Outstanding Tree Farmers –2001

"Son, you take care of the land, and the land will take care of you." These are the words Barnett King's widowed mother would say to him as she raised her family on their small Alabama row crop farm.

Today, Barnett and Edna, his wife, are passing this advice onto a new generation. The King's not only manage their forest for forest products, wildlife and recreation, but for education as well. Their 410-acre Tree Farm has been lovingly crafted into a living, working classroom for young school children. Nearly 1,000 children a year visits the King's forest to learn about the values a healthy, sustainably managed forest brings. They have built butterfly and hummingbird gardens, a mile-long wheel chair accessible nature trail and an outdoor classroom with lectern and benches. One area school children particularly enjoy is the lizard fence habitat in an area of the King's outdoor classroom called "Fern Valley." Says Barnett, "One day, the students who visit our Tree Farm will be our governors, our senators, maybe even our president. We want these young people to have contact with the true faces of nature." The King's have been sustainably managing their Crenshaw County, Alabama Tree Farm since 1950 when they acquired their first tract of forestland.