Are you a landowner or manager seeking to enhance your financial benefits, enjoyment and the long-term health and value of your woodlands? Do you desire to protect your woods from the threats of insects, disease and wildfire? Want to maximize the benefits of your woodland while reducing the costs of taxes and management activities?

“Woodscaping Your Woodlands and Firewise Management” is the third in a series of four workshops in the Biltmore Forest School Piedmont Woodland Steward Series. The series is designed to equip you with the tools and resources you need to manage your land, with information presented by experts from public and private agencies. “Woodscaping Your Woodlands and Firewise Management” will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, May 7, and from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, May 8, at Jordan Lake Educational State Forest near Chapel Hill.

This workshop includes forest management information to help landowners maximize ongoing returns from their woods through prescribed burning and harvesting timber or nontimber products, and will include a site tour where participants will view the results of implementing these practices. Attendees will hear how to protect their legacy from the threats of insects, disease and wildfire. Also presented will be incentive and property-tax programs which can help increase the financial benefits of woodlot stewardship.

The cost is $40 per person per workshop, with spouse or other family member at $20. Registration includes lunch and snacks on the first day of each workshop as well as workshop-related materials, including a resource notebook containing detailed information on the topics covered. Registration for this workshop will be accepted through April 30.

Credit toward N.C. Environmental Education Certification is available, as well as forester CFE and educator CEU credits. Workshops also count as electives toward the Asheville Board of Realtors ECO Certification.

Advance registration is required. For more information and registration materials visit www.cradleofforestry.org or contact Amy Garascia, program coordinator, at amysworkshopinfo@aol.com or (828) 884-5713, extension 26.

The course is sponsored by the Cradle of Forestry Interpretive Association, North Carolina Division of Forest Resources, N.C. Cooperative Extension Service, USDA Forest Service, American Forest Management, Land Trust for Central N.C., Montgomery Community College, N.C. Division of Soil & Water Conservation, N.C.Tree Farm Program, N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, N.C. Zoo, Rowan County Parks & Recreation, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.