Laurene Gerrior of Rochester has successfully completed the three-day training workshop for the Keystone Project, a program that helps community leaders advocate for forest conservation, land preservation and among other environmental initiatives.

The training was held at the Harvard Forest in Petersham, April 16 to 19, and Gerrior attended as a representative of both the Rochester Conservation Commission and the Rochester Land Trust.

In ecology, a keystone species is one whose impacts on its environment are larger and greater than would be expected from one species. The Keystone Project invests education and reference materials in important, keystone people making a large impact at their local level. The training covers subjects such as forest ecology and management, wildlife management, land protection and community outreach.

In exchange for the training and take-home resources, graduates of the program, called “Cooperators,” agree to return to their communities and volunteer at least 30hours of their time towards projects that promote forest and wildlife conservation. For more information about the Keystone Project, visit http://masskeystone.net/.

The Keystone Project is designed to stimulate forest landowners and community opinion leaders to be advocates of sound forest conservation, and to help inform the land management and conservation decisions of their friends, neighbors, organizations, and communities. Keystone Cooperators can be very effective in doing this, since they are well-connected community leaders.

Other past Cooperator projects have included permanently conserving their own land, initiating a forest landowner cooperative, promoting management on municipal and conservation lands, writing newspaper articles, hosting educational events and improving their own properties for wildlife, recreation, and timber.

The Keystone Project has reached more than 450 community opinion leaders and landowners over 24 years. In 2013, Keystone Cooperators collectively volunteered more than 44,636 hours to conservation-related activities. That’s the equivalent of 22 full-time conservation positions, 63 percent of which were volunteer hours. Cooperators reported owning or being involved in the management decisions (e.g., land trust, town own) on more than 143,000 acres of land.

More than three-fourths of all woodland in Massachusetts is owned by thousands of private families and individuals. Much of this land is at risk of conversion to developed uses. It is important to reach woodland owners and communities with information on the care of this land. Keystone training is designed to provide Cooperators with skills and information to better engage with owners and communities on caring for this land at the local level.

The Keystone Project is organized by the University of Massachusetts Department of Environmental Conservation and UMass Extension, with support from MA DCR, the Harvard Forest, the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife and the Massachusetts Chapter of The Nature Conservancy.

For more information on forest conservation or Keystone, contact Paul Catanzaro, University of Massachusetts extension assistant professor, at 413 545-4839 or cat@umext.umass.edu.