More women are pursuing forest-related careers and managing family timberland.
Friday in Post Falls, University of Idaho Extension and the state Department of Lands are sponsoring a program designed to bring women with that common interest together.
“Forestry has been a male-centered industry,” said Audra Cochran, a UI extension educator in Nezperce. But “we are seeing more and more women landowners seeking out information and resources from our two agencies. We’re noticing that a lot more women are making land management decisions. We wanted to put together an event that highlighted not only that women are becoming more engaged in those decision-making processes, but also a way to connect them with the resources available and with each other as well.”
Their Connecting Women in Forestry event will run Friday from 9-to-3 at the University of Idaho Research Park in Post Falls. Monday, March 13 is the registration deadline. You can find a registration link here, call Cochran at 208-937-2311 or email audrac@uidaho.edu.
Cochran says women in the Idaho Panhandle have assumed important land management roles, from developing pheromone trapping for their land, to negotiating and carrying out logging projects. She says Friday’s event will “highlight some of the work that they’ve done, but also to show them what they can do on their own forests while connecting them with this little network.”
Do women and men differ in the way they make decisions about forest land management? Cochran says she believes women often have a more collaborative, family-based approach.
“We’re seeing them work with their husbands or their partners. We’re seeing them making succession decisions,” she said.
Cochran says the two agencies also plan a second workshop on May 19 in Coeur d’Alene to teach forest management skills and allow women to practice them.
