Programs available for family forest owners

Roughly 44 percent of the forests in the Idaho Panhandle (Boundary, Bonner, Kootenai, Benewah and Shoshone counties) are held and managed by 23,796 family forest owners (owning five acres or more).

Family forests are critical to timber supply, water, wildlife, and many other shared values. For example, family forests tend to be more concentrated near key locations for ecosystem functions (e.g., along lakes and streams).

Since 1987, the average annual timber harvest from these forests in the Idaho Panhandle has been over 167 million board feet, valued at over $100 million milled. Family forests have provided 28 percent of the timber harvest in the ten northern counties of Idaho since 1997.

Family forest owners usually have multiple goals for their property. With a better working knowledge of forest ecology, silviculture, and related forest management techniques, family forest owners can sustainably produce more wood to fuel Idaho’s economy, maintain water quality, reduce catastrophic fire risk, improve forest growth and health, and enhance biological diversity.

There have long been a variety of technical assistance and education programs for family forest owners, but in the early 1990s, the Forest Stewardship program made federal funds available through state forestry agencies to strengthen these efforts. The Idaho Forest Stewardship Program is a cooperative effort of the Idaho Department of Lands, University of Idaho Extension, and a whole host of other agencies and organizations to improve family forest management.

On-site technical assistance for family forest owners is available through the Idaho Department of Lands. University of Idaho Extension provides an annual series of workshops, field days and other educational activities titled “Strengthening Forest Stewardship Skills. The programs are designed to strengthen forest owners’ ability to implement practices that improve forest health and growth and are offered in a variety of locations and times.

In 2018-2019, 776 owners of over 87,314 family forest acres attended UI Extension workshops and other educational activities in the Idaho Panhandle. Participants indicated they would implement many improved forest management practices. For example:

• 322 forest owners will favor tree species that resist insects and disease;

• 295 will monitor for forest insect, disease, or animal damage;

• 187 will thin forest trees;

• 144 will identify Idaho trees; and

• 151 will prune forest trees.

In 2016, the University of Idaho Policy Analysis Group surveyed 2,869 Idaho forest owners. Compared to other forest owners, those who sought assistance from UI Extension had taken significantly more management actions on their forests and planned to do more activities in the next five years.

Complete results of that survey are available at www.uidaho.edu/cnr/policy-analysis-group.

To learn more about technical assistance through the Idaho Forest Stewardship Program, contact your local Idaho Department of Lands office. To learn about 2019- 2020 forest stewardship education programs (we currently planning sessions on landscaping for fire prevention, backyard forests, forest insects and disease, and forest stream restoration in Boundary County), contact University of Idaho Extension office in Boundary County or check the calendar of events at the University of Idaho Extension Forestry web site www.uidaho.edu/extension/ forestry this winter.

Chris Schnepf is the area University of Idaho Extension educator specializing in forestry for in Boundary, Bonner, Kootenai, and Benewah counties.