program (Foil, personal 

 communication). Mississippi has 

 continued a tradition of excellence 

 in 4-H forestry. Enrollments 

 ranged from 3.800 to 8,300, and 

 five national Best Forestry Record 

 winners were produced over the 

 1980-84 period (Daniels, personal 

 communication). 



County Extension Staff Training and 

 Assignment — Clemson extension 

 foresters began in 1981 to conduct 

 a structured in-service training 

 program in forestry and the 

 development of county extension 

 forestry programs. It involves six 

 1- to 3-day sessions taken over a 

 period of 2 to 3 years. The effort 

 has received strong backing from 

 the Clemson Cooperative 

 Extension Service Administration, 

 which is expanding the hiring of 

 professionals as multicounty agents 

 in forestry (Kessler and Neal, 

 personal communications). The 

 Georgia Cooperative Extension 

 Service now considers forestry as 

 an acceptable degree in hiring 

 extension agents in the 

 "agriculture and natural 

 resources" personnel category. 

 Some 20 to 25 professional 

 foresters are now employed as 

 county extension staff (Gunter. 

 personal communication). In each 

 of North Carolina's 100 counties, 

 at least one extension staff member 

 has specifically assigned 

 responsibility for the county 

 extension forestry program and is 

 held accountable for it in annual 

 performance evaluations (Levi and 

 Huxster, personal communication). 



Harvesting and Forest Products 



Harvesting— In 1983, VPI and SU's 

 industrial forestry operations 

 specialist initiated an extension 

 program with procurement 

 foresters and with Virginia's 1,000 

 or more private logging 

 contractors. In the initial year, 

 short courses and workshops were 

 held on sound business practices 

 and management for loggers. A 

 newsletter for loggers was 

 developed. The program was 

 estimated to have increased 

 productivity of harvesting 

 operations in the first year by 

 $300,000, in part due to reductions 

 in butt log damage from improved 

 shears maintenance (McElwhee 

 1984 unpubl. and personal 

 communication). 



Regional Kiln Drying — For the past 

 7 years, southern cooperative 

 extension services with extension 

 forest-products specialists have 

 jointly conducted 5-day workshops 

 to train hardwood lumber kiln 

 drying operators and yard and 

 drying supervisors of the southern 

 furniture and millwork industry in 

 theory, modern processes, and 

 monitoring for quality control. 

 Southern States plus Kentucky are 

 cosponsors under a standing 

 committee of southern extension 

 directors. The program is self- 

 supporting through tuition charges. 

 Of the instruction, 90 percent is 

 provided by the seven States that 

 have extension forest-products 

 specialists. Attendance at the 10 

 workshops already held averaged 



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