Why are YOU a Tree Farmer?
Paul McKenzie, Montana Tree Farm Committee Chair
As I was sitting at my computer trying to decide what to write for my very first “Message from the Chair”, I started thinking of all the great plans I had for Montana Tree Farm and where I thought we could improve as an organization. Then I started thinking, why am I thinking about my plans? Tree Farm is really YOUR organization, so I needed to remind myself that I was really doing YOUR work.
The Montana Tree Farm Mission is to promote the growing of renewable forest resources on private lands while protecting environmental benefits and increasing public understanding of all benefits of productive forestry and to raise the level of knowledge about natural resource issues as related to forestry management.
So, with that in mind I have a question for all of you Tree Farm members out there: WHY ARE YOU A MEMBER OF TREE FARM? Is it the potential for Certification by PEFC? Is it the requirement for having a written management plan? Is it the periodic visit from a professional forester? Is it the newsletter? Is it the cool sign?
Let me start by telling you why I am a Tree Farmer. My family and I became Tree Farmers the first time about seven years ago on property we owned in Trego, MT. Mike Justus got us signed up. Both my wife and I are professional foresters, and probably don’t need a lot of advice on how to manage our lands. However, it was important to us as landowners to be members of Tree Farm. Why? Well that is hard to put into words, at the time, as Mike Justus put it….Why Not?
Now we own “McKenzie Tree Farm” number two. Actually it is my wife Holly’s Tree Farm that I get to provide some manual labor on! It is a whopping 12 acres in size, has been high graded in the past, and has very little merchantable material on it. We have been Tree Farmers on this property for almost two years, and it is our “family forest”! It is our homestead, a place to raise our children, dogs, cats, fish and probably a few chickens some day. It is where I come home to at night and where I sit on the porch to unwind and just look over my “spread”. It is where, according to my management plan, I should have thinned two acres more of lodgepole than I did last year. It is where I spray the weeds, but there is still some mullein and knapweed that evade these efforts. It is where my Tree Farm sign is nailed to the side of my shop rather than properly mounted on a post like the manual shows.
Ron Buentemeier is our Tree Farm inspector. So, we have a very real incentive to do things right and follow our management plan, because we know that in five years, Ron will be back to check up on us!
Our first Tree Farm annual convention was in Eureka, where we visited the Vredenberg and Flannagan Tree Farms. These were both true family forests! Large acreages that had been in the same family for generations, been cared for and cultivated with true stewardship and that have displayed that green and white sign for a long time.
Holly and I often find ourselves inspired by and maybe a little envious of those great Tree Farms we have visited at the annual conventions. The great thing about Tree Farmers is that they accept and value you as a fellow Tree Farmer whether you have 10 acres or 10,000. We are proud to be part of Tree Farm and value the friendships we have formed and advice we have been given.
Have I changed the way I would manage my lands just because of that sign? Probably not, but I am proud to display that sign because it truly is the “Sign of Good Forestry”. Maybe it does make me work a bit harder because I know that Ron will be back to make sure I am living up to the Tree Farm Standard. More importantly, I also know that there are 87,000 other Tree Farmers out there that expect me to live up to that standard too if I want to share that green and white sign with them.
Will my little Tree Farm every have the same impact on wood, wildlife, water and recreation that all those other great Tree Farms like Vredenbergs, Peters, Hodgebooms and all the others will? Probably not, but when I drive by one of those green and white signs anywhere across the United States, I know that the land behind it is cared for with the same love and family commitment as my own 12 acres are, and that those lands will continue to provide the social and environmental benefits that our society needs far into the future.
The more I get involved in the organization, and interact with its members, the more valuable it is to me to be a Tree Farmer. They say that you get out of something exactly what you put into it. If you have that green and white sign up on your property just because someone said “Why not?” then you probably don’t get much out of your membership. When you start getting involved, meet other Tree Farmers, attend an annual meeting, read the newsletters and magazine, then you will really start to experience the value of the program.
What do I expect from Tree Farm as an organization? I expect it to maintain high standards for Forest Stewardship. I expect it to value and encourage the family aspect of family forests. I expect it to provide assistance and guidance to landowners to help them be the best stewards of the land that they can. I expect it to serve as the common thread between family forest landowners and to use the strength of that network to speak out on issues that affect private landowners. I expect it to listen and be responsive to the need and will of its members.
What do I expect out of my fellow Tree Farmers? I expect them to value the good name of Tree Farm and to take their membership seriously. I hope that they will decide to become involved in the organization to help make it better for the future. I expect them to provide advice to aid and improve our state Tree Farm program.
So, as both a Tree Farmer and as a leader of your organization, I want to hear from you. I want to hear why YOU are a Tree Farmer, why you value the program, what you like and do not like about the program and where you think we should go in the future. Don’t worry, you will not offend me. I may not be able to change everything; this is a pretty big boat to turn! Please send me you thoughts! Thanks in advance, and let me assure you I will work hard to make your Tree Farm membership more valuable.
Paul McKenzie is the current Chairman of the Montana Tree Farm Steering Committee. For more information on the Tree Farm system and it’s activities near you, please visit the Montana Website at http://www.mttreefarm.org and the national website at http://www.treefarmsystem.org or contact Paul at the contact information listed below:
PO Box 1429
Columbia Falls, MT 59912
406-892-7012
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