I was recently in West Virginia attending the National 4-H Forestry Invitational as the coach of the Illinois 4-H Forestry team. During the forestry invitational I was reminded of the importance of private landowner stewardship back in Illinois and across the United States.

Illinois forests are primarily privately owned. In fact, approximately 90 percent

of Illinois forests are owned privately, with the remaining 10 percent owned by public agencies. The U.S. Forest Service in the Shawnee National Forest holds a large portion of the publicly owned forestland, in southern Illinois.

Since most of our forests in Illinois are privately owned, it's impossible to manage these resources on a statewide scale. Forest management really has to happen through the individual forest landowner.

Part of the forestry invitational is an event called forest evaluation. During this event, each team inventories a forest plot, gathers information about the site's growing conditions and then makes management recommendations based on a landowner scenario the invitational committee provides to the team members.

As I helped the Illinois team finish their preparation for the forest evaluation event, one of the youth commented that the event finally made sense. He commented that all they had to do was apply what they had learned from the other parts of the invitational: tree measurement, tree identification, forestry knowledge for the written exam and quiz bowl event. I knew that he was now seeing the big picture and could also see how everything fits together within the forest ecosystem and the benefits of sound forest management practices.

While a few of the youth involved in the 4-H Forestry Judging program will go on to pursue a career in natural resources management, most follow other pursuits. However, they all will be future decision makers and will be better prepared to make informed decisions about the natural resources within our state and across the country.

These youth also learned that although forestland in Illinois only covers approximately 14 percent of the land statewide, forests in Illinois help to maintain the biological diversity of our state. For example, of the 500 species of trees, shrubs and woody vines found in the state, 69 percent grow in forest ecosystems. In addition, 49 percent of the threatened and endangered plant species in the state and 75 percent of Illinois' wildlife habitat is found in the forests of Illinois.

Forest landowners in Illinois can best manage their forest resources through a written management plan. Landowners can get assistance from their Illinois Department of Natural Resources' district forester, or a private consulting forester can be hired to develop a management based on their forest resource and their management goals.

The University of Illinois Champaign Extension Unit at 333-7672 can also be a resource if you have questions regarding forest management. The U of I Extension's Forestry website is also a great resource for landowners and citizens and can be found at http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/forestry/ .

By the way, the team of 4-H'ers from the Moultrie-Douglas Extension Unit which represented Illinois at the 2009 National 4-H Forestry Invitational placed second amongst 14 states. This year's Illinois 4-H Forestry judging team included Shannon Breen, Mollie Kresin, Dylan Walker and Mark McKown.