Amador County – A new workshop is designed to educate private landowners as to the best method to maintain and manage thousands of miles of forest roads. Titled “Designing, Improving, and Maintaining Forest & Ranch Roads,” the seminar will cover the thousands of miles of roadways that crisscross the forests and ranches of rural California. The event is organized by the University of California Cooperative Extension, the Natural Resource Conservation Service and the Resource Conservation District. “This one-day workshop emphasizes field evaluation of road system conditions. Rural landowners are in need of good practical information to help them manage their road systems,” said Scott Oneto, UC Cooperative extension farm advisor. The workshop is instructed by Richard Harris, a forestry specialist with the University of California; John Schlosser, Engineering Geologist with the California Geological Survey; and Peter Cafferata, hydrologist with CALFIRE. Topics include landowner rights in relation to property access, environmental impacts from rural roads, rural road design standards, road surfacing and drainage alternatives, and the costs and funding for road projects. The workshop is offered in two locations. The first is Friday, May 8th at 12200B Airport Road in Jackson. The second is May 22nd at the Poverty Hill Schoolhouse, on Stent cutoff Road in Jamestown. Both workshops run from 8am to 5pm. The $20 cost includes lunch, refreshments and a road handbook. For more information, call Robin Blood at the UC Cooperative Extension office at 209-533-5695. Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.