It
is a cold, windy day – typical weather for March –
and Tom DeWitt, a retired civil engineer, is leading me on a tour of his
120 acres in Rusk County. As we walk, he shows me the affects of his successful
management planning, pointing out the pond he constructed, the pines he's
planted and the maples he has tapped.
DeWitt calls himself a “pretty typical landowner,” but it
is apparent he is more; he is also an active steward of the land.
He met me in Chetek, which is about 20 minutes away from his land, and
drove me to the property. He also owns 40 acres in Washburn County, which
is actively managed as well.
DeWitt purchased the Rusk County property in 1969, knowing only that it was near their lake cabin and that the proximity to the lake would “double their enjoyment of their land.” DeWitt and his wife, Mary, hadn’t thought much about management planning then.
“When
I bought it, I had no idea what I was buying, with respect to the forest resource,”
he said. “I just wanted something that was a stress reliever, a place
where my wife and I could walk in the woods.”
”I have progressed with management plans since then,” he said.
DeWitt bought the Washburn County property in 1980 with a plan in mind.
“I wanted to establish a small Christmas tree plantation, which I did,” he said. “I figured it would be a way for my kids to learn some business skills as they got older and it would probably help with college tuition.”
“Then I wanted a significant amount of red pine (planted), which I did,” he said.
DeWitt estimates that he planted 4 to 5 acres of Christmas trees and the rest of the 40 is red pine.
He sold, at most, 300 Christmas trees in a year, and right now aims to sell 75 trees – and mostly to friends.
“My goal is to phase out of it,” he said. “It was fun, and we achieved what we wanted to, but I wouldn’t do it again. You have to sell big to make significant income, and marketing is not always easy.”
DeWitt is also thinking of restoring some prairie where the Christmas trees were once planted.
He calls his Washburn County management plan “pretty simple.”
“When the (Christmas trees) are gone, either replant with another species or leave it open for prairie,” he said. “The red-pine plantation is scheduled for certain thinnings at certain times.”
The management plan he has today for the Rusk County land is quite a bit more complex for a number of reasons, DeWitt said.
“For one, it’s just innately bigger,” he said. “And for another it’s sort of in the terminal moraine area of the last glacier.”
That means DeWitt’s land is hilly and has various types of typography.
It also has the tension zone running through it, he explained. This is an area in Wisconsin where tree species native to southern Wisconsin reach their northern boundary and tree species native to northern Wisconsin reach their southern boundary. Therefore DeWitt has a high number of different species on the property.
He
says that on a south slope of a hill, he’ll see trees that are typical
to southern Wisconsin, and on a north slope, about 100 yards away, he’ll
see trees that are typical in a northern forest.
“It’s kind of neat to see stuff growing together that should be 200 to 300 miles apart.”
DeWitt also has a high number of maple trees. Three years ago, after a DNR forester noted them, he decided to start producing maple syrup, an activity that gives him a sought after excuse to get into the woods early in spring.
Hear more about Tom’s maple syrup production here: mp3
or Real Audio file
For Tom, managing the woods starts with looking at what his value system is.
“Goals
are for tomorrow but values are forever,” he said. “Values
you live and those dictate what you do.”
For Tom, that also means valuing his family; he cherishes the experiences he's had with his family planting trees, building trails, and hunting.
"It's a special place for family to be together."
DeWitt is fond of an Aldo Leopold idea that if you view land as a commodity, you many abuse it. But if you view land as part of a community you’re a part of, you’ll use it properly.
“So through that as sort of a value system, a number of management objectives come into play,” he said.
DeWitt said he was forced to look at his values when property taxes “skyrocketed.” He said he knew he was going to have to cut trees to ease tax burdens and wondered if there were options for managing his property.
“One
of them at that time was the state’s Forest
Crop Law, which no longer exists today,” he said. “It’s
been supplanted by the Managed Forest
Law.”
“The best part was that it forced me into a management plan and that was a real eye-opening experience for me,” he said. “If you look at things statewide, about 60 percent of forestland in Wisconsin is in private ownership. Of that 60 percent, probably about 20 percent of those landowners have a management plan and when timber is sold only about 25 percent of landowners actually have a timber sale administered professionally.”
“I think that anytime you harvest timber you need to know what you are doing,” he continued. “You need to have a professional management plan. You can really mess up a forest if you go in there without following a good management plan.”
“Some species like aspen need to be clear-cut fully so they will regenerate,” he said. “There are other species, like many of the hardwoods, that an unscrupulous logger could high-grade and take all the best trees.”
So
far, the DeWitts have had three cuts on the Rusk County property, two
of which were planned. The third was a salvage cut, done after wind damaged
their trees.
Hear about the aesthetic considerations in management (mp3
or real audio) and red-pine
plantations (mp3 or real
audio)
“You can’t go into it blind.”
DeWitt recommends taking advantage of the resources available.
“The DNR has been very helpful,” he said. “The local foresters are very professional and very knowledgeable.”
“I’ve taken several extension courses, including the Woodland Leaders Institute a couple of years ago,” he said. “That has been very helpful.”
He cites UW-Extension publications and staff as good sources of information.
And he is a member of the Wisconsin Woodland Owner’s Association, in fact chairing his chapter last year.
“This is just a wonderful group of people -- a real treasure chest of knowledge.”
Hear more advice from Tom: mp3 or Real
Audio
While he says hindsight is 20/20, he wishes at his Rusk County property he had devoted a little more effort into regenerating oak and says he waited a long time to put in a good trail system.
“I wish I had done that right away,” he said. “Laying out a good trail system is vital to the enjoyment of your property and when you do have a timber sale it makes it so much easier, so much more efficient.”
DeWitt
values his land for its intangible qualities as well as its economic ones.
He feels a kinship with it, so much so that he tracked down a child, now
an elderly man, of the original homesteaders on the property to learn
more about their life while living there.
Only a few signs remain from the previous owners -- rusted metal buckets, a dug-out hole where the foundation of their small home once stood – but their presence is felt by DeWitt.
Hear more about what he discovered: mp3
or Real Audio
Owning land has been an invaluable learning experience and meaningful to him personally, he said.
“I really have come a long way in understanding what the forest resources and land stewardship are all about.”
Tom was kind enough to give us his management plan for the Rusk County property. Follow the link here to view it.