“Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse”…Yes, that is the famous start to Clement Clark Moore’s poem, but for the Ricks family, the 2009 North Carolina Tree Farmers of the Year, two days before Christmas is no time for snoozing – It’s time for planting.

(Click here for the Ricks National Tree Farmer of the Year Nomination)

With visions of pears, crab apples and persimmon trees and the wildlife that those trees will bring dancing in their heads, that is exactly what Riddick and Alice Ricks did with the assistance of their two sons, Ben, 29, and Will, 25.

“That was our family event this year,” explained Riddick, 57, as he points across the field at the seedlings clad in orange tubing. “We planted 100 trees and put on the tree protectors on seven different orchards.”

The family planting project was actually the culmination of so many things on this breathtaking 606-acre Tree Farm named Whispering Pines Wildlife Preserve that showcases what can be achieved when the love and appreciation of forestry, wildlife, nature and faith are woven together on one piece of property.

From a forestry aspect, for Riddick, it was one of the final pieces of the puzzle.

“From the wildlife perspective,” stated Riddick, “Orchards are probably one of the last things you do. There are so many other things you do first, but it adds a lot of character and value to your property.”

On a personal level, the orchard project marked yet another family event on Whispering Pines that was purchased in 2006 with the proceeds from a timber sale on the family’s first Tree Farm, the Ricks Tree Farm, which was purchased in 1991.

Most Tree Farmers understand the importance of seeking outside advice from various experts in the field to realize their management goals for their property, and Alice and Riddick are no different. However, this couple took this advice-seeking to a new level when they created two of their own experts in sons, Ben and Will.

Ben and Will both graduated from North Carolina State University. Ben is now a Fisheries Biologist for the state of Alabama. Will is a graduate student in Wildlife Biology at the University of Georgia.

“Since they have been small, they have been involved with our forests,” stated Riddick as he mused that he is not surprised his sons, who are the fifth generation of Ricks Family Tree Farmers, chose professions that put them outdoors.

The orchard project was the boys’ idea from the start. Ben ordered the first batch of trees and gave them to Riddick as a Father’s Day gift with the promise of a December delivery date. Will added to the list of trees and mapped out where the orchards should be planted. When Will arrived home for Christmas, he staked the property for the orchards and Ben brought the trees home with him from Alabama.

For Riddick, the project showed that his sons were taking an active interest in the family Tree Farm.

“As part of any mentoring process, you have to let those around you take some leadership roles,” explained Riddick on why he was so thrilled with the orchard project. “Our Tree Farms involve family decisions. Even today, just about all management aspects, I sit down with daddy (Elliott Ricks) and discuss them with him and get his feedback. And, he is wise. Sometimes he will share something that helps me improve what I am doing.”

Just as he has influenced his sons, Riddick attributes his love of forestry to his parents, Elliott, 87, and Lizzie Ricks. Riddick, along with two brothers and a sister, grew up on a 400 acre farm in Northampton County where the family produced various row crops, peanuts primarily. One brother and sister now live in Richmond while his other brother is a farmer in Northampton County. Life on the Ricks farm was quite different from today’s operations.

“I remember my daddy plowing with a mule,” stated Riddick. “I rode on the back of the mule while daddy plowed the fields.”

The goal was to finish most of the farm work by August. Riddick recalls referring to it as “the farm being laid by.”

“When the farm was laid by, then we would go to the woods,” explained Riddick. “Daddy’s true love was his forests. Of course, he made his living with row crops, but he made good income on his forests, too.”

Elliott Ricks, who had grown up on a farm just a few miles from his farm, owned a small pulpwood truck and would sell timber to the mill in Roanoke Rapids in addition to selecting trees to generate his own lumber and fence posts for the farm. During his youth, Riddick watched and learned as his father prudently managed his fields and forests.

“I got a great appreciation that a forest is made up of individual trees,” stated Riddick. “We wouldn’t cut a tree unless there was a real reason to cut it.”

And while forestry has always been a passion for Riddick, a degree in veterinary science was his first aspiration.

“Ever since I was five years old, I wanted to be a veterinarian,” stated Riddick.

Riddick followed his dream with an undergraduate degree from North Carolina State University in 1974 and then a veterinary degree from Oklahoma State University in 1978. It was during his time at N.C. State that Riddick met Alice. Riddick, then a sophomore at State, had earned a trip to Chicago to take part in the National 4-H Convention by placing first in a statewide swine competition. Alice, a North Carolinian herself from the Cape Fear region, was on her way to Chicago for her statewide win in a wildlife resources competition. Their chance meeting in the airport led to a lasting relationship.

“When you consider my background, and you meet somebody that was going to the National 4-H Conference in wildlife, it was amazing how much we had in common,” stated Ricks. “I fell in love with her. We share a unique love for nature and our faith as well for each other.”

The newly married couple returned from Oklahoma upon Riddick’s graduation. There were several offers on the table for a graduate with Riddick’s skills, but the desire to be close to home brought them back to Northampton County where Riddick went to work for the Roanoke Animal Hospital. Riddick and Alice started their family and Riddick started his pursuit of his own Tree Farm while helping his father with his forest management.

If you look at their Tree Farm holdings now - three different locations in Northampton County - Whispering Pines Wildlife Preserve, The Ricks Tree Farm and White Oak Alley – that total over 1,100 acres, you would think that piecing these properties together was a snap. It was not the case. Riddick recalls with amusement how many bids fell short by the smallest amount of dollars. Then a phone call changed Riddick’s luck.

“A gentleman called me and said, Riddick you may not remember who I am, but I know you and I know your family. Your mother and daddy were good friends to my parents when I was growing up and always did a lot to help us out. My daddy passed away recently, and I would like for you to be able to purchase this property,” recalls Riddick.

The property was exactly what Alice and Riddick were looking to acquire - it was adjacent to his father’s farm and totaled 140 acres of 13-year old pines. So, in 1991, Alice and Riddick became forest landowners. A year later, they added another 15 acres to the property and started actively managing their forests for timber, wildlife and aesthetics. In 1994, they officially enrolled their property into the American Tree Farm System.

“I am not a perfectionist, but if I take on any task, I want to do it the very best I can,” explained Riddick.

The word was out – Alice and Riddick Ricks were in the business of being top notch Tree Farmers. While balancing a heavy workload at the animal hospital, the Ricks added to their Tree Farm acreage by acquiring a farm they named “White Oak Alley” via three separate purchases in 2004 and 2005. White Oak Alley now is a 234-acre tract that features mature hardwoods.

The family’s investment in its forest management for wildlife, timber and other aesthetic values was no token endeavor. Sure, cost share programs are available, but in the big picture, the funds rarely offset all the costs associated with the forest management goals of the Ricks family.

“At this time, I sat down with Alice and my boys and I said I am committed to doing this right,” stated Riddick. “We are going to do it whether we get cost share or not. That was really an important crossroad to make that determination. It had to be a family decision that we were going to invest in sustainable forests that would grow in terms of wildlife and timber.”

For all of their forestry work on their two Tree Farms, the Ricks family was recognized by the Northampton Landowners Association as its Tree Farmers of the Year in 2004.

“Alice and I and the boys feel like we are blessed,” stated Riddick. “God has blessed us. With that blessing, He expects us to be responsible stewards. This is our heart. It’s really what drives us.”

In 2006, Riddick’s perseverance in forest management paid direct dividends as timber proceeds from a sale on his first Tree Farm, The Ricks Tree Farm, provided the framework for the purchase of Whispering Pines. The property, which was overgrown and neglected to some degree, fit nicely into the Ricks Tree Farm Family based on its location and natural attributes.

“It is important to have our Tree Farms in proximity to each other so I can easily work all of them,” stated Ricks. “When you get into planting, fertilizing, spraying, it gets really complicated for a one man show.”

Now, in no way does Ricks consider himself a one man show when it comes to the management advice of his forests – far from it. He has two consulting foresters, one who assists with his controlled burns and another who helps with timber sales. He frequently calls upon the foresters with the Northampton County Office of the North Carolina Division of Forest Resources to the point that they know him on a first name basis. He has called on members of the North Carolina Wildlife Services, North Carolina Division of Soil and Water Conservation - you get the picture.

“I pick up the phone,” stated Riddick. “I am always asking for people to come and visit us.”

What Riddick is referring to when he talks about being a one man show is his hands-on dedication to his 1,100 plus acres. As the lead veterinarian at the Roanoke Animal Hospital, he works a four-day week, leaving on Thursday afternoon to manage his forests. He estimates that he spends 30 hours a week working on his Tree Farms.

His equipment shed, which is housed on Whispering Pines, features one of his prized possessions – a 55-horsepower John Deere tractor – which he purchased two years ago after tiring from borrowing one of his brother’s tractors. Of course, he has several attachments for the tractor.

“It was the happiest day of his life,” added Alice Ricks to which Riddick conceded with a gentle nod of his head, “Yes, it was a pretty good day.”
Riddick has a calendar of management chores tied to each month of the year. January is maintenance month where he seeks to weed out exotic species. February is the time he likes to complete understory burning of his pine forests and prepare his clover fields and food plots.

“I soil test so I can fertilize and lime food plots and field borders accordingly,” stated Riddick. “I am a believer that if you plant something, it needs to be properly fertilized and limed.”

While he sites various requirements that he must perform to satisfy the numerous wildlife and conservation programs he is enrolled in, the source of Riddick’s efforts is his quest to realize the full potential of his property.

“It’s a puzzle and every part of that puzzle is important and pleasurable,” stated Ricks as he cites his appreciation for wildlife, wildflowers and trees and why his family’s approach to forest management is so comprehensive.
In terms of wildlife, Ricks sees the opportunity to return his lands to the days of his youth when quail were plentiful.

“My passion was quail hunting growing up,” stated Riddick. “Even when I got out of veterinary school, every Saturday and Tuesday during quail season, my father and I went quail hunting. It was our time to bond and spend time in nature.”

To this end, he seeks to re-establish “easy transitions” from fields to the forests that were eradicated on countless farms in an effort to make them have a “golf course” appearance in the 1980’s. When Riddick is talking about “easy transitions”, he is not talking about what it would take for a human to walk through it. It is quite the opposite. Ricks plants smaller trees and shrubs within the field borders to protect wildlife from predators as they make their way from a field to the forest. His goal is to have all of his fields connected with transitions.

“You have to have a good bulldozer man,” stated Riddick as he explains how he has shaped the topography on Whispering Pines and his other properties. “I have one that understands what I am trying to do from a wildlife and forestry standpoint. On Whispering Pines alone, I have probably 30 acres of in-the-woods food plots, trails and fire breaks.”
In terms of fields, Riddick has some 50 acres of cleared land that his brother farms on an annual basis. All of these fields are bordered, but in addition, Riddick establishes fields of clover and food plots to encourage wildlife.

“Clover is the primary summer protein source that we utilize,” stated Riddick. “We mow the clover four times and spray it for both grasses and undesirable broadleafs.”

Whispering Pines and The Ricks Tree Farm are also home to 102 bluebird boxes.

“Wildlife is important to our family and dictates what we do from a forestry standpoint, but it is easy for the two to blend together and compliment each other,” stated Ricks. “Because, what you do for forestry certainly helps your wildlife, and what you do for your wildlife, is good forest management as well.”

One of the wildlife projects that his son Will coordinates is the Quality Deer Management Program. He stations 10 trail cameras on Whispering Pines for a period of 10 days twice a year. Last year, the cameras captured over 3,000 photos. The youngest Ricks compiles these images to provide a complete report of the deer herd on the property.

Deer and quail management is relatively common, albeit the Ricks take it to a new level, but Riddick’s view of other wildlife species is rather unique. Take that fury little critter that likes to harvest its own trees, for example.

“Some people don’t like beavers,” stated Ricks. “I have a really fabulous beaver pond here. Yes, I am losing some hardwoods, but it is adding so much value to our property because it attracts ducks and other migratory species. Deer like it. It helps our water quality.”

But he is not finished there. Riddick is committed to creating a habitat for the Red-cockaded Woodpecker (RCW) on his properties as part of his long term management goals. The RCW desires mature pine forests. Currently there are no RCW’s in northeastern North Carolina, but Riddick hopes to be the first as his forests matures. All three of his properties were enrolled into the RCW Safe Harbor Program in 2008.

“To think one day that maybe I could have an endangered species on this property is intriguing for me,” stated Riddick. “I hope one day that my pine forests get mature enough and the RCW program in North Carolina is successful enough that I can bring some in, if they do not locate here on their own naturally.”

Ricks believes that the RCW Safe Harbor Program may have received a poor reputation based on a few isolated incidents and that the program is much more forestry friendly than people may realize.

“It would be thrilling for him to have an endangered species on his property,” stated Alice.

Another area of emphasis for Alice and Riddick Ricks is the appreciation of wildflowers and native plant species. Forestry practices such as prescribed burns and pre-commercial thinnings have unveiled a myriad of wildflowers on the property.

“Our native wildflowers add so many benefits and bring joy to us,” stated Riddick. “You can go back to them year after year and they present themselves. They are so predictable – almost to the same day or week you saw them the year before.”

Riddick has spent countless hours photographing and journaling the wildflowers on Whispering Pines. Alice enjoys research and identification of newly located species, marking them with small flags.

“In this crazy world, it’s the things that don’t change that are awfully comforting,” stated Alice.

There is no better place to take in the beauty of Whispering Pines than from the tower of the Ricks’ retreat, The Porches that was constructed in 2009. It serves as a place of peace and tranquility for Alice and Riddick and the starting point for their numerous walks of their property. They love the beauty of their farm and hope to show others that while they may be a little more focused on flowers that peak out on a particular date than most Tree Farmers; they still expect their forests to be financially sustainable.

As Riddick looks back, he is humbled by how far his family has come with their stewardship goals and is thankful for all of the guidance they have received over the years from others.

“All the pieces of our management plan are coming together,” reflected Ricks. “The vision of our forest stewardship has resulted from countless visits from foresters, wildlife biologists, soil and water conservationists, and other tree farmers who shared their advice and expert opinions. Truly, we are seeing the results of our labor.”

And as evidenced by the pre-Christmas orchard planting project, Alice and Riddick take great joy in watching their sons take a keen interest in the enhancement of the family’s Tree Farm at Whispering Pines.

“Our boys have become part of our dream,” stated Riddick with a smile. “Knowing that we are making a difference with our forests – from the wildlife benefits to the wildflowers, we feel like we are meeting our faith responsibilities of being good stewards. Hopefully we will have many more years where we can fine tune this.”

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