Tree Farmer Recognized for Conservation Efforts

Transcript

Host: A tree farmer from central Pennsylvania is receiving a prestigious award for his efforts next week. Jim Walizer has been named the Northeastern Regional Tree Farmer of the Year. He will receive the award at The National Tree Farmers Convention in Alabama for his dedication to wildlife conservation and the education of future tree farmers. David Klatt visited Walizer's farm and has this report.

KLATT: Jim Walizer is a grandfather with a hearty handshake that tells you he’s spent more than half a century working the land. He waits in his driveway wearing an old ball cap, a plaid shirt and work boots, his keys jingling as he motions to his blue Chevy truck.

Sound of truck starting

KLATT: We’re taking a short drive just a half-mile down the road to see the family’s most recent project: a pasture that Walizer converted into a tree farm three years ago. But this isn’t your average row-by-row tree farm that you might expect to chop down a Christmas tree in. This farm is more like a sustainable forest that has been designed to give some of the land back to nature. Walizer pulls the truck through the gate and onto the farm.

WALIZER: This is going to be developed into a whole new forest here, which will buffer the stream going down here. It’s great for wildlife, it’s good for soil conservation and it’s great for forestry. You can see some of these trees are growing pretty big for only three-year old trees.

The stream that runs through this small valley separates two rolling hills. Green fencing protects the young trees, just two to three feet tall, from hungry deer. Most of them are oak trees, but there are also sugar maples and tulip poplars. Close to 400 rare American chestnut trees dot the hill across from us. Walizer steers the truck down the hill toward the chestnuts and engages the four-wheel drive.

WALIZER: You might want to hang on a bit, we’re gonna go over the crick here. It’s gonna be a little rough…OK…Hang on, here we go.

Rocky ride sounds

KLATT: Tree farming is not as simple as ‚Äúgrow them tall, then chop them down‚Ä?. Responsible tree farmers must find a way to balance a variety of environmental factors. Walizer calls this putting the ‚Äòtotal package‚Äô together and his checklist has four goals: keep the streams clean, provide a habitat for animals, produce timber and finally, educate the next generation of tree farmers to do the same. This young farm will satisfy all four goals, and one extra: Walizer‚Äôs special interest in preserving the American chestnut tree.

WALIZER: We have 384 chestnut trees…Within, probably five years, these trees will be bearing nuts. So there’s the wildlife: the deer, the bear, the squirrels will be going crazy on those nuts. We also have a timber component. We also have a cooling of the stream. It’s important to get a lot of hardwood leaves into our streams. The bacteria work on them and everything and that’s what we’re trying to do here.

KLATT: Walizer admits he didn’t know much about forestry or tree farming when he bought this land in the mid-80s. Like most farmers around here, he grew corn. But he was interested in conservation, so he got in touch with District Forester Jim Steeler. The two set up a conservation plan for his property while Walizer took a 40-hour crash course in Forestry at Penn State.

WALIZER: One thing led to another and I just keep getting in deeper and deeper.

Thinking long term is an essential skill for any tree farmer. Tree farmers like Walizer make decisions that determine what a piece of property will look like and the environmental impact it will have years, decades and even generations later. The work is a delicate science, and it’s all for someone or something else.

WALIZER: When I harvested corn, it’s only a five-month crop. We plant it in April, we harvest it in November and we’re done for the year. And that’s it. When you work with trees, it’s going to be at least 40 years, and probably 80 years before you harvest anything.

KLATT: That job, harvesting this forest’s timber and looking after the surrounding environment, will fall to one of Walizer’s two sons, or one of his seven grandchildren. All of them live close-by. He feels that educating the next generation is essential. The Walizers frequently give tours of their property to groups like forestry classes from Penn State, Boy Scout troops and even local Amish woodworkers.

Back at his house, Walizer tells me he hopes his award encourages other farmers to practice better forest management now, and for generations to come.

WALIZER: It’s great to be honored by your peers – that’s the greatest honor you can have. The thing is that we’ve got better ground and we’re teaching more and more all the time on how to do better things. And we have to teach this next generation coming on because they’ve got no place else to learn.

KLATT: The award makes Walizer one of the top four tree farmers in the nation this year and puts him in the running for the National Award, to be announced next week.

For The Allegheny Front, I’m David Klatt.