About Tree Farm...
Tracing its roots back to the 1940's, The American Tree Farm System can lay claim to being the oldest form of certification or recognition system for the practice of growing trees and maintaining sustainable forests in America.
For generations, American landowners and farmers have proudly posted their Tree Farm signs as a way of displaying their stewardship values.
“Our sign has been out there in the woods for some 60 years,” stated Dave Woodmansee, a Co-Chair of North Carolina Tree Farm. “Most folks recognize the sign means that the forest is being well-managed.”
North Carolina forest owners have been part of this tradition since the program's inception. However, early in the 1990's, the program went into a hibernation of sorts due to administrative cutbacks. At the time, there were some 2,500 tree farmers were enrolled in the program.
In 2001, Dave Woodmansee, Al Weller and Catherine White successfully resurrected the program under the guidance of Tree Farm Chair, Bob Cooper and several motivated Tree Farmers. After starting from scratch, the North Carolina Tree Farm is approaching the 1,000 Tree Farm mark.
North Carolina boasts 18 million acres of forestland. More than 90% of these forests are privately owned and roughly 64% of these forests are owned by private, non-industrial landowners.
If you are a landowner who would like to become a Tree Farmer,
please contact us. If you are a forester who would like to be
certified as a Tree Farmer, inspector, we would welcome your support.
www.nctreefarm.org