BRIDGTON – Loon Echo Land Trust and cosponsors, Casco Open Space Committee, Greater Lovell Land Trust, Hancock Land Company, Lakes Environmental Association and Raymond Conservation Commission, will host a forestry workshop at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 19, for private landowners, foresters, town officials and land trust staff and members interested in integrating timber management and biodiversity. The session will be held at the Bridgton Municipal Complex on Irdale Street.

Led by Robert Bryan, licensed forester and Maine Audubon forest ecologist, and Peter McKinley, ecologist and forest manager at Hancock Land Company, the workshop will review how landowners and foresters can improve or maintain wildlife habitat on their land while managing the land for recreation, timber or other personal goals.

“Managed forests can provide multiple benefits in developing communities, including clean water, clean air, wildlife habitat, wood for building homes and furniture, and places to enjoy nature and the outdoors,” said Bryan. “Focus species forestry is an integrated way to achieve those goals.”

The workshop is based on Maine Audubon’s new guide, “Focus-Species Forestry,” which shows how to manage forest lands for the full range of Maine’s wildlife while providing other forest benefits such a wood, clean water, clean air and recreation.

Focus-species forestry aims to help foresters and landowners develop management plans that support the goals of “Beginning with Habitat,” an award-winning collaborative program that helps communities plan growth to protect natural areas and, in so doing, prevent sprawl. The Lakes Region received a “Beginning with Habitat” presentation in June 2003.

The new forestry management guide is published by Maine Audubon in cooperation with the Maine Department of Conservation, the Professional Logging Contractors of Maine and the Small Woodland Owners Association of Maine.

Workshop participants will receive a summary of the guide’s recommendations; copies of the guide will be available for purchase at the workshop.