Kentucky writer and farmer Wendell Berry will be the featured speaker during the inaugural Ohio River Valley Woodland and Wildlife Workshop Saturday, March 25, in Cincinnati. Berry, well known for his natural and environmental writing, will present “Your Forests, Our Future” during the one-day workshop.“Wendell is nationally known, not only as a gifted writer, but as a friend to environmental issues and feels the need for sustained forest management – any kind of natural resource management,” said Doug McLaren, Extension forestry specialist at the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, one of the workshop’s sponsors.The workshop, aimed primarily at forest landowners in Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio, will also feature woodland and wildlife experts from UK, The Ohio State University and Purdue University Extension services as well as other forestry organizations. More than 20 educational sessions are planned on topics including “Trees and Forests: Their Many Values,” “Developing a Woodland Management Plan,” “Threatened and Endangered Species” and “Woodland Ponds.” “This is a workshop where forest landowners can obtain considerable information on forest management,” McLaren said. “It also provides the attendees with people that they can speak to concerning their individual issues. They will also have the opportunity to meet with fellow landowners and find out that, in most cases, they all have the same questions and issues as to how to manage their forest lands.”The workshop has a tri-state focus, McLaren said, but the woodland and wildlife concepts to be presented address common needs. “The issues surrounding forest management are the same worldwide. They might do things a little differently in each state, but the concepts are the same,” he said. Cost of the workshop, to be held at Cincinnati’s Diamond Oaks Career Development Campus, is $25 per person if paid by March 16 and $30 afterwards. Lunch and materials are included. There will be youth programs available at a cost of $5 per person. Both indoor and outdoor sessions are scheduled.For more information or to register, call the UK Forestry Department at (859) 257-7597. Online registration is also available at www.ukforestry.org.