The MSU extension service is hoping to help local agriculturalists see the forest — or at least their part of it — despite the trees.

The extension service will offer a class on how to properly use a global positioning system in an agricultural context from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 8, Adams county MSU extension service director David Carter said.

Global positioning systems act as electronic maps by charting locations through a satellite to handheld device feed.

The aim of the course will be to teach the basics of GPS, its present applications and its potential for future use, Carter said.

“A lot of young guys can pick up anything electronic and figure out how to work it in just a couple of minutes,” Carter said. “A lot of older guys aren’t that technology saavy.”

The course will include both classroom instruction and hands-on outdoors training, Carter said.

“In forestry, it can help someone know where a property line is so that they don’t cut down someone else’s trees,” he said.

The program is free, but it will be limited to the first 30 applicants before May 4.

It will be at the Adams County Extension Office at 75 Carthage Point Road in Natchez.

Registration fees, tuition, notebooks, refreshments and supplies were all funded by the Adams County Board of Supervisors through the Title III Enhanced Forestry Education Program.

For more information, contact Extension Forester Trey DeLoach at 601-857-2284 or Carter at 601-445-8201.