You need more diversity than just pine plantations. As we know, most wildlife thrives on variety, so diversity is what we try to do out here in terms of cover, natural grasses, and annual and perennial plots. Tell us more about the conservation education program for kids at Charlane. I came to realize the misconceptions the public has about forestry and proper forest management. This led me to think about the best way to correct this.
Certainly education is one of the answers.
The sooner you reach young people and give them a feel for forestry, the better off you are. They can read it in a book and that's fine, but until they go to a tree farm or hunting preserve, until they walk in the woods and see what a working farm is, it's hard to get a feeling for it. So we've developed a one and one-quarter mile nature trail where they can identify 29 species of trees along the trail. We try to make it a pleasant, educational place not only for schoolchildren but university students. We feel education is a way of giving back and clearing up misconceptions about forestry.