SEPTEMBER IS NATIONAL TREE FARM MONTH

As promised, we will continue to share information that we find interesting with our customers, suppliers, and friends.

This year marks the 66th anniversary of the American Tree Farm System in the United States. Since the beginning in 1941 with the first certified tree farm in the state of Washington the program has grown into a 46 state Tree Farm Committee with 4,400 volunteer foresters and 87,000 family forest owners who together manage more than 27 million acres of land. A green and white tree farm sign is a source of pride for many land owners showing their commitment to sustainable forestry and maintaining a healthy habitat for wildlife. Other benefits include education and recreation. Our state is home to over 1550 tree farms with over 500,000 acres in the program.

Our forester, Patrick Kenney, is a past chair of the Tree Farm program in the state of New Hampshire. He has worked with landowners to implement a written forest management plan and to help them follow the ATFS standards and guidelines to be a certified Tree Farm.

For the past five years Patrick has been working with Randy Larson, Forestry Committees, and Camp Rangers of the Yankee Clipper Council, Boy Scouts of America, to have their camps accepted into the American Tree Farm System. This process started with a review of the Council's long term objectives for each camp and an on-site review of the timber resources to see what management options they had. The Council has responsibility for over 400 acres of forested lands and knew they needed to manage them as efficiently as possible. Within the past two years, forest management plans have been developed for all three properties with focus on the specific goals the council has for each camp. With organized plans in place, timber sales were scheduled and executed at each camp. Currently the first phase of the long term plan has been fully carried out on Lone Tree Scout Reserve and Camp Onway. At Camp WahTutCa, the forest management operation is midstream waiting for frozen conditions to complete this first phase of long-term stewardship.

We at Fort Mountain Companies are happy/proud to help promote sustainable forestry for everyone's future. Every September a Tree Farm Field Day is held at the NH Tree Farm of the year. The purpose is to help educate other tree farm and private forest owners of the benefits of sustainable forestry practices at one of the top tree farms in the state. This year the field day will be held on the 22nd of September in Bethlehem, please call 603-224-9945 (NHSPF office) or email rhardy@dred.state.nh.us for more information on this event.

Your friends in the forest, Fort Mountain Companies