Experts’ Guide to Exploring Your Woods: July 15 in Mansfield

MANSFIELD, Ohio — Take time this summer to get to know the woods in your own backyard.

So says Kathy Smith, forestry program director in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences at The Ohio State University, who’s helping teach a workshop that will help you do just that.

“The Woods in Your Backyard” is from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. July 15 in 025 Ovalwood Hall on Ohio State’s Mansfield campus, 1760 University Drive. The campus is about 70 miles north of Columbus and 80 miles south of Cleveland.

The workshop is “for landowners who have a small section of woods out back that they want to learn more about,” said Smith, who leads the college’s Ohio Woodland Stewards Program. The program is the event’s sponsor.

Indoor, outdoor sessions in a ‘giant, green classroom’

Sessions will include getting to know your property, management tools, wildlife basics, wildlife monitoring and invasive species.

“Then we’ll take that knowledge outside to put it to good use,” Smith said — in a field session for which the campus is especially well suited. Its 640 acres are heavily wooded. A January Columbus Dispatch headline called the campus a “giant, green classroom.”

A complete agenda and mailable registration form can be downloaded at go.osu.edu/July15Backyard. You can also register online at go.osu.edu/July15BackyardReg.

Registration for the event is $35 and includes lunch, materials, and the indoor and outdoor sessions (dress appropriately). The deadline to register is July 8. For more information, call 614-688-3421.

The stewards program is run by Ohio State University Extension and is housed in the School of Environment and Natural Resources. Both are part of the college.