Pennsylvania 2015 Private Forest Landowner Conference Announced

University Park, PA – June 20, 2014 -- Mark your calendars for the 2^nd Private Forest Landowners Conference: The Future of Penn's Woods, March 20-21, 2015 at the Blair County Convention Center in Altoona, PA. The biennial conference, hosted by The Center for Private Forests at Penn State and its partners, focuses on helping private woodland owners understand how to steward their lands for a mix of values and needs.

Pennsylvania has almost 750,000 woodland owners making decisions on 11.5 million acres of forestland. Seventy percent of the nearly 17 million acres of forested land in the state is owned by private individuals. Many of these owners (approx. 500,000) hold 10 acres or less (the average is just 3 acres), but big or small, the decisions all private woodland owners make about their forests affect the well-being of our state’s namesake -- Penn’s Woods.

From suburban backyard habitat to large properties with a focus on hunting or income, woodland owners want to do well by their land. Opportunities to learn and understand our options and possibilities help ensure that good decisions demonstrating care for the land are made.

Whether your woodlot is one acre or several thousand, we hope you will join us for this day and a half conference where you can learn about your property and how it contributes to habitat, water quality, and woodland diversity. Your land is part of a larger landscape where we connect with each other and together we care for Penn’s Woods.

The conference will include options such as field tours and a banquet, outstanding keynote addresses from nationally-renowned speakers, and myriad presentation and workshop opportunities to learn more about the values you hold for your woods and the goals you've set for your property. The conference has also been designed so that you will have significant opportunities to meet new and old friends who share your passion for woodland values.

If you are a woodlot owner in Pennsylvania or beyond and want to learn more about your woods click here.