2025
West Virginia Forest Farming Field Day
The 2025 WV Forest Farming Forum address a variety of forest farming topics, including opportunities for generating agricultural income while conserving and rejuvenating forested land through the cultivation of medicinal herbs, mushrooms, and maple syrup.
Event Details
Location: This year's event will take place at the Yew Mountain Center which is around 30 minutes from Marlinton, WV. GPS is not always reliable. For driving directions to the Yew Mountain Center, click here.
Lodging: We do have limited rooms available on site at the Yew Mountain Center or plenty of camping options, learn more here. There are many places to stay in and around Marlinton. Housing options can be found on Airbnb and the Pocahontas County CVB webpage.
COST: The WVFFI works to make learning opportunities accessible for all, regardless of ability to pay. The true cost of this field day is more than $110 per person, but because of grants and donations, we can offer it to participants for a lot less. We offer you a sliding scale pricing menu to help sustain our initiative. You can help grow our community by paying a registration fee that supports our scholarship fund, pay our base registration fee to cover the essentials, or contact us for a scholarship. This fee includes all instruction, lunch, and dinner.
Any option you choose, our forests and families win when we come together to learn and grow!
Sustaining Rate $50
Essential Costs $35
I will apply for a scholarship $0
Scholarships are available for people who need financial assistance to attend this workshop. If you are interested in a scholarship, please send a scholarship request to [email protected] before registering.
- Sat. May 17th 8:00am – 8:00pm – Yew Mountain Center, 9494 Lobelia Road, Hillsboro, WV
- Registration Includes:
- Full Day of Workshops
- Lunch and Dinner
- Forest Farming materials and technical assistance
- Information on forest farming mini-grants
- Registration Includes:
Lodging: We do have limited rooms available on site at the Yew Mountain Center or plenty of camping options, learn more here. There are many places to stay in and around Marlinton. Housing options can be found on Airbnb and the Pocahontas County CVB webpage.
COST: The WVFFI works to make learning opportunities accessible for all, regardless of ability to pay. The true cost of this field day is more than $110 per person, but because of grants and donations, we can offer it to participants for a lot less. We offer you a sliding scale pricing menu to help sustain our initiative. You can help grow our community by paying a registration fee that supports our scholarship fund, pay our base registration fee to cover the essentials, or contact us for a scholarship. This fee includes all instruction, lunch, and dinner.
Any option you choose, our forests and families win when we come together to learn and grow!
Sustaining Rate $50
Essential Costs $35
I will apply for a scholarship $0
Scholarships are available for people who need financial assistance to attend this workshop. If you are interested in a scholarship, please send a scholarship request to [email protected] before registering.
Workshop Schedule
Session Descriptions
Forest Farming Expert Panel
– Ed Daniels, Marlana Pennington, Will Lewis, Wes White, and more TBA!
We will be hosting a long format Q&A with forest farmers across the region who span from beginners to experts.
Site Selection
– Will Lewis
This workshop session will focus on how to use companion plants and other biological indicators to identify suitable planting sites. Time will be spent discussing companion tree, shrub, and herb identification, reading the landscape, and other assessment tools.
Forest Botanical Propagation
– Ed Daniels
Ed offers a practical and sustainable approach to growing at-risk forest botanicals using organic methods and is one of the best at propagating forest botanicals and expanding their populations.
Value Added Workshop
– Marlana Pennington
Marlana resides in eastern West Virginia, with her husband and 3 daughters, together they operate Branch and Root Forest Farm. The small scale forest farm grows primarily ramps and a variety of mushrooms, along with a small patch of goldenseal, black cohosh, blue cohosh and bloodroot. The property also has a hearty native population of Solomon's seal, wild cherry, and witch hazel, as well as several maple trees.
Getting Started with Honey Bees
– Will Lewis
Learn all about honey bees from our resident beekeeper and owner of Blessed Bee Honey, Will Lewis.
Maple and Tree Syrups
– Trevor Swan
Join Trevor Swan as he teaches us all about tree saps and syrups.
Silvopasture and Farming Your Forest Margins
– Wes White
Wes will guide us through the process of combining animals as part of your forest farm and forest edge as well as using them to help control invasive species.
Applying Silviculture to your Forest and Sugarbush
– Ken Beezley
This course will focus on thinning, crop tree release, stand structure, species composition, light penetration to the forest floor (or lack thereof). It will also talk about felling techniques and how to care for residual trees and plant succession
Forest Farming with Fungi
– Jon Lamastra
This class will cover multiple methods of forest farming with both wood-loving and soil growing Fungi, including such methods as Log Cultivation, Live Tree and Tree Stump inoculations, Mushroom Beds, and the Spore Slurry technique.
Finding Solace in the Woods
– Various Presenters
Veterans share how they began their operations and how farming and foraging have affected their mental and physical well-being.
– Ed Daniels, Marlana Pennington, Will Lewis, Wes White, and more TBA!
We will be hosting a long format Q&A with forest farmers across the region who span from beginners to experts.
Site Selection
– Will Lewis
This workshop session will focus on how to use companion plants and other biological indicators to identify suitable planting sites. Time will be spent discussing companion tree, shrub, and herb identification, reading the landscape, and other assessment tools.
Forest Botanical Propagation
– Ed Daniels
Ed offers a practical and sustainable approach to growing at-risk forest botanicals using organic methods and is one of the best at propagating forest botanicals and expanding their populations.
Value Added Workshop
– Marlana Pennington
Marlana resides in eastern West Virginia, with her husband and 3 daughters, together they operate Branch and Root Forest Farm. The small scale forest farm grows primarily ramps and a variety of mushrooms, along with a small patch of goldenseal, black cohosh, blue cohosh and bloodroot. The property also has a hearty native population of Solomon's seal, wild cherry, and witch hazel, as well as several maple trees.
Getting Started with Honey Bees
– Will Lewis
Learn all about honey bees from our resident beekeeper and owner of Blessed Bee Honey, Will Lewis.
Maple and Tree Syrups
– Trevor Swan
Join Trevor Swan as he teaches us all about tree saps and syrups.
Silvopasture and Farming Your Forest Margins
– Wes White
Wes will guide us through the process of combining animals as part of your forest farm and forest edge as well as using them to help control invasive species.
Applying Silviculture to your Forest and Sugarbush
– Ken Beezley
This course will focus on thinning, crop tree release, stand structure, species composition, light penetration to the forest floor (or lack thereof). It will also talk about felling techniques and how to care for residual trees and plant succession
Forest Farming with Fungi
– Jon Lamastra
This class will cover multiple methods of forest farming with both wood-loving and soil growing Fungi, including such methods as Log Cultivation, Live Tree and Tree Stump inoculations, Mushroom Beds, and the Spore Slurry technique.
Finding Solace in the Woods
– Various Presenters
Veterans share how they began their operations and how farming and foraging have affected their mental and physical well-being.
Presenter Bios
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Marlana Pennington
Branch and Root Forest Farm
https://branchandrootforestfarm.com/
Marlana resides in eastern West Virginia, with her husband and 3 daughters, together they operate Branch and Root Forest Farm. The small scale forest farm grows primarily ramps and a variety of mushrooms, along with a small patch of goldenseal, black cohosh, blue cohosh and bloodroot. The property also has a hearty native population of Solomon's seal, wild cherry, and witch hazel, as well as several maple trees.
Marlana officially started forest farming in 2022 after receiving the CAGP grant, but grew up enjoying ramps every spring, and now enjoys growing them, along with educating others about these special plants, while selling value-added products and mushrooms at local markets. Seasonally, Marlana also hosts small homeschool groups, as well as local families on the farm for maple tapping exhibitions and mushroom tours/harvests. |
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Ed Daniels
Shady Grove Botanicals
Ed is a forest and market farmer in the heart of the Appalachian mountains. Born and raised in West Virginia, he and his wife, Carole, began planting wild harvested American ginseng on their farm in the mid-1990’s. They incorporated other forest medicinals, like goldenseal, ramps, and black cohosh, and continue adding other native plants to their properties. In 2016, they started a small business, named Shady Grove Botanicals, where they grow and sell starter kits to beginning forest farmers, as well as produce several value-added products.
They attend and present at forest farming conferences to increase and share their knowledge. Since 2016, Ed has been teaching the youth how to grow at-risk medicinals using sustainable and organic methods. Shortly thereafter, they incorporated vegetables into their program to teach kids how to grow their own food. This is how their non-profit, Plant the Seed Project, began. |
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Will Lewis
WV Forest Farming Initiative Coordinator
Blessed Bee www.yewmountain.org/forest-farming
Will is the Yew Mountain Center’s forest farming coordinator and a technical service provider for the West Virginia Forest Farming Initiative (WVFFI). His degree in Horticulture served as a great baseline for him to launch into the forest farming coordinator at the Yew Mountain center in 2018.
Since then he has been establishing the forest farm at the Yew and has been trained to offer site visits and other technical assistance to forest farmers through the WVFFI. Will, alongside Erica Marks, was instrumental in creating the West Virginia Forest Farming Initiative project of the Yew Mountain Center and regional partners. He also works as a seasonal honey bee inspector for the West Virginia Department of Agriculture and manages his own beehives for his business which sells bees, queens, and hive products. With his years of experience in agriculture he has a diverse background of whole farm management to help serve farmers that are establishing or diversifying their farms. |
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Ken Beezley
Davis and Elkins College Instructor
www.dewv.edu/staff/kenneth-beezley/
Ken Beezley is an Instructor at Davis and Elkins College in the Department of Biology, Environmental Science, and Sustainability and Forest Technology program, teaching courses in Silviculture, Forest Management, Ecosystem Protection and Forest and Wood Products.
A Registered Professional Forester and Certified Arborist, Ken has over two decades of experience in the forest management and professional tree care sectors, offering management and consulting services as a small business owner. Ken attended Glenville State University and WVU for forestry and received a master’s degree in Forestry from WVU researching tree biomechanics. Outside of his professional career, Ken enjoys being outdoors exploring nature, attending live music events and resides in the Hillsboro, WV area with his wife and two teenage sons. |
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Wes White
Shadowlands Farm LLC
Shadowlands Farm LLC was born from a passion for clean, ethical, and nutrient-dense food. Starting as an urban homestead in KY and evolving to a “Farmette” in CO, we have now blossomed into a full-scale direct-market regenerative farm in the Highlands of Virginia. Since 2021, we’ve been establishing our roots in SW Highland County, building fences, pens, huts, sheds, a barn, and a future butcher shop with a custom exempt processing facility.
We’re committed to a resilient future, integrating livestock and poultry to mimic natural systems, seeking to sustain and protect our local ecosystems. We raise heritage Duroc hogs, Boer goats, egg layers, broilers and will be adding grass-fed beef in the coming year, additionally in our woodlot we tend and grow forest botanicals such as Ramps, Goldenseal, Solomon’s Seal, Ginseng, Goldenseal, Cohosh, etc. Our journey is ongoing, and we look forward to sharing more as we grow. |
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Trevor Swan
Hillsboro Maple Works
The Swan family has been making syrup since 2015 and now have roughly 1100 maple taps and 120 sycamore taps. They have just a handful of maples at our house outside Hillsboro, where our sugar shack is located. Most of the trees we're tapping are leased from several landowners on the beautiful waters of Stamping Creek of the Greenbrier River, in addition to our partnership with the Yew Mountain Center in Lobelia.
Hillsboro Maple Works aim to provide an economically and environmentally sustainable alternative forest land management to traditional timbering. They are lovers of maple syrup and other maple sweets and products, and have a growing sweet tooth for additional tree syrups such as Sycamore, Black Walnut, Birch, Beech, Hickory... who knows what they'll try next year. They enjoy seeing the agricultural and tourism related value that this adventure brings. |
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Jon Lamastra
Lamastra Farms
https://lamastra-farms-llc.square.site/
Jon Lamastra is the owner of Lamastra Farms, a family run agri-business. Located in beautiful Greenbrier County, their focus is on growing high quality gourmet and medicinal mushrooms, mushroom spawn, grow kits, heirloom produce, and egg/meat production of poultry and other small livestock.
While they focus on agricultural production, they also offer educational workshops, as well as perform several speaking presentations for the local community, including such organizations as the WV Master Gardeners Society, The Shepherd Center, The WV Mushroom Club, The WV School of Osteopathic Medicine, and the Yew Mountain Center. At Lamastra Farms, their goal is to spread the knowledge of the nutritional and medicinal benefits of mushrooms and their cultivation methods, to help people be able to grow their own food as well as their own medicine. |
More bios to come soon!!
The West Virginia Forest Farming Field Day is a collaboration between the
Appalachian Beginning Forest Farmer Coalition and the West Virginia Forest Farming Initiative.
Appalachian Beginning Forest Farmer Coalition and the West Virginia Forest Farming Initiative.
We are excited to be a part of the new West Virginia Forest Farming Initiative, a collaborative project of the Yew Mountain Center, Sprouting Farms, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Rural Action, United Plant Savers, and Natural Capital Investment Fund. This project will help WV take its rightful place as a leader in responsibly supplying non-timber forest products to the world. Stay tuned for more!
Forest Farming is the practice of cultivating non-timber forest products that have medicinal, culinary, or decorative uses. This practice can help protect wild population of sought-after plants, enrich and restore forest ecology, and provide income to owners of woodlands.
The goal of the Yew Mountain Center's forest farming project is to provide support for small-scale, low-capital, ecologically-sound forest farming through study, demonstration, and training.
Our educational forest farming project is supported by the WVDA Specialty Crop Block Grant, USDA Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program, Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, One Foundation, and Sacharuna Foundation. We are also grateful for the generosity and expertise of local native plant growers such as Barry Glick of Sunshine Farm and Gardens, and Ed and Carole Daniels of Shady Grove Botanicals. Paul Strauss of Equinox Botanicals, Tanner Filyaw of United Plant Savers and Rural Action have donated technical assistance. These supporters and our volunteers have enabled us to plant beds of goldenseal, black cohosh, ramps, Solomon's seal, and over a dozen other native plant species. Signs help visitors identify these and other native plants of interest along our tails.
With the help of volunteer botanist, Ken Hiser, and a team of trained volunteers, we are doing an inventory of plants with a focus on the "at-risk" and "to-watch" species identified in this list from United Plant Savers.
For more information, visit here: http://www.wvforestfarming.org
Forest Farming is the practice of cultivating non-timber forest products that have medicinal, culinary, or decorative uses. This practice can help protect wild population of sought-after plants, enrich and restore forest ecology, and provide income to owners of woodlands.
The goal of the Yew Mountain Center's forest farming project is to provide support for small-scale, low-capital, ecologically-sound forest farming through study, demonstration, and training.
Our educational forest farming project is supported by the WVDA Specialty Crop Block Grant, USDA Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program, Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, One Foundation, and Sacharuna Foundation. We are also grateful for the generosity and expertise of local native plant growers such as Barry Glick of Sunshine Farm and Gardens, and Ed and Carole Daniels of Shady Grove Botanicals. Paul Strauss of Equinox Botanicals, Tanner Filyaw of United Plant Savers and Rural Action have donated technical assistance. These supporters and our volunteers have enabled us to plant beds of goldenseal, black cohosh, ramps, Solomon's seal, and over a dozen other native plant species. Signs help visitors identify these and other native plants of interest along our tails.
With the help of volunteer botanist, Ken Hiser, and a team of trained volunteers, we are doing an inventory of plants with a focus on the "at-risk" and "to-watch" species identified in this list from United Plant Savers.
For more information, visit here: http://www.wvforestfarming.org
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Participate in our Forest Farming Project at the Forest Herbs Weekend.
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