Personal Statement to Congress Boosts Tree Farmer Voice in the 2012 Farm Bill
On May 31st, Karen Serfass testified before Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow and the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.
Karen, a Tree Farmer from Dafter, Michigan, spoke for both the American Forest Foundation and the 95,000 Tree Farmers the foundation works with every day.
Karen reminded the Committee that most Americans don’t realize that forests provide tremendous public benefits: clean water, clean air, wood products, and wildlife habitat.
Additionally, more than 10 million individual Americans own the largest segment of our nation’s forests and are therefore directly responsible for the health and well-being of the country as a whole.
“Forests in American are the ultimate public-private partnership. Families like mine invest in and make improvements in our nation’s forests and keep these forests as forests, and all Americans benefit,” Karen said in her statement.
Karen’s statement helped explain why Farm Bill Conservation programs and the USDA Forest Service private forest programs are critically important to both family forest owners and the greater public.
Karen and her husband, Rich, purchased 205 acres in the Eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan in 1988 for hiking, hunting, wildlife, and skiing. After purchasing their land, the couple realized they had no idea how to manage it.
After reaching out to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and a private consulting forester, Karen and Rich created a USDA funded Forest Stewardship Plan to better manage their property to mimic historic natural habitat.
The management plan involved diversifying tree age and species, harvesting and opening up areas for regeneration, improving roads and trails, and investing in food plots for wildlife. All the harvesting income was reinvested back into the property to further the goals of their Forest Stewardship Plan. Karen and Rich employed these management practices on all properties they later purchased.
Currently, Karen and Rich are implementing an Environmental Quality Incentives Program contract to plant 6,000 trees and shrubs as windbreaks and travel corridors. This cost-share program ensures the projects will be completed in both a timely and effective manner.
Unlike Karen and Rich Serfass, most forestland owners don’t realize they need to participate in active forest management. They don’t understand that idle, unmanaged forests are no longer healthy forests—especially in the wake of increased pest, pathogen, and non-native species invasions. In fact, in the Serfasses home-state of Michigan, only 3 percent of forestland owners, who collectively hold 1.1 million acres, have forest management plans. The same is true on a national scale.
In conclusion, Karen said, “[These programs] are an incredibly valuable tool for families like mine, leveraging our investment, to make improvements to the land that benefits all Americans. In 2008, Congress made a number of improvements to Farm Bill Conservation Programs without which I probably would not be here today.”
Karen suggested that Chairwoman Stabenow and the other Committee members strongly consider the American Forest Foundation’s 2012 Farm Bill recommendations, paying particular attention to conservation program maintenance and addressing the need for on-the-ground technical assistance.
Photo taken at Michigan's Warren Dunes Dtate Park. Photo credit
Flickr's JacobEnos
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