Gary Goff, Sr. Extension Associate

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Cornell Cooperative Extensions role in natural
resource management a case study
Gary Goff, Sr. Extension Associate Peter
Smallidge, NY Extension Forester, Sr. Extension
Associate   Thanks to Jerry Andritz, NYS
DEC Roger Monthey, US Forest Service
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Issues Addressed     USFS and DEC, need to ensure
that forest stewardship plans prepared with their
funding   n Are useful n Meet standards n
Achieve uniformity n Are prepared efficiently n
Reach under-served audiences
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History   Private forest owners who participate
in federally funded programs must have plans
prepared by foresters.   Result n Too few plans
met standards n Foresters felt unduly encumbered
n Poor rate of complete plan implementation n
Few plans written, except where cost
reimbursement was available n F.S. training
workshops couldnt reach enough foresters
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Cooperative Extensions Unique Role
n Reputation as unbiased and apolitical n Good
record in developing and delivering educational
programs n Could bring together forest owners,
educators, and foresters n Can teach new
technologies and resources for plan
preparation n Can maintain availability of
program deliverables over time
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• Program Objectives
• Improve the long-term management of private
  forest lands
• Improve the quality of plans and efficiency of
  plan preparers
• Help ensure that state and federal programs reach
  all forest owning publics
• Strengthen partnerships between DEC foresters,
  consultant foresters, and CCE educators and
  volunteers

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• Program Outline
•  
•  
• Underlying Methodology
• Create forums where participants
• critique stewardship plans
• cooperatively devise, learn, and acquire writing
  skills
• access information resources

• First Step
• Establish and engage steering committee and
  regional advisory teams
• state and private-sector foresters
• CCE educators
• forest owner volunteers

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• Program Outline contd.
• Program Implementation and Deliverables
• Create stewardship webpage
• Establish, train, and empower regional advisory
  teams
• Regional teams interact locally
• Workshops for foresters
• Bulletin for educators

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Forester Workshop Series Agenda  

• Reports from the Regional Advisory Teams
• Overcoming barriers
• Effective communications How to exercises
• Review and critique of sample plans
• Introduction to F.S. StewPlan
• Tour of Stewardship Webpage
• Reaching under-served audiences
• Evaluation

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• Workshop Evaluation
•  
• 102 total foresters, CCE educators, and forest
  owners attended
• Attendees annually work with 9,000 forest owners
  who own/manage 300,000 acres
• All participants indicated that they
• n were more aware of the value of plans
• n know the expected standards
• n will be able to write better plans
• n will promote the use of plans
• n will be able to use new tools and
• technologies
• n will prepare 15 more plans
• in 2003

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Quotable Quotes
One thing you did right was to host this course.
That in itself encourages plan preparation
Informative, educational, offered more and new
resources
The writing workshop was very helpful
Plan critique continues to be a good educational
intervention
Need more on silviculture!
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What we learned as educators

• Cooperative Extension as a third party was able
  to engage tough crowd

2. The Master Forest Owner Volunteers were key in
providing insight to the process
3. The County CCE Educators were both willing
and capable of assisting with a peripheral topic
4. Regional teams are now established for
additional programming.