a few months ago. I took my Master Gardener classes in Northern Kentucky and attended lots of events in the area. Cincinnati and parts of Northern Kentucky are very close, but I do have a 30-40 minute drive now to the places I used to go all the time.
I still hear about a lot of events in Northern Kentucky, and recently attended one called the Kentucky Woodland Owner’s Short Course.
The class was offered by the UK Forestry Extension along with Kenton County Extension office, Kentucky Division of Forestry, Kentucky Department of Fish ad Wildlife Resources, and many more! One of the most valuable parts of the course were all the resources and contacts that were there.
There were two tracks offered: the under 10 acre track and the over 10 acre track. They differed a little in the topics they covered, which I appreciated. I don’t have the same goals with my 5 acres as someone with hundreds of acres!
On the less than 10 acres track, we started the day with a field trip, which was across the street from the meeting area. It was the early morning of a soon to be hot day, but nice and cool in the covered woods. I learned about the Bradford Pear/Callery Pear and how it spreads through the area despite being “sterile”. We watched a demonstration on the best ways to remove bush honeysuckle, which, spoiler alert, is terrible.
A little further down the trail we talked about backyard woods and wildlife practices – nuisance wild animals, invasive insects and some resources for common questions.
After a lunch break, our group sat inside for the education part of the day. We had speakers on the following topics:
- Tree Identification
- Mushrooms and More from Your Woodlands (edible plants and syrups)
- Wildlife in Your Backyard: Pollinator Habitat and Damage Control
- How to (correctly) plant a tree
There were topics covered in the larger acreage track that I didn’t sit in on. They covered timber sales, trespass issues, hunting land leasing, and estate planning. I think having the two tracks was great to separate some of the topics that weren’t as applicable to both groups.
It was an interesting day! The topics were broad and provided an entry amount of information. There were valuable nuggets throughout the day and the contacts and resources were useful. I walked away with packets of contacts for forestry and tree resources, lists of certified arborists, contacts of who to reach out to with questions, and a CD full of papers, books, articles and related information to go through as I need it.
