News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
York Institute hoping to implement an 80-year forestry program for students to learn sustainable forestry and business practices.
School Director John Bush said that CTE Director Sam Brown came up with the idea. Bush said that they want to be able to teach their students how to make the most of the land and use natural resources to their benefit.
“They really have a broad understanding of all the different resources that a property can have,” Bush said. “And how they can manage those resources so that they can have additional and supplemental income for years to come and not just neglecting a resource.”
Bush said that using the 180 acres of red oaks and white oaks on campus, students will harvest tracts in five-year increments to be sold into the timber market. He said that the increments will help the forest replenish itself as the program continues through the years.
“We would never promote anything like a clearcut here on the campus because that doesn’t teach anything like forest management to our students or resource management because then it’s just one and done and your resource is gone, ” Bush said. “So what we’re trying to do is implement an 80-year select harvesting program (…) So obviously John Bush won’t be here to see that first tract harvested a second time, but it certainly means we can set in place something that is really going to be a lasting agricultural legacy.”
Bush said that they have set up plans with the Tennessee Department of Agriculture to review the program. He said that they hope to have the forestry class and the harvesting program up and running by the 2024-2025 school year.
