The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, along with the Chatham County Center of North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service, is conducting a series of free wildlife workshops for Piedmont-area landowners.

The first workshop, “Introduction to Managing Your Land for Wildlife: What Landowners Need to Know,” will be held on July 20 from 7-9 p.m., in the North Carolina Extension Service Agriculture Building’s auditorium, located at 65 East Chatham Street in Pittsboro.

Staff from the Wildlife Commission’s Private Lands Program will present information and tips on how landowners can manage their property to attract wildlife, how they can identify and define their land-management objectives, and how they can locate additional resources to help them manage land for wildlife.

“Approximately 90 percent of the land in North Carolina is privately owned so landowners who manage their properties for the benefit of wildlife can have an enormous cumulative impact on wildlife conservation in our state,” said Kelly Douglass, a Wildlife Commission technical assistance biologist who will be a presenter at the workshop.

This workshop is the first in a series of four that will be held at the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service over the next seven months. The next workshop, on Oct. 28, will focus on land-management techniques to attract nongame wildlife. The third workshop will be held on Nov. 16 and the topic will be determined based on attendees’ feedback from the first two workshops. Both of these workshops will also be held from 7-9 p.m. at the Agriculture Building in Pittsboro. An all day workshop at the Silk Hope Farm Heritage Center is scheduled for Jan. 9, 2016. More information about each workshop will be available on the Commission’s website and the Extension Service’s website closer to the dates of the workshops.

While the workshops are free, pre-registration is required. To pre-register, email extension.programs@chathamnc.org, and type “wildlife” in the subject line. For more information about the workshops, contact Debbie Roos with Chatham County N.C. Cooperative Extension Service, debbie.roos@chathamnc.org or 919-542-8202.

Release by North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.