Alberta woodlot extension program
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The Woodlot Extension Program operated in Alberta for the past eight years and currently employs two extension specialists who work with landowners all across the province. The program is administered by the Alberta Government and supported by a partnership of industry, all levels of government and conservation organizations. The program aims at quality woodlot and agroforestry stewardship, the adoption of beneficial management practices of private forested land and sustainable landscape management in Alberta. WEP has three goals. The first goal is to increase awareness of economic, social and environmental implications of agricultural area forest management. The management of forests, woodlots and agroforestry systems on the agricultural landbase has long-term implications for the environmental integrity and economic stability of rural areas. When these areas are managed individually and on a landscape basis it has implications for water quality, water supply, soil sustainability, wildlife and biological diversity. The second goal is to increase landowner participation in sustainable woodlot and agroforestry management. Only a small portion of the agriculture area in Alberta's agroforestry systems and woodlots are being managed. Therefore landowners must actively manage these areas in a sustainable fashion to protect the resource and achieve their land use objectives. The third goal is to promote integrated community land use planning by working with communities developed with regard to landscape values and in cooperation with a variety of resources.