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Home → Publications → Forest Nursery Notes → 2009 Winter Forest Nursery Notes → 2009 Winter Forest Nursery Notes - New Nursery Literature → Enhancing Forest Nursery Education: Input from the 2007 Joint Meeting of the Western Forestry and Conservation Nursery Association and Forest Nursery Association of British Columbia

Enhancing Forest Nursery Education: Input from the 2007 Joint Meeting of the Western Forestry and Conservation Nursery Association and Forest Nursery Association of British Columbia

Davis, A. S. National Proceedings: Forest and Conservation Nursery Associations 2007, p. 89-95. USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Proceedings RMRS-P-57. 2008.

Concern has been noted over the lack of qualified applicants for vacancies in forest nursery positions. The University of Idaho Center for Forest Nursery and Seedling Research is uniquely qualified to address the issue of training given its faculty, staff, and resources. The keystone resource in this regard is the Franklin H Pitkin Forest Nursery, a seedling production facility that operationally grows up to 500,000 plants per year for forestry, conservation, and restoration use in the Inland Northwest. This facility has an on-site research laboratory for conducting seedling quality assessment, and is located near the main campus of the University of Idaho. Faculty expertise in silviculture, ecology, nutrition, pathology, and entomology will allow for inclusion of a broad set of courses with appropriate personnel directing them. The degree to which these courses should be included, however, is unknown. Thus, it was decided that, for a program of this nature to be successful, a survey was needed to draw input from current nursery professionals into the fold. By addressing the breadth of nursery professionals, in terms of organizational structure, ownership, geographic distribution, and species produced, it is possible to identify the common threads across the profession to provide adequate educational opportunities needed to prepare students for this field. Development of a program that involves stakeholder input to meet the needs of the forest and conservation nursery profession will help to avoid the potential dichotomy that currently exists between training needs and what is provided, as described by Sample and others (1999) pertaining to forestry education in the US.


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Author(s): Anthony S. Davis

Section: General and Miscellaneous