2026 Eastern Washington Online Coached Planning Course

Session 1 – An Introduction

TimeTopicPresenter
6:00 – 6:20Welcome and IntroductionsJoshua Cardin (WSU Extension)
6:20 – 6:30Navigating Course MaterialsJoshua Cardin (WSU Extension)
6:30 – 7:00What is a Stewardship Plan? Introduction to Coached Planning.Andrew Perleberg (WSU Extension)
7:00 – 7:10BREAKBREAK
7:10 – 8:25What is a Stewardship Plan? Introduction to Coached Planning.Andrew Perleberg (WSU Extension)
8:25 – 8:30Concluding Remarks / HomeworkJoshua Cardin (WSU Extension)

Speaker Contact Info:

Joshua Cardin, WSU Extension, (509)-308-8224, joshua.cardin@wsu.edu

Andrew Perleberg, WSU Extension, (509)-630-4217, andyp@wsu.edu

Learn More and Start to Develop Your Plan

Recommended Readings and Activities:

  1. Read through some of the sample plans in the course materials to help familiarize yourself with the format of a Stewardship Plan. Do any of the samples seem to fit your style/objectives/property that you can use to help create your own plan?
  2. Following the Forest Stewardship Plan Guidelines, prepare the Cover Page of your plan. You can use the Forest Stewardship Plan Template (Word Doc) to get started if you wish.
  3. Scope out your landowner objectives. What are your hopes, intentions, and/or expectations for your property? How do you want your forest to look and function in 5, 10, 20 years and beyond? If you are managing your property jointly with someone else (e.g., family member, neighbor), discuss your management objectives together.
  4. Complete the Landowner Objectives section of your plan using the Objectives Section Examples as a guide. Differentiate between the underlying objectives and the action items to achieve those objectives (which will come later in the plan). If it starts with a verb, it is probably an action item and not the ultimate objective.
  5. Draft as much of the General Property Description of your plan as you can. Utilize the General Property Description Examples as a guide. Don’t worry about identifying and describing all of your stands yet.
  6. Read through Terminology for Forest Landowners and walk through your woods. Practice some of the tree identification techniques we used in class. How diverse is your property? How many different tree species do you have on your property? Take some photos!
  7. Read through Forestry Education and Assistance for Washington Forest and Woodland Property Owners.

Connect Online

Check out these additional resources that are available to you online:

Browse the WSU Extension Forestry website and start familiarizing yourself with the resources there. You will be utilizing this website throughout the class. Look especially at the
WSU Extension Forestry Resources page to get an idea of the resources available to you as a forest owner.