Demonstration Field Days

Learning what works in the field from others who are willing to share their experiences is an invaluable lesson. Moreover, if others see the good that someone else has done that usually motivates them to action.

Seeing and learning how a peer has created and conserved critical habitat is one of the most effective tools for motivating landowners to initiate habitat improvement projects on their own land. Center for Conservation Solutions, working in conjunction with private landowners, state and federal agencies and local conservation partners, uses this peer-to-peer mentoring approach to educate and encourage family forest owners across the United States to improve wildlife habitat and watershed health.

A model family forest owner is chosen to host a demonstration field day to show other landowners conservation management practices. Participants are taken on a field tour to various parts of the forest site that highlight a particular subject. Experts describe the conservation projects and the technical and financial assistance available to landowners. Field days give landowners the opportunity to share with their neighbors their positive experiences from actively managing their forests.

Center for Conservation Solutions field tours typically draw 60 – 120 family forest owners (that on average collectively hold 20,000 acres) as well as community leaders and other key stakeholders. Field day speakers note that opportunities to address such large audiences of family forest owners are rare. Post-workshop surveys consistently show that visiting landowners plan to make changes in their own forest management practices based on the information they learned at a field day.

To date, 2,119 family forest owners who collectively own more than 937,598 acres have attended a Center for Conservation Solutions field day.

For information about upcoming field days see News & Events. For information about past field days, select a state from the following list.

Center for Conservation Solutions field days
Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, Oregon,South Carolina, Texas, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Colorado, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New York, Oregon