Leadership Update, May 2013
The monthly e-newsletter exclusively for ATFS State Committee leaders.
Table of Contents
Special Announcements
Tools
On the Ground
For The Future
Special Announcements
Regional Tree Farmer of the Year Announced
The American Tree Farm System is proud to announce the 2013 Regional Outstanding Tree Farmers of the Year. Congratulations to these outstanding Tree Farmers and their respective state committees and foresters:
The four regional awardees will all be recognized at this year’s National Tree Farmer Convention in Minneapolis. Additionally, the National Outstanding Tree Farmer of the Year will be selected from these four regional awardees and recognized at the Convention. Thank you again to STIHL, Inc. for their ongoing support of this award program.
Time is Running out for the 2013 Tree Farm Photo Contest, Sponsored by STIHL!
The deadline for submissions to the 2013 Tree Farm Photo Contest is June 1, 2013! This year’s contest is open to photographers of all ages and backgrounds and will cover two categories of photo entries:
Category 1: Scenic Tree Farm landscapes with or without your Tree Farm sign, and
Category 2: Photos featuring multiple generations on your Tree Farm, walking, recreating, or learning in the woods.
The winner of each category will each receive a $500 product certificate good towards the purchase of STIHL products and accessories at your local authorized STIHL dealer. Additionally, the runners up in each category will each receive a $250 STIHL product certificate. Photo Contest entries are due June 1! For more information on the 2013 Tree Farm Photo Contest, rules and regulations, as well as how to submit your own photo – or photos – for consideration, please visit our photo contest page
Good luck!
2014 Grant Information and Applications will be released by the end of May
Contact MacKenzie Rawcliffe with questions
Tools
One month left to register for the 2013 National Tree Farmer Convention!
The 2013 National Tree Farmer Convention will take place this summer, July 25-17, in Minneapolis, Minnesota – and it’s our 20th Anniversary of the Convention!!! You won’t want to miss this special event. Registration for the Convention closes June 14, so register today – and encourage Tree Farmers in your state to register, too.
This year’s event will feature a field day highlighting local artisans and woodworkers (as well as superb forest management), educational concurrent sessions by industry experts, a presentation by author Eric Rutkow, and of course the presentations of the Regional and National Outstanding Tree Farmer and Inspector of the Year awards. Remember, registration closes June 14!
ATFS Leadership Webinar Series
Providing our state leaders with a variety of leadership development and capacity building tools is vital to the sustainability of our program. At the first quarter webinars for state leaders, we announced a new webinar series that is designed to help our state leaders enhance and develop their professional skills within and beyond the realm of the Tree Farm program. These webinars will be held on a monthly basis and will cover a variety of topics. If you have ideas for future webinars, please send them to Mike Burns. Here is what is coming up:
Upcoming ATFS Tree Farmer Webinars
These are webinars open to all webinars and you may find the valuable personally or you may want to promote them to your tree farmers. ATFS values our Tree Farmers’ commitment to good stewardship and we strive to provide the tools they need to keep their forests healthy, productive, and enjoyable. The ATFS webinar series provides important information to our Tree Farmers and covers a range of topics from invasive species to legacy planning. Here is what’s coming up:
Mailing List Report – Avoiding Invalid addresses
Generating a concise mailing list of Tree Farmers can be a challenging task. To alleviate these challenges and provide our state committees with a tool to accomplish this task, a “Mailing List” report was recently developed and added to the ATFS Database. This Mailing List report only pulls Tree Farm primary contacts and aggregates Tree Farm numbers and total acreage of all Tree Farms. Doing so eliminates duplicates caused by multiple owners and owners with multiple tree farms, providing the best mailing list possible. PLEASE REMEMBER there is a column in all these reports called “Contact Status” to sort out (or correct) invalid addresses. This new report is under “Tree Farmer Reports” and is ready to use. If you have any questions about how to use it, contact Justin Lindenberg. We encourage states to use this dynamic mailing list to contact Tree Farmers in your state.
MyLandPlan featured by the TimberWest Journal of Logging and Sawmills
MyLandPlan.org, AFF’s online tool for woodland owners, is quickly becoming a go-to source for landowners to learn how to manage their woods. In fact, the TimberWest Journal of Logging and Sawmills out of Washington, with more than 8,000 subscribers, featured MyLandPlan as a tool that will help their constituency move landowners away from a no-harvesting mentality to one that includes harvesting for healthier woods. The feature also includes reference to ATFS. If you are interested in featuring this tool in your own publication, please contact Caroline Kuebler.
On the Ground
Inspection Incentive Program Update
We recently revised the inspection incentive program to recognize the hard work of ALL required sample inspections. Previously, required sample decertification inspections were not granted funding. With this move we recognize the hard work that often comes with a decertification inspection including various contact strategies attempting to keep landowners and properties engaged with the program. For more details, view the fact sheet (must be logged in to Leaders Only) 2013 Inspection Incentive Fact Sheet[PDF].
Independently Managed Groups in your State
ATFS Independently Managed Groups (IMGs) contribute more than 5 million acres into the certified Tree Farm population. Interested in learning more about the ATFS Independently Managed Group certification program? The Spring 2013 Sightline is a great introductory resource and a deeper outline/presentation will be available soon. These groups are as diverse as our state programs and exist all across the country, as shown in our List of Active IMGs. Some IMGs have excellent relationships with their state committee and there are opportunities to work together to serve landowners with options for certification. For questions about the IMGs, contact Sarah Crow.
Southern Regional Assessment Complete
Virginia, South Carolina, and North Carolina recently completed their third-party assessment for the Southern Region. The assessments were well organized and Tree Farmers were visited by representatives from the State Committees and PriceWaterhouseCooper LLP. The Tree Farmers and foresters had an opportunity to show off their outstanding forest stewardship and the experience was well received by all parties. States in the West-Central region and Northeast (VT, WV, KY, CO, ME, NM) are undergoing assessments in the coming months and we are anticipating completing a successful assessment season in August. A big thanks goes out to all those involved in planning and executing this crucial process to the credibility of the whole certification program. For questions about the assessment, contact Sarah Crow.
On the Ground: In Washington DC
AFF’s public affairs team continues to work advocating for Tree Farmers across the country. Here is some new information and activities going on this month:
CEO Tom Martin introduces family forest owners to the Department of Interior
Tom Martin presented to approximately 200 people at the Department of Interior’s National Policy Monthly Roundtable on how they can better engage private forest owners in larger scale restoration efforts. The challenges posed by climate change, pests, pathogens and development, affect forests of all ownership types, and describe approaches to addressing these challenges. Tom discussed what motivates family forest owners and what incentives or approaches might entice them to be even better stewards. Here is a blog post that Tom wrote on similar topics.
Farm Bill Progress
Last week, the House Agriculture Committee passed their Farm Bill, just one day after the Senate Agriculture Committee passed their bill out of committee. Provisions in both bills include huge wins for forest owners.
Next Steps. The full Senate has started debating the Farm Bill, while the House is expected to consider this legislation later in June.
What to know more? Check out our American Forest Foundation press release and learn how the House and Senate versions may differ in certain forest provisions.
More work on Forest Roads Regulation
On May 16th, the Silviculture Regulatory Consistency Act was introduced in both the House and the Senate (H.R. 2026/S.971). Similar to last year, Senators Wyden (D-OR) and Crapo (R-ID) and Representatives Schrader (D-OR) and Herrera-Beutler (R-WA) introduced the legislation. Stay tuned for a chance to take action. This bill would provide greater certainty for forest owners under the Clean Water Act.
Tree Farm Fly-in a great success!
Fifty Tree Farmers from 25 states traveled to Washington, D.C. this month, conducting more than 120 meetings on Capitol Hill. Our Tree Farmers focused on advocating for policies and programs that help forest owners combat the threat of forest pests. We've heard many success stories from meetings with Members and staff. Thank you to all who participated and stay tuned for future opportunities to come to D.C.
Protect your Woods and fight pests and pathogens with Free the Trees!
Join our Free the Trees Campaign and sign our petition to urge Congress to support policies and programs that mitigate the threat. Please also help us spread the word! Share the petition with other landowners and forest enthusiasts.
On the Ground: In your State
If you have an event going on in your state or a best practice that you’d like to share with your fellow leaders please email MacKenzie Rawcliffe.
Idaho Forest Group announces premium for ATFS certified wood
Here is the announcement from the Idaho Forest Group (IDFG) about their proposed premium for ATFS-certified logs at their mills. We will be working with them to promote this program in the tri-state area around the Idaho panhandle. Be sure to check out the attached document for more details. We are very excited that IDFG has stepped up to value certification in this most significant way. Please forward this to others in the ATFS leadership who may be interested.
Example of Grant Success!
Last year, AFF supported this program and this year they were able to find funding to continue and nearly doubled their attendance! Congratulations to Rick Merritt and the rest of the Missouri Committee.
Vermont Tree Farm hosts Inspector Field Day
The Wilcox Family Tree Farm in Northfield welcomed Vermont Tree Farm’s (VTF) 2nd Annual Inspecting Forester Field Day. State Co-Chair Kathy Beland hosted the event, updated the Inspectors of what’s new with VTF over the last year, and gave her perspective on what the recently completed 3rd Party Audit revealed. The strategic plan developed in April of this year was made available for review.
VTF has recently reformed their committee structure and included Project Learning Tree (PLT) into their scope of work. State PLT Coordinator Rebecca Phelps led the group in an exercise she utilizes to introduce elementary school aged children to tree growth. New Hampshire past Chair Andy Fast talked briefly on how the program operates in his state and how foresters there engage landowners in Tree Farm. ATFS Program Resource Manager Mike Burns updated the group on the new initiatives and tools available from National. In addition to providing lunch and refreshments throughout the day, VTF provided each of the 16 attendees with a token of appreciation and held a drawing for a grand prize of a Garmin GPS.
As part of their Strategic Plan, VTF is committed to communicating with and engaging their inspectors. This field day was a great way to provide inspectors with necessary information, clarify questions regarding the Standards, and show appreciation and recognition of the service they provide to Tree Farmers. This event was partially funded through a capacity building grant from ATFS; for more information on planning and organizing a field day in your state contact Kathy Beland.
Forestry Institutes for Teachers
During the summer months, Project Learning Tree, the environmental education program of the American Forest Foundation, offers educators in many states the opportunity to spend a week learning about sustainable forestry and the dedication to stewardship by those working in and managing forests.
The goal of these tours is to provide K-12 teachers with knowledge, skills, and tools to effectively teach their students about forest ecology and forest resource management practices. Educators spend several days touring both public and private forest lands in their state, visiting wood product mills, and hearing directly from Tree Farmers, foresters, and other natural resource professionals.
In many cases, Tree Farm state programs host and assist with these tours. For more information, see PLT Summer Programs for Educators and please share this article with others as appropriate in your state.
For the Future
AFF Convenes National Thought Leadership Meeting in Driftless
At AFF’s invitation, top forestry leaders from around the country met in Wisconsin’s Driftless area to learn more about the exciting results from the testing there and in the Piney Woods in Mississippi, and how those results can help lead to a more demonstrated conservation impact on the land. More specifically, the group explored how to take full advantage nationally of the results from both places and bring these tools to more partners and even perhaps the federal Forest Stewardship Program. FSP provides some $30 million dollars of technical and resource support to landowners, but is under intense scrutiny by appropriators in Congress who want to see a better case made for its impact on the land.
The Driftless and Piney Woods work has established new tools that can help measure and demonstrate such impact for the future. AFF board member and Maryland State Forester Steve Koehn were on hand to help shape and lead the discussion. Other attendees included: Jim Hubbard, Deputy Chief, US Forest Service; Vicki Christiansen, Associate Deputy Chief, US Forest Service; Paul DeLong, Wisconsin State Forester; Michael Rains, US Forest Service Northern Research Station and Forest Products Lab; and Rob Doudrick, US Forest Service Southern Research Station.
Silent Auction State Challenge – Does your state have the goods?
The upcoming 2013 National Tree Farmer Convention will feature a silent auction to benefit the Minnesota Tree Farm Program. Proceeds from this auction will go towards enhancing the mission and on-the-ground services of the Minnesota program for today’s landowners, as well as future Tree Farmers. And you can help! Whether it’s a sample of your state’s finest maple syrup, a hand-made item from your state’s Tree Farmer of the Year, or even a weekend retreat to your state’s most beautiful landmark, donating to the 2013 Silent Auction is your way to show some state pride while supporting the hard work of your fellow committee leaders. And to sweeten the deal, ATFS will award prizes to the top two states whose donation(s) receive the highest total cumulative bidding! Donor must me listed as your state’s Tree Farm Program in order to count towards the prize.
Click here for more information on the silent auction and how to make your donation. Good luck!
