Newsletter Winter 2015

Winter 2015 Idaho Tree Farm Program
204 E. Sherman Ave. • Coeur d’Alene, ID 83814 • (T) 208.667.4641 • (F) 208.664.0557
www.idahotreefarm.org • admin@idahotreefarm.org

2015-2016
Executive Committee:

• Chair – Steve Funk Edge Creek Tree Farm (T) 208.661.0644
• Treasurer – Steve Cuvala
Idaho Dept. of Lands (T) 208.245.4551
• Administrator – Amanda Cutting
ID Tree Farm Program (T) 208.667.4641
2013-2014
District Chairs:

• District 1 Chair – Andy Eckberg Idaho Forest Group aeckberg@idfg.com
• District 2 Chair – Robert Barkley Idaho Dept. of Lands
(T) 208.877.1121
• District 3 Chair – John Lillehaug
All About Forestry (T) 208.630.4076

2015 Family Forest Landowners & Managers Conference and Exposition
March 30 & 31, Moscow ID

“Forestry Q & A – Questions You Have and Answers You Seek”
You got questions? – We got Answers!! It’s that time once again to kick off the Spring and get
together with fellow Tree Farmers, Foresters, Industry and Agency representatives at the annual
Family Forest Landowners and Managers Conference. It will be held as in past years at the
University Inn Best Western in Moscow, ID. This year marks the 27th FFLOC and the planning
committee has geared this one to answer all those questions about your forest land that you have
been just dying to ask. This gathering has grown greatly over the years and come to be recognized
by many as THE premier landowner conference in our Intermountain area. Sessions have been planned
on topics including federal land management, prescribed burning, wildlife concerns, forest
taxation, project grants, tree planting and the unveiling of a brand new ID water quality video &
BMP booklet.
The evening of Monday, March 30 we will hold our Idaho Tree Farm Program Annual Meeting at the
conference. We will review the past year’s accomplishments, take a look at upcoming issues and
announce the 2015 recipients of Outstanding Tree Farmer, Inspector and Logger of the Year for
Idaho! The meeting kicks off at 6:30 PM with snacks and a social hour then right into the
evening’s program. The Idaho Forest Owners Association will also hold their annual meeting the next
morning on Tuesday, March 31 at 7:00 for all you early birds! Both meetings are open to all those
interested.
A flyer with more information on the sessions, a list of partners, registration form and contact
information is included with this newsletter and at www.idahoforestowners.org.. A full Conference
agenda will also be available on March 1st. Also, any of you that are Forest Stewardship
Landowners will be receiving a brochure with discount coupons for this event the first week of
February.
For those of you concerned about the future of your Tree Farm there will be a “Ties to the Land”
session on Sunday, March 29 titled – Your Forest Heritage: Planning for an Orderly Transition – An
Intergenerational Family Forest Project: lead by Kirk and Madeline David.
Lastly, all of you that volunteer as Tree Farm Inspectors will need to get trained up to the new
2015 certification standards this year. With that in mind we will offer an Inspector training on
Wednesday the 1st of April from 8:00 AM -12:00 Noon.

Page 2 of 6 Idaho Tree Farm Program Idaho Tree Farm Program Assessment
– June 2 – 4, 2015
As we indicated in our last edition, our Idaho Tree Farm Program is up for review and assessment by
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) this year as part of our certification program. In early January we
met with a representative from PwC and Sarah Crow from our American Forest Foundation staff to
review the Idaho program and set up the list of field audit sites for this coming June 2, 3, 4. We
identified 24 Tree Farms throughout the state that were selected for review by PwC. The list was
sent out to our District Chairs so they can let the Inspector for each Tree Farm know which
properties were picked. The Inspectors will be in touch with the various Tree Farmers soon to
double check management plans, make sure everything is in place and look for any items that might
need some updating.

The assessment sites will be split into two groups of 12 each with a PwC auditor and some of us
from the Idaho Tree Farm Committee assigned to each group. We plan to visit 5 sites each on June 2
and June 3 then finish up on the remaining 2 sites with a half day of field review on June 4. The
PwC folks are asking that the landowner or other forest manager familiar with activities on the
Tree Farm be present for the field visit as well as the Tree Farm Inspector assigned to that
property. A copy of the management plan needs to have been made available to PwC prior to the
field day. They have provided us with a date schedule to have the plans submitted and if your
property was selected for review your Inspector will contact you to get a copy. Keep in mind the
assessment is of our State Tree Farm Program, not your own activities. The audit team will simply
want to review your plan, make sure it covers all the necessary items in proper scope and detail
for the size of your parcel, and make sure it reflects your current goals and your actions on the
ground. Since we have an entire state to cover in just a few days, the site visits will be
relatively brief. We are told to expect no more than a maximum of 1 hour on each Tree Farm.

Once the field assessment is complete we will have a closing call with PwC to recap their findings
and spell out any items they have identified for us to work on. We will let you all know of the
outcome and of anything we need to pass along to you or change in our program operations.
Thinning and Pruning Field Day – U of I Extension Forestry Class
JTurenees k1il3le,d2b0y 1ba5rkinbeSetalesnodrproootindits,eIaDses often make forest owners ask:
“What can we do about it?” Whether you have problems with insects or diseases, concerns about fire,
or just want to improve forest health and growth,
The response from foresters is nearly universal: thin your stand. This is especially true in
northern Idaho, where forests commonly become overstocked with an unsustainable species mix. To
help accomplish that the University of Idaho Extension is offering a field day all about Thinning &
Pruning your timber on June 13 at the Bonner County Fairgrounds just north of Sandpoint, ID.

“Thinning and pruning can favor better adapted tree species, increase forest resilience to drought,
improve tree quality, reduce fire risk, improve access, and enhance many other values. In this
program, we will discuss basic thinning and pruning concepts, then expand on those concepts in a
hands-on field tour.”

For registration questions, contact the University of Idaho Extension office in Bonner County
(208-263-8511). For program questions, contact Extension Forester Chris Schnepf (208-446-1680).

———————————————————————–
This is only one of many useful and interesting workshops the Extension Staff puts on each year.
Other classes in the upcoming weeks include Map & Compass for Family Forest Owners, Your Backyard
Forest, and Successful Tree Planting. For more info on these and many other sessions, visit
http://www.uidaho.edu/extension/forestry

Page 3 of 6 Idaho Tree Farm Program

New 2015-2020 Certification Standards Announced

As part of the Tree Farm certification process, every 5 years the standards for management plans
and activities on Tree Farms are reviewed and, if deemed necessary, amended. Recently, the
standards for 2015- 2020 were approved by the American Forest Foundation. In their news release the
AFF said:

“The American Forest Foundation (AFF) is very pleased to announce the launch of the 2015-2020
American Tree Farm Standards of Sustainability, effective January 1, 2015.

As a certified Tree Farmer, you are recognized for your hard work and good stewardship of your
woods. The ATFS Standards are an important tool that ATFS Foresters use to validate your good
forest management.

Every five years the Standards are updated through a transparent review. The recently revised
2015-2020 ATFS Standards include some key elements to further support you in achieving your
conservation goals on the ground. These include:”

• Emphasis on your objectives, as a landowner, and additional guidance in implementing
management strategies and techniques to help you accomplish your goals.
• Integrated approaches to help you address forest health and resilience in your woods
• Increased continuity with global sustainability frameworks and market opportunities,
including recognition by the Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC).
• Expanded recognition of the work you do implementing your State Forestry Best Management
Practices (BMPs) and its benefit for air, water and soil.
• Additional clarity about how to manage for the protection of threatened and endangered
species as required by law.

All of the current Tree Farm management plans will need to be reviewed by your Inspector and
evaluated against these new standards. At this point we don’t see major changes necessary from the
previous, but there may be some slight amendments needed in order to comply. Your Inspector will
also need to complete refresher training to these new standards before he or she can certify your
tree farm to them, and the training classes are now being planned. In the interim if you have
questions on your property or desire a site visit from your Inspector, they are being allowed to
continue with reinspections to the previous standards until March 15 of this year. In that way your
services as a Tree Farmer should continue undisturbed as we implement the new standards.

If you wish to view these changes in more detail we encourage you to log on to
www.treefarmsystem.org and click on “The Standards”.

Page 4 of 6 Idaho Tree Farm Program State’s Voice, State’s Choice – To
be or not to be …Certified?

As we have said previously, one big decision our program needs to make is whether or not to remain
a “certified” program. ATFS is allowing states to either remain certified or opt out as they feel
is best – This is under a policy they are calling “State’s Voice, State’s Choice”. One thing to
keep in mind though is regardless of whether we are certified or not the same standards for
management plans and activities will apply for Tree Farms. Each state program needs to declare
their intentions by 12-31-2015. We have been discussing it quite a bit over the course of the past
year and plan to take a vote at our next committee meeting on April 16, 2015. At this point we are
leaning strongly toward continuing on the certified program path, but would very much like to hear
from you, the member Tree Farmers, to be sure your concerns and preferences are addressed. Our
committee has asked for input over the last year, but so far very little has been received. This
may be due to a lack of understanding of what certification means to our members and to this
program. To be sure there is no confusion as we move forward, these are the main points to
consider:

What is Certification – In our markets today there is a growing move to promote sustainability of
our products and processes. This is in essence what “certification” is all about. There are
various entities that certify products, among them being the Programme for the Endorsement of
Forest Certification (PEFC), which is common in Europe; and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative
(SFI), which is more familiar in our country. Both of them recognize the American Tree Farm System
in their certification systems and consequently allow products from Tree Farms to be sold at market
under their logos. Currently ATFS is the only stewardship program that provides this market
distinction to private landowners.

What is the Cost – The main cost to being certified is the assessment and auditing that is required
of a state program. As we explained earlier in this edition, Idaho will undergo the field part of
this audit on June 2-4 of this year. So far the American Forest Foundation has footed the bill for
this auditing, but is currently suggesting an annual fee to each state program of $10 per Tree
Farmer up to a total maximum of $7000. If we decide to stay with certification, a plan for how we
intend to cover this cost needs to be submitted to our National ATFS office by 12-31-2018. Whether
all, some or none of this $10 charge gets passed on to the Tree Farmers, or whether we can cover it
by outside fund raising, is being discussed by our committee at this time.

What is it Worth – The ATFS staff continues to promote the value of Tree Farm products in the
marketplace as a major part of their outreach activities, though each company has to weigh those
values on their own. In 2013 Idaho Forest Group became the first company to announce a policy of
paying a premium for certified Tree Farm wood. Most of this goes to the landowner, but a portion is
sent to the Tree Farm program of the state the logs originated in. This has been a great benefit to
our program financially and will help us significantly as we move forward on the certification
path.

What Do I need to Do – On page 6 there is a response form for you to clip out, fill in your
preference on certification for our program and mail back to the Idaho Tree Farm Program office in
Coeur d’Alene. If you are receiving this by Constant Contact, then a reply via email back to
admin@idahotreefarm.org with your preference would be greatly appreciated.
Should you wish to send in your thoughts by phone, you may call the office number at
(208)-667-4641.

A wise man once said “The world is run by those that show up” – how true.
Please help us make the best decision we can for our Idaho Tree Farm Program.

Page 5 of 6 Idaho Tree Farm Program Training for Inspectors to the New
Certification Standards

This article is directed specifically at those of you who are Tree Farm Inspectors. Earlier in this
newsletter we introduced the updated 2015-2020 certification standards to Tree Farmers and the
associated updates necessary to their management plans. As an Inspector you will also need to
retrain in order to continue certifying Tree Farms to these standards. The final curriculum for
both the refresher course and the initial training to the new 2015-2020 standards was approved in
early January and will be made available very soon. With this in mind the ATFS staff in Washington
D.C. has given us direction as to how we can proceed. Depending on your situation there are several
options available as we move through this change.
———————————————————-
2010-2015 Standards:
If you completed training to the 2010 standards in 2013 or 2014 – You may continue inspecting to
these standards through March 15, 2015.

If you completed training to the 2010 standards prior to 2013 AND you have completed at least one
initial inspection or reinspection in the past two years – You may continue inspecting to these
standards through March 15, 2015.
———————————————————–
2015-2020 Standards:
If you fit in one of the two categories above – You may complete either a classroom training or a
one hour on-line refresher to the new standards.

If you are a new Inspector or do not fit into the categories above – You will need to complete a
classroom training to the new standards in order to be certified.
———————————————————-
Though there has been an allowance to continue to inspect to the old standards for a few more
weeks, ultimately all of our Inspectors will need to take either initial or refresher training at
some point this year in order to remain active. With our program audit coming soon, 16 required
reinspections on our plate for 2015 and the regular list of reinspections coming due each year, it
will be very important to keep everyone compliant in the program. We understand this is a big
undertaking and will work with you to help facilitate this.

As our program continues to grow we are working to add Inspectors all the time and our Inspector
Facilitators have been very good about scheduling training sessions as needed. We have been putting
on one or two each year and will likely need to do at least that many this year. Even though the
on-line course is available, many of you may prefer to attend a half day class session just to be
more up to speed on current practices. There have been updates such as an iphone app for doing 004
inspection forms in the field and changes to our database system that you may wish to discuss a bit
more with other Inspectors.

Our first training session is slated for the Wednesday after the upcoming Family Forest Landowner
Conference in Moscow. For any of you that plan to attend to conference this will be an excellent
time to get trained up to the new standards. Kirk David will lead this session from 8 AM until 12
Noon on April 1, meeting room to be announced at the conference.

Thank you to all the Inspectors and our Facilitators as well that take the time to make this
program work. We couldn’t do it without you and your dedication is greatly appreciated!

Page 6 of 6 Idaho Tree Farm Program

Events to Highlight

Feb 3-5, 2015 – Tree Farm National Leadership Conference, St Louis, MO

Feb 4-6, 2015 – Forester Forum, Coeur d’Alene, ID

March 30-31, 2015 – Family Forest Landowners & Managers Conference and Exposition, Moscow, ID

March 30, 2015 – Idaho Tree Farm Committee Annual Meeting, Moscow, ID

April 16-10, 2015 – Idaho Tree Farm Committee meeting. CdA, ID
Stay Informed…..
In case you are ever wondering what is going on at the committee level, our Minutes are now being
posted on the Idaho Tree Farm Program website. Just log onto our website for Minutes of previous
sessions, contact information, upcoming events, and other news of note to help you in your Tree
Farm endeavors.

Welcome New Members!
The Idaho Tree Farm Committee extends a special welcome to the 10 newest Idaho Tree Farm Program’s
certified members of 2014. Thank you to the District Chairs and Inspecting Foresters for promoting
membership in the Idaho Tree Farm Program through the American Tree Farm System®.

As a current member, and a steward of the land, we appreciate your current support of the program
and your management of the forestland for pride and pleasure. Thank you for your continued
commitment to protecting watersheds and wildlife habitat, conserving soil and, at the same time,
producing the wood America needs and uses.

Tree Farm Member Acreage County
Inspecting Forester
Margaret Bratcher 18
Bonner Tim Kyllo IFG Timber Pritchard Creek Tree Farm
148 Shoshone Tim Kyllo
Conrad Frank 20
Boundary Russ Hegedus
Dave Crandle 22
Boundary Russ Hegedus
Alan Williams 21
Boundary Russ Hegedus
Nokes Family Limited Partnership 560 Valley
John Lillehaug
Hickman Family Trust 160
Kootenai Mike Wolcott
IFG Murray Tree Farm 1,260 Shoshone
Tim Kyllo
Monte Winter 15
Kootenai Tim Kyllo
Linda McPherson 14
Bonner Tim Kyllo

We’re on the Web!
Learn more at:
www.idahotreefarm.org

About Our Organization…
The purpose of the Idaho Tree Farm Program is to promote better forest management among
nonindustrial forest owners. The vehicle for achieving this aim is the American Tree Farm System®
(ATFS), sponsored nationally by the American Forest Foundation (AFF), regionally by the Idaho SFI
Implementation Committee, and statewide by the Idaho Tree Farm Committee (State Committee).

Certification and the Idaho Tree Farm Program

“Would you like to see the Idaho Program continue as it is currently as a certified Tree Farm
Program”?

Yes, I would prefer to continue as a certified program

No, I would prefer we opted out of certification Please check one box, clip out and mail this back
to:
Idaho Tree Farm Program 204 E. Sherman Ave Coeur d’Alene, ID 83814

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