Spring 2002 Volume II, Number 1
IHLA HONORS TREE FARMER OF THE YEAR
The annual Tree Farmer Breakfast, held during the Indiana Hardwood Lumbermen's Association Convention on Jan.24, 2002, took time to honor an outstanding person who has proven himself truly committed to his forestland. The Indiana Tree Farm Committee each year takes nominations for the Tree Former of the Year. Applicants for Tree Farmer of the Year are judged on the type and quality of forest management practices, efforts to encourage other woodland owners to manage their forest lands, and cooperation with resource management professionals. All nominees have forest land certified through the National Tree Farm System.
The 2001 Tree Farmer of the Year is Ray Chattin of Decker, Ind. He was nominated by Thom Kinney, a consulting forester and district Tree Farm Chairman from Petersburg, Ind. Ray's 100 acres of woodlands have been in his family since 1945, and he has managed the forest since 1979. He has sponsored a number of forestry field days on his property, and is active in the Knox County Soil and Water Conservation District, and the A Rivers RC & D.
"Ray is a true conservationist in every sense of the word," said Kinney. "Ray has recommended forest management and the use of a professional forester to mark and manage harvests to anyone who will listen." Ray is a farmer by profession, but uses his forest land to support a hardwood lumber business and uses a Wood Mizer sawmill to utilize products from his forest land. He completed Purdue University's Forestry short course in 1990, and was a district winner of the Tom Wallace Forestry Award in 1982, 1983 and 1990.
TREE FARMER OF THE YEAR AWARD ACCEPTANCE REMARKS
By Ray Chattin
I want to thank you for this honor. I am also grateful to Thom Kinney, not only for nominating me, but for all the years he has mentored me relentlessly and without mercy.
Recognition like this is nice and can even give a person a big head, but I remain grounded in knowledge that good stewardship, whether it be forestry or soil and water will always be its own reward, as long as it is the product of an "inward necessity".
I have a friend who jokingly refers to me as the "arch Druid". In case you aren't up on the Druids they were those pre-Christian inhabitants of the British Isles who built Stonehedge, and more to the point it has also been said that they worshiped trees. I'm no Druid, but I think I would have gotten along with them well, because I have long maintained that if you want the true reflection of the soul of a society, you need only examine how that society relates to those resources which sustain it and make possible its quality of life.
As an element of our society, I want to commend your membership for what you have accomplished in terms of raising the consciousness of those within your industry as well as those outside it. You have done much good; there is much good yet to be done.