Page 28 - Tree Line - North Carolina Forestry Association - Fourth Quarter 2024

E D U C AT I O N U P D AT E
An Exciting Year
for Forestry Education
Since our last issue of TreeLine, our education team
completed two weeks of Sustainable Forestry Teachers
Experience programs in Wilmington and Asheville,
and our brand-new forestry course, AN53 Natural
Resources II — Forestry, has kicked off in high schools across
North Carolina!
Let’s take a closer look at the impact of and progress on
these two initiatives.
1
2024 Sustainable Forestry
Teachers Experience
The Sustainable Forestry Teachers Experience (SFTE) is a four-
day professional development workshop for North Carolina
educators. During SFTE, educators tour North Carolina forests
and forestry facilities, learn about sustainable forestry practices
in North Carolina, and gain knowledge and resources to bring
back to classrooms/programs.
Sixty-one educators participated in the 2024 SFTE program.
Two workshops took place: July 22-25 in Wilmington and
July 29-August 1 in Asheville. The workshops included tours
of forest industry facilities and forest management regimes
under a variety of landowner objectives; interaction with forest
industry professionals; and engaging discussions regarding the
stakeholders involved in the forest industry in North Carolina
and the importance of being open-minded regarding the wide
range of perspectives and interests. Educators also participated
in hands-on activities with Project Learning Tree and received
activity guides and kits ready to be utilized in their classrooms
and programs.
To evaluate the SFTE program, we ask educators to
complete a pre- and post-experience survey to determine
changes in knowledge, skills, perspectives, and self-efficacy in
teaching forestry in their classrooms/programs. On the right
are some highlights from the evaluation report.
Thank You
The SFTE program would not
be possible without our hosts,
facilitators, and sponsors.
Visit our website for a complete
list of our 2024 supporters.
26 ncforestry.org / FOURTH QUARTER 2024
(Top to bottom) 2024 Asheville SFTE program participants.
The Asheville SFTE group takes a tour of Oaks Unlimited in
Waynesville, NC led by Joe and Tripp Pryor.
Pre- & Post SFTE Comparison:
Knowledge, Opinion, & Confidence
Pre-SFTE 7% 90% 3% Knowledge of forestry
Extremely or
very knowledgeable
Moderately or slightly
knowledgeable
Not at all
knowledgeable
Opinion of the forest products industry
Pre-SFTE Extremely or
very favorable
Moderately or
slightly favorable
Not at all favorable 44% 56% 0% Post-SFTE
85%
15%
0%
Post-SFTE
92%
8%
0%