Recently, the University of Maryland Extension’s Woodland Stewardship Education program was named as a 2021 Family Forests Education Award winner from the National Woodland Owners Association (NWOA) during the National Association of Forests Resources Programs (NAUFRP) General assembly. UME received the Comprehensive Program Award for programming with the most benefit to family forests over the past five years.
UME competed against six other challengers for the award. The award announcement from NWOA recognizes WSE’s efforts to enable woodland owners to “make sound and informed decisions about managing their land by bringing forestry [and] wildlife ecology professionals [together] to simplify and demystify natural resource management.”
One reviewer of the award nomination submitted by UME suggested that the materials that accompanied the nomination serve as a great example of what the types of outreach that can be accomplished through grants and collaboration.
Read the full announcement from NWOA here.
The NWOA/NAUFRP award followed additional recognition earlier this year from the Association of Natural Resources Extension Professionals (ANREP).
The Woods in Your Backyard Partnership, which includes WSE, Virginia Cooperative Extension, Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Penn State Extension, and the Virginia Dept. of Forestry, released “Woodland Health Practices Handbook” in late 2020.
Subtitled “A Practitioner’s Guide for Creating, Enhancing and Maintaining Natural Areas,” the 85-page full-color publication and associated “Woodland Assessment Checklist” received the Bronze Award from ANREP in the “Long Publication” category.