Specialty Forestry Products Professional Development

Specialty Forestry Products Professional Development

Summary

A train-the-trainer workshop focusing on the production and marketing of specialty forest products was held May 23-24 at Arbor Day Farm in Nebraska City, Nebraska. Over 75 extension educators and natural resource professionals came from all over the country to look at the financial potential of forest vegetation, including nuts, medicinals and botanicals, forest-based food products, woody decorative florals, and handcraft products.

Participants learned about ways to integrate such products into current farm or woodland operations, what is needed to process these crops, and the outlook for specialty product markets. Participants are now leading numerous workshops as the multiplier effect is taking place across the Midwest.

Objectives/Performance Targets

Objectives of the project are to:
1. Hold a train-the-trainer workshop to educate, provide training tools and materials, and inform natural resource people working with producers and landowners about sustainable agriculture practices focusing on specialty forest products.
2. Hold regional workshops and a field day to transfer information to producers, landowners, and other natural resource professionals about specialty forest products.
3. Develop and provide educational brochures about specialty forest products to partner organizations for distribution to producers as well as conservation groups and other visitors to the Lied Conference Center and Arbor Day Farm.
4. Track implementation, by participants, of sustainable agriculture practices that focus on specialty forest products.

Accomplishments/Milestones

Over 70 natural resource professionals and extension educators from all over the country came to Lied Lodge and Conference Center at Arbor Day Farm on May 23-24, 2002 to look at the financial potential of forest vegetation ranging from Saskatoon berries to hazelnuts. The highly successful “Specialty Forest Product Production and Marketing Workshop” examined growing, processing, and marketing sometimes overlooked products such as nuts, decorative woody florals, and medicinal crops like ginseng, goldenseal, and ginkgo. Participants heard about ways to integrate such products into current farm or woodland operations, what is needed to process the crops, and the outlook for specialty product markets.

The train-the-trainer workshop provided the participants with information and materials enabling them to transfer the knowledge gained to producers with large landholdings, traditional family farmers, and the owners of small, rural parcels. Included in those materials were four brochures focused on specialty crops that were produced in 2001 through this same grant.

These publications received the 2002 Gold Award for Short Publication by the Association of Natural Resource Extension Professionals (ANREP). These interpretive brochures explain a number of agroforestry practices and provide information on the production and marketing of specialty forest products. These brochures include:
– Edible Woody Landscapes for People and Wildlife
– Marketing Specialty Forest Products
– Hybrid Hazelnuts: An Agroforestry Opportunity
– Productive Conservation: Growing Specialty Forest Products in Agroforestry Plantings

Following the May workshop, participants have nine months in which to host one or more regional workshops to further disseminate information on specialty forest products. A survey will be conducted shortly after the workshops have all been held to collect data from the regional workshops, which will assess impact of the project.

A feature article in the January/February 2002 National Arbor Day Foundation’s bimonthly publication, Arbor Day, which reaches nearly one million members nationwide, spread the word about the newly created publications and the Specialty Forest Products Train the Trainer Workshop. A follow-up article in November/December Arbor Day discussed the workshop’s success.

On September 24, 2002 a Field Day Event was held at Arbor Day Farm to observe the first-ever test trial of a mechanical blueberry picker as it harvested hybrid hazelnuts. Over 40 people, including a number of previous workshop participants, were in attendance for the demonstration. The harvesting demonstration showed local landowners and natural resource professionals that practical and needed harvesting applications for specialty woody crops, like hazelnuts, are on the horizon.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

There was high interest in the conference, with a waiting list for those wishing to attend. Evaluations of the workshop by participants were very positive.

The four brochures continue to generate interest with natural resource professionals and have been widely distributed.

Collaborators: