From tree farm to forest farm - forestry consultant Henry Kernan - includes related article - Private Forests

American Forests, March-April, 1994 by Henry Kernan

As the possibilities of profit have become more and more irrelevant, other possibilities have unfolded, rewarding my ownership many times over. Whatever the size and length of their tenure, woodlot owners can share those benefits, at least to some extent.

Dairy and grain products aside, my lands supply every product needed for food and warmth. Whitetail deer populate this rural, heavily forested section of New York. Their meat, highly nutritious and fat-free, is by law free of charge. Hunters receive permits for their sport on my land and respond by filling my freezer with venison every fall: roasts, chops, steaks, ground and stew meat, and sausage. Small-game hunters give me lesser amounts of rabbit, turkey, grouse, beaver, raccoon, woodchuck, partridge, and goose. One careful and skillful trapper has my permission to take in any legal way and number the 12 kinds of fur-bearing animals he finds upon my land. In return, he produces maple products and gives me whatever quantity I choose to take.

The agricultural past brought light and space to food-bearing trees: apples, pears, shadblow, butternut, hazel, and cherry, besides eight kinds of wild berries, which I share with the wildlife. Wild apples make superb cider and sauce. Deep in the forests are leeks, ginseng, and ginger; in the lake are bass, bluegills, bullheads, and pickerel. In the river are trout for the anglers, who, in contrast to the deerslayers, are a quiet and secretive lot. Two hives of bees give me honey from the wildflowers, especially goldenrod.

My valley is high, narrow, and cold--down to -45 degrees. For seven months of the year keeping warm is a dominant concern. The only costs of using wood are work and forward planning. The gains include saving money, ridding favored stands of their cull trees to the amount of 10 cords a year, and establishing additional links to my woodlands.

Aside from earthbound matters of food and warmth, these woods have been a means to avoid the isolation to which country living is prone. The hamlet of South Worcester is now but a voting district, with the honor of being a national historic landscape but no longer with a school, store, post office, church, or hotel. With little reason to gather, even nearby neighbors do not see each other from one year to the next.

Each Christmas my forestlands attract visitors via my offers of free trees and each spring by offers of free seedlings in any amount and size. The woodlands have also been hosts to the outdoor activities of Scouts and other groups. Sharing my forestland and knowledge has been as important a reward of ownership as the more mundane ones of food and warmth.

My woodlands have given me many rewards besides those three, rewards not expected in the spring of 1947. I believe those rewards fully justify my choice of becoming a SNIPFO (small nonindustrial private forest owner)--and my choice of the designation Forest Farm.

DIVERSITY, ECOLOGY, AND THE SMALL-FOREST OWNER

The nation's timber supply has been greatly affected by the recent cutbacks in federal timber from the Northwest. Many observers presume that private lands can make up the difference in ways that are sustainable and environmentally sound. The difference runs into billions of board-feet.