Women in the Woods field day opportunity

Men in beards and flannel move over, women are headed into the forest for the second Women in the Woods Field Day on May 10 in Sandpoint.

While the event is open to everyone, this opportunity provides a wide range of training geared for women by women foresters to give them hands-on experience, inspiring more active participation in managing family-owned forests, according to a press release.

This event will be run by women foresters from the Idaho Department of Lands and the University of Idaho Extension but will include women instructors from a variety of different agencies. The Kaniksu Land Trust will be sponsoring lunch and hosting the event at Pine Street Woods community forest.

“We had a fabulous event in April with nearly 30 attendees participating in Women in the Woods Workshop,” said Erika Eidson, IDL forest health specialist and workshop co-host. “Landowners brought in photos of their forest and received personalized management assistance from the fleet of instructors."

There are new topics and tracks this year including forest management and forest ecology and the plan is to offer new topics each year. This year, participants may choose to focus on one area for half of the day. 

Attendees will be out in the woods, rotating through different exercises covering forest assessment and forestry work on the ground. 

It runs 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Pine Street Woods, 11915 W. Pine St. Registration is $10 and lunch is provided.

Field stations include tree identification, forestry tools, thinning and pruning and wildfire safety.

Please register online by May 3.

Info: Audra Cochran at audrac@uidaho.edu or 208-937-2311.