by Woody Barron

The background on this place is that we have about 336 acres. Fifty-eight acres were purchased from my grandmother in 1953, and the balance was purchased in 1980 from a gentleman who was sympathetic to my love for the old "home place". A family stqry is that the first trees were planted on that place in 1863 when my great grandfather was 7 years old. He brought some chestnut seed from Ohio and planted them on one hill on the farm. I was fortunate as a youngster to be able to spend my summertime on t he place with my widowed grandmother and my great grandparents. We lived in the style of about 1885.

Tree farming is not a hobby. We had to look at this as a matter of investment. Data from the 58 acres shows that the bare land has increased over 30 times during our ownership and the timber during that time has increased about 9-1/2 percent a year. So this is meant to be an economic proposition.

But I can assure you that not all the rewards from timber can be viewed in pure economics. Even though data from the December 1995 Hoosier Banker magazine indicated that there is a 15% return on timberland. Our personal records show a 9-1/2 percent return on the 58 acres since 1953. Forbes indicated in December 1995 that timberland is a good inflation hedge.

But there are a lot more things that you can do on a timber farm. You can have the family enjoy the out-of-doors. In fall, Owen County is always as pretty as a picture. You live there and wonder at the beauty of creation. You enjoy such things as Chinese chestnuts. You always have to split wood so that you can stay nice and warm in wintertime. There is nothing like a wood fire. You can have a post pile because sometimes your neighbor wants to build a fence and he will buy some posts. That could be a little bit of an income plus it takes care of some of the black locust that are too good for firewood.

We also enjoy showing the place. We have been able to show it to a number of groups that want to look at some nice stands of white oak.

We have people who deer hunt on our place and our deer hunters know the difference between a good tree and a bad tree. One of them has hunted on our property for over 30 years. In addition they keep other people off the property and they provide us with a little bit of venison. They are our eyes and ears. I can assure you that they let me know anything that's different on the place. I certainly can't get every place.

There are some trees that become "pets". You know that we just don't cut trees by a formula. There is an old "wolf" tree that has been on the place for many years and it is sort of a landmark. I will leave its destiny to nature.

Now what have we done on this place? On the 58 acres we did absolutely nothing for 9 years. But in 1962 somebody said they were going to triple the taxes on the place so I got kind of hot under the collar and started investigating. We went into the classified forest program. That was my first experience with dealing with a professional forester. We did an inventory, we did a management plan and since then we've kept the trails open and we did a number of the "no brainers". I consider no brainers, killing grape vines and girdling hollow trees.

In 1980 we took an inventory and cut 5000 board feet out of that area when we were upgrading the house and making an addition to it. Then in 1984 we made the first timber sale that had been made on that 58 acres. It was cut down to anything that would make a railroad tie in 1939, when my grandmother was living. That was her only asset when she was widowed. So she had everything cut. From 1939 to 1984 it never had a cut. We made another inventory and revised the plan. One of the things that comes up is what is timber worth?