By: Bobby Smith; Morgan County Extension Agent

Are you a forest landowner, hunter, or a wildlife enthusiast? Got this date on your calendar? September 17, 2009. On this date, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., the University of Georgia will hold an Agroforestry and Wildlife Field Day that has something for everyone. The Field Day will be held at Westbrook Farm on West Ellis Road, west of the UGA Griffin Campus off U.S. Highway 19/41.

This program reflects the new and growing trend of landowners using their valuable land to maximize all aspects of the natural environment. This includes growing trees and crops together and allowing wildlife to flourish on the same property.

Forest landowners will benefit from the information on prescribed burning, thinning and forest management, marketing and selling timber, Agroforestry Systems for Georgia, forest roads construction, weed control in planted pines, invasive insects disease and plants, loblolly pine with chemical site preparation, biological control of invasive plants utilizing grazing livestock and annual pine straw harvest.

For hunters, the field day will offer information on wildlife food plots, small game management, dove field preparation, quality management of deer, wild turkey and bobwhite quail. For wildlife enthusiasts, there will be information on the benefits of attracting wildlife, wetland management for waterfowl, creating a backyard habitat, controlling wildlife damage and managing threatened or endangered species.

Those with wetlands on their property will want to attend the sessions on pond construction and renovation, and wetland management for waterfowl.

There are several new sessions on Shiitake mushrooms and other non-timber forest products, beekeeping as a business or sideline, bio-fuels and carbon credits, and making the most of your GPS unit.

The registration fee is $25 before Thursday, September 3 ($30 after) this cost includes lunch and a field day hat for all pre-registrants. Participants can register through the field day's Web site at:

http://www.caes.uga.edu/events/awfd09. For a complete schedule, see the Web site or contact your local UGA Cooperative Extension Office. Register by credit card by calling the UGA Griffin Campus Continuing Education Office at (770) 229-3477 or faxing your registration and credit card payment to (770) 233-6180. Or mail your fee and registration to the University of Georgia Griffin Campus, Office of Continuing Education, Stuckey Bldg., Room 125, 1109 Experiment Street, Griffin, GA 30223.

The Georgia Department of Agriculture’s Pesticide Division will grant five hours of credit in either Category 21 (Plant Agriculture), 23 (Forest Pest Control) or 27 (Right-of-Way Pest Control) for participants at the Agroforestry and Wildlife Field Day. The Wildlife Society will grant contact hours of credit in Category 1 for the Wildlife Society Professional Development/Recertification Program to wildlife participants. Loggers attending the Field Day can receive six hours of continuing logger credits from the UGA Center for Forest Business and six hours of continuing logger credits from the Georgia FFI Implementation Committee. Foresters attending the Field Day can receive 3.5 hours in Category 1 of continuing forestry credits from the Society of American Foresters.