Stewards Rising
A balanced, ecologically grounded approach to forest management is our best way to help our forests adapt to climate change while providing essential materials and benefits to our communities. Apprentices learn these principles through real work in the woods: inventorying forest stands, marking adaptive silviculture prescriptions, maintaining forest roads, managing introduced species that have grown out of balance, running chainsaws, and much more.
Ecological Forestry
Good forest management is only one piece of a broader puzzle. To rediscover a vibrant, reciprocal regional forest economy, we must reimagine how local wood is used in modern building. Apprentices build skills in forest operations, wood processing, and carpentry by using wood from Smokey House Center’s forests to construct new buildings and maintain existing structures on the property.
Local Wood Use and Facilities
Both Smokey House Center and its two partner farms—Yoder Farm and Dorset Peak Sheep & Cattle Co.—are trialing perennial farming strategies including many agroforestry systems. Apprentices gain a close up understanding of the many challenges and opportunities of agroforestry through hands-on experience in forest farming, alley cropping, silvopasture, maple syrup production, and more, in turn helping provide affordable and healthy food to our local community.
Agroforestry & Food Access
Equipping young people with skills and knowledge isn’t enough to secure them dignified careers. As many of our land-based industries undergo tectonic shifts, young people face an increasingly challenging job market. Smokey House Center is helping build our region’s future workforce by connecting apprentices with regional employers through our extensive network of collaborators, from nonprofits and state agencies to innovative for-profit businesses.
Professional Development
Are you a graduating college student looking to have hands-on learning experiences in the forestry sector? Smokey House Center's Stewards Rising program might be for you. Sign up to be contacted of future programs.
Apprenticeships at Smokey House Center
A better future for people and land is dependent on training a new generation of land stewards in strategies that seed abundance rather than feed destruction. The Stewards Rising Apprenticeship is Smokey House Center’s flagship 9-month program for regional youth dedicated to building careers in ecological land stewardship. Participants build skills in a wide variety of fields while acting as the primary workforce helping steward the organization's 5,000 acre mosaic of working and conserved forestlands, productive agroforestry systems, dynamic riparian systems, public trails, and facilities.
Smokey House Center's main campus in Danby, Vermont