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Forestry and Community Are Inseparable 

Alan Haney and Lowell Klessig

     While it is possible to support your local community in a hundred ways, we often overlook the fact that, as forest owners, we have some very important opportunities to be good neighbors.  We’re not talking about opening your forests for public hunting and hiking, although some landowners are willing to do that.  We are not talking about giving your immediate neighbors access to your land, although many landowners do so.  We’re focusing here on the many benefits of a well managed forest that do not require that you encourage others to come onto your property.

    Perhaps most obvious (the pun is intentional) is aesthetics.  For most people, a landscape with a significant proportion covered by forests is more attractive.  This relationship was confirmed in Wisconsin by research by Dr. Robert Brush from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and Dr. Rick Chenoweth from the Madison campus.  Even people not familiar with forest management recognize the difference between poorly managed forests and forests that are well managed.

    Forests provide protection to the watershed that is superior to just about every other use we make of land.  Precipitation is intercepted by the trees, soaked up by the litter and spongy soil of the forest, and released slowly to groundwater where it recharges our wells and springs, and maintains our streams.  Water moves down the watershed or hydrologic gradient, providing one of our most precious resources to the whole society.  Forests and associated wetlands provide the highest quality of water, which in turn, supports higher quality lakes and streams.  As a forest owner, your stewardship directly or indirectly is affecting everyone in your watershed and, potentially, many wells in your neighborhood.

    Forests managed to enhance wildlife can improve the quality of life in your community. Most people enjoy seeing wildlife.  Bird watching has become the most popular outdoor activity in United States.  Most hunters say that being in the woods is more important than bagging game.  Forests provide essential habitat for wildlife which often range far beyond the property boundaries of individual landowners to be enjoyed by other landowners and the general public. 

    In some cases old forests, that are left undeveloped and uncut, make a special ecological, aesthetic and spiritual contribution to the community.   In most cases good forest management involves removing less desirable trees to make room for those that better serve your purposes, whether aesthetics, wildlife,  firewood, financial gain, or combinations of these.  When wood is sold, it provides an economic benefit not only for you, the forest owner, but for the logger, the mill, retail outlets, and the workers who make their living from them.  Because income is invested or spent, it has a multiplier effect on the economy. The wood becomes lumber, paper, or a myriad of other products that we derive from timber, to the benefit of every consumer.  In a similar way, attractive forests enhance the economies of tourism.

   While good forestry makes good sense for you, it also provides wildlife, water quality, natural beauty and economic values to the community.  We doubt that you are thanked very often by those who enjoy these benefits, but you should take some satisfaction from knowing that you are contributing to the quality of life in your community.  Good management is also contagious.  Your efforts may inspire and encourage similar efforts in your neighbors’ woods, and you will reap some of the benefits.  Good management not only sets a good example, but it will also identify you as a source of ideas and information.  By assisting your neighbors, you not only benefit them and others, but you also are benefiting yourself

   And there is another important benefit.  The common interest that you and your neighbors have in forestry provides a mechanism to build your sense of community.  A “Walk in the Woods” or another group activity of Wisconsin Family Forests Alliances does much more than share knowledge and experience.  These activities provide a context – a rare opportunity – to simply get together as neighbors.  Some neighbors, especially absentee landowners, never get together.  Other neighbors see each other at church, weddings or basketball games but those interactions are diluted with many other people and another purpose.  In contrast, a group with a common interest in trees and the physical proximity of properties can lead to the intangible value of feeling that you belong.  Thus your interest in being a good steward of your woodland can enhance your sense of community at the same time that it enhances the quality of your woods.