Keith Martell, Jr. - 2014 North Central Regional Inspector of the Year
Not many 16-year-old boys would buy forestland rather than a new car. But that’s exactly what Michigan Tree Farmer and Tree Farm Inspector Keith R. Martell, Jr., did many years ago. “I was just getting into high school, and I wanted a car real bad,” says Martell. “My dad told me I could buy a car or I could buy something of lasting value.” Young Keith chose lasting value: 80 acres of woodlands purchased for $27 an acre. It’s a decision that shaped his future.
“I was always interested in trees and growing things, and even at that age I knew I wanted to be a forester,” Martell recalls. His early purchase spurred him to pursue a bachelor’s degree in conservation and a master’s in forestry, and led to a lifelong devotion to sustainable forest management. That commitment recently earned him the honor of being named a Regional Inspector of the Year by the American Tree Farm System® (ATFS).
Today, Martell earns his primary living as a consulting forester whose family-owned business, Martell Forestry, tirelessly promotes sustainable forestry and the benefits of the Tree Farm program to other Michigan landowners. He also raises timber on 520 acres of ATFS-certified woodlands in Chippewa County in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and is a successful commercial Christmas tree grower. Martell has passed along his love of good forestry to his son Keith R. Martell III, a forester for Weyerhaeuser.
His roles as a Tree Farmer and a volunteer Tree Farm inspector are the accomplishments that give Martell, a consulting forester the most satisfaction. “Although I’m a registered, certified forester who does consulting forestry work for a living, I consider myself first and foremost a Tree Farmer,” he notes.
“I got involved in Tree Farm in the late ’70s when I worked for the USDA as area conservationist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service,” he remembers. “Trees were always my first love, so I became a member of the Michigan Tree Farm Committee as a representative of USDA. I was on the Tree Farmer of the Year selection committee and had so much fun doing that. It was a chance to look inside people’s heads and see what makes them successful and unique.”
The biggest challenge to Tree Farmers in Michigan is finding good markets for their timber products, Martell says. “Selling timber allows people to own and maintain and protect their forestland. If land doesn’t produce an income then it will gravitate to a different use—sold and changed to cropland or condominiums or shopping malls or things like that.”
As a consultant forester, he continues, “one of my first jobs is to help people retain their forests and not mistreat them. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t get a phone call from someone who wants to liquidate their forest in order to pay the bills. I try to convince them that their land will be worth more if they practice good stewardship. It is challenging, but it can be done.”
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STIHL is the presenting sponsor of the Outstanding Inspector of the Year award, which annually recognizes outstanding sustainable forest management and exemplary work for ATFS.
