Est. in the Forest
A six-month program of professional development for mid-career working landscape professionals — rigorous, applied, and free to accepted participants through partner funding.
About FBS
The Forest Business School serves mid-career professionals in forestry, logging, land management, and related fields — providing the instruction, peer environment, and structured accountability that help working people translate knowledge into measurable results.
There are no tests, no credits to chase, no papers to write. There is rigorous reading, honest group discussion, and the expectation that you will apply what you learn in your real work.
We are actively recruiting participants for our next Essentials program sessions. Additional offerings are in development — check the update document below.
Current Information
Updated regularly with current program details, scheduling, and other timely information.
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The Core Offering
Our flagship program — approximately six months of nearly weekly live video sessions, built for working people and free to accepted participants through partner funding.
One-hour evening video conferences almost every week. Group discussion of assigned readings, audiobooks, and podcasts. Sessions are recorded for those who occasionally need to miss one.
The program is about learning, not credentialing. You will think — a great deal — and you will be expected to show up, engage, and apply what you discuss in your real work.
Business and professional development concepts from respected books and podcasts, applied directly to work in the forest products industry and related professions.
No lectures. Ideas emerge through conversation among peers grappling with real problems in real businesses and agencies across the region.
Completers receive a certificate. CFE credits available through SAF; documentation provided for other organizations that award CE credits.
Partner funding covers the program. Participants obtain their own reading or listening materials — usually through Audible or a library. All assigned podcasts are free.
FBS Offerings
The Essentials program is FBS's flagship, but not its only offering. A growing suite of focused courses serves working landscape professionals at any stage.
The full FBS experience — weekly live sessions, rigorous reading and discussion, peer accountability, and sustained focus on applying proven frameworks to your own work. Free to accepted participants through partner funding. Details above ↑
Project management thinking applied to forestry and resource work — how to move things forward, reduce friction, and get more done with the same people and time.
Practical frameworks for understanding and improving the systems you work within — and putting the right technology to work without distraction.
For working landscape professionals building, growing, or re-imagining a business. The mindset, habits, and strategy that separate sustainable enterprises from the rest.
A concentrated program for people ready to stop waiting and take full ownership of their outcomes. High expectations. High return.
Course availability updated in the document above. Contact FBS@northeastforests.com to express interest in any offering.
Who Participates
The Forest Business School has attracted an extraordinarily diverse cohort of working landscape professionals. If you work in, around, or in support of the forest and land economy, you belong here.
Get Involved
FBS runs on two kinds of commitment — the organizations that make it possible, and the self-motivated individuals willing to do the work. Both matter enormously.
FBS is not a conference, a certificate mill, or a checkbox. It is a sustained, high-engagement learning experience that produces measurable change in the small businesses, agencies, and professional practices that sustain the rural forest economy.
Partner funding — from state and federal agencies, forestry foundations, industry associations, and extension programs — removes the financial barrier to participation and opens the program to the most motivated, qualified candidates regardless of resources.
Your investment is leveraged directly into improved business performance and stronger rural communities. FBS can also develop customized resources — training, strategic plans, evaluations, and tools — tailored to your organization's specific needs.
FBS is not for everyone — and that is by design. The program is built for people who are already capable and working hard, but who know there is more. More revenue. More clarity. More impact. More control over how their career or business unfolds.
What this program requires is straightforward: you have to actually want to improve, and you have to commit — to the weekly sessions, to the reading, and above all to applying what you learn in your actual work. If you are self-motivated and honest with yourself about where you are and where you want to go, this environment will accelerate you.
Application and acceptance process applies to the Essentials program. Individual courses are open to all working landscape professionals.
Apply to the Essentials ProgramCommon Questions
The School
The Forest Business School is directed and taught by Dr. Steven Bick, CF, principal of Northeast Forests LLC in Moretown, VT. He has more than thirty years of experience providing continuous education and professional development resources for working landscape professionals.
He is a small business owner, land steward, writer, and researcher with deep ties to the forestry and forest products community across the Northeast and beyond. His applied work includes web-based tools and safety resources for the logging industry.
To learn more, discuss enrollment, or inquire about customized resources — training, applications, evaluations, or strategic plans — contact Dr. Bick at FBS@northeastforests.com.