On
a crystal blue-sky Saturday in September the Idaho Tree Farm®
Program held its annual field trip. Idaho Tree Farmers from Ada
to Kootenai counties reveled in the perfect late-summer weather
while touring working forests near Cascade and McCall. The
featured host for the morning was Idaho Lt. Governor Brad
Little, honored by the Idaho Tree Farm Program as the 2009
Outstanding Tree Farmer of the Year. Mr. Little’s management
activities range from past timber harvests and tree plantings to
more recent pre-commercial thinning, hazardous fuel reduction
and fire breaks. Tour participants explored the beauty of the
Little family’s forested acreage while discussing carbon
sequestration opportunities and local biomass fuel production
efforts.
Attendees included State Senator Lee Heinrich, State
Representative Paul Shepherd, Valley County Commissioner Gordon
Cruickshank, Senator Jim Risch’s Natural Resource Director Mike
Roach, State Tax Commission Forester Rod Brevig, Southern Idaho
Timber Protective Association Chief Fire Warden Mark Woods,
several consulting foresters, Tree Farm Inspecting Foresters,
Tree Farm landowners, as well as representatives from the Idaho
Department of Lands and the University of Idaho.
Tour
participants lunched at the UI-Payette Lake campus and
participated in discussions of the McCall Outdoor Science
School, current stimulus package funds intended for renewable
natural resource projects, and recent Farm Bill-related
opportunities for forest owners.
The
afternoon was hosted by Dr. Herald Nokes, Idaho Outstanding Tree
Farmer of the Year in 1980. Dr. Nokes has placed a conservation
easement on his forestland adjacent to McCall and Little Payette
Lake so it can remain perpetually intact as a working forest and
be utilized by University of Idaho forestry instructors and
students as a research forest.
For
more information on the Idaho Tree Farm Program, visit
www.idahotreefarm.org,
email
admin@idahotreefarm.org, or call (208) 667-4641.
