A workshop for woodland owners will be held at 5:30 p.m. Monday, March 25, at the Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church at Sparkman.
A Keeping it in the Family (KIITF) Sustainable Forestry Land Retention (SFLR) Workshop will begin with registration. The session will include dinner and a meeting, according to a news release from the Small Farm Program at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.
Joe Friend, UAPB forester, will discuss the effects of land fragmentation. Levell Foote, retired Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Jefferson County district conservationist, will discuss the eligibility and application for NRCS conservation programs. Managing forestland for profit will also be discussed.
The SFLR program is part of the Keeping it in the Family forest conservation model. The effort is a collaboration of federal, state, local, private and community-based organizations to help African-American families keep their private forestlands, according to the release.
“In 1920, African-American farmers owned 15.6 million acres of farm land nationally; by 2012 the acreage had shrunk to only 4.6 million acres,” said Henry English, director of the Small Farm Program at UAPB.
Pre-registration is requested for this dinner meeting. To be included in the meal count, if participants have special needs or for more details, contact Kandi Williams, SFLR outreach coordinator, at 870-571-9428.
The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff offers all of its Extension and Research programs and services without discrimination.