He told them what he knew of the loggers' past work. The harvest, which is done with big machines with jaws like giant tin snips, leaves behind tire ruts and slash piles, but that will all disappear within five years, Kronschnabel says. Woodland owners can even receive property tax relief whether they manage their lands primarily for recreation, timber income, or wildlife habitat. The 25,000 landowners now enrolled in the Managed Forest Law program recognize that providing trees to Wisconsin sawmills is as essential to the economy as is environmental protection and shelter for animals. On the back cover of the Forest Statistics report an unimposing paragraph, explains why dozens of recent forestry graduates spent three years tromping the woods with compasses and angle gauges to collect the data within.
Trees have value for the economy and the environment.
It speaks of the diversity of the forests, of the people who own them, and the conflicting demands of the people who use them. Jack Edson thinks about that too. Landowners don't need to mirror each other's ideas, Edson says, but occasionally checking in with one's neighbors could help the overall environment. A lot of people love trees, and want to get away from it all. But there's a lot more you can learn to do with woodlands.