Working without a Forester?

[aaronlee]

Hi all. My question is in regard to ” Upgrading the ground worker’s education”.
What does one do to do this? If modern forestry is not going to teach you these things, or you aren’t in a place where time and money would let you become a forester, where is this information? Is it sivilculture and then a healthy dose of common sense? Is it just plain common sense?

As someone who is always trying to upgrade his education, mainly through late fees at the library, what or who should I be reading? I don’t have a horse yet, but will. What I do have is an opportunity to practice ” good forestry” on a piece of property my partner and I steward. Our means of extraction is a small 4×4 pick up and lots of old logging roads. Our main product right now is fire wood but the potential for quality hardwoods is definitely there. The woods we work may never become our’s but they could be. And if they do we would like to have been doing things right from the get go.

Thanks for your time
Horse farmer to be Aaron Lee

[Gabe Ayers]

Hello Aaron Lee,

One suggestion is to take some private instruction if you can afford it. We offer a private instructional course which is listed in the calendar of events on this site for April 6-11, 2008. The cost for the entire week of hands on intensive training including housing and board at the beautiful Bent Mountain Lodge is: $1600.00. We require a deposit of half to hold a spot for the week.

We simply take the students to the woods with us daily starting at the barn in the morning with the horses. Since this is adult education all the students know what they need to learn and we try to focus on their expressed interest. Probably one of the best things about the experience is being in the company of other folks with the same goals and principles and in the company of great horses that know there job. We focus on natural horsemanship and try to introduce folks to the new way of working with animals through acceptance training.

If you can’t afford that, and I truly understand that reality for many worthy candidates for becoming a Biological Woodsmen, then you can seek out a mentor in your own community. If you can find someone that is practicing modern horse logging or farming, just go do whatever you have to do to work with them.

I work with a 501c3 non profit that trains folks that can’t afford private instruction, but our funding is limited to people that will work in a particular
region of the country, the grantors sometimes call it a Biosphere, or watershed, like the whole planet is less than one Biosphere? I wish we had funding to educate everyone that inquired from anywhere on the planet….we just don’t have the funding.But that is exactly why we started the non profit public charity to support those that couldn’t afford private instruction. Environmental organizations get millions to educate the public about environmental issues and we think of our work as being environmental actualist. Some just think of it as to practical if you can believe that….

Also you may go to our web site and read all of the material there in the documents section, media section (atricles0 and the Forest Understory section that shares several exchanges with other folks getting started in this lifestyle/business. Read everything on this site too. Sometimes there is good information on the Front Porch at Rural Heritage. You may find a mentor there.

Let me know what you think, don’t give up, keep seeking knowledge, particularly through experience. I think our web site address will come up in the signature on this message. Good luck. Glad you are here on this site and interested.

Jason

[Carl Russell]

Biological Woodsman;952 wrote:

….Also you may go to our web site and read all of the material there in the documents section, media section (atricles0 and the Forest Understory section that shares several exchanges with other folks getting started in this lifestyle/business. Read everything on this site too. ……. I think our web site address will come up in the signature on this message. ……

Jason, make sure you post a link to your website in Etcetera under the new forum I just created for Associations & Links etc. Hope the Eco Jam goes well. Wish we could make it, Carl

[Author]

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