The Krantz’ Goods From the Woods Help Finance Retirement

When John Krantz, Forest Lake, retired from DNR Forestry 11 years ago, he and his wife, Marcie, went to work selling goods from their woods.

One product with which John enjoys working is willow sticks that can be made into canes and walking sticks.  Each year, with permits from Itacsa County, DNR and the Chippewa National Forest, John harvests about 1,000 willow sticks and 400 sticks from eight to ten year old aspen.  “These sticks are easy to sell,” John says, “especially the further south you go.  We have been showing our products at a show in Kansas City for the last 10 years.  People come from as far away as Arkansas to buy them.”

A second product is butternut that can be made into plates, bowls, etc. by wood turners.  But the main product of their business, Krantz Wood Sales, is basswood for carvers.  “In the area north of the Twin Cities, we grow the best basswood in the world,” John says, “probably because it grows relatively slowly here.  But, even this best basswood is a low value timber that becomes high value after we prepare it for sale.”

First, basswood has to be harvested in winter.  If basswood is harvested in summer it deteriorates very quickly and will not hold its bark.  Some of the Krantz’ products have the bark attached.

After harvest comes the drying process.  Air-dried basswood has characteristics in demand by Krantz’s carver customers.  The sawmill John uses to cut the rough lumber does the first step in drying by stacking the rough lumber  outdoors.  During breezy, low humidity days in April, May and June, the lumber will lose half its moisture.  Then the wood is moved into the loft of a barn on the Krantz’ Deer River-area farm.  “The barn has a metal roof which allows the summer temperatures to get into the 90s “ John says.

John Krantz with his various products including butternut for bowls, walking sticks and basswood for signs and carving.	Bark-on basswood is a popular item for signs.

Listening to John & Marcie talk, it sounds as though their business is working almost too well.  “We have enough business coming in,” John says, “that we are never fully caught up.”  They are cutting back a little on their main marketing effort which is displaying at carving-oriented shows in the southern states.  This year they skipped a show in Phoenix.  For the last 10 years or so, John and Marci would load their pickup and a trailer full of basswood and sell it all at the show.  They will continue to sell to their past customers in the Phoenix area via the telephone and Internet.

As to MFA, John as been a member since 1976, the year that our association was brought out of dormancy after having been idle for several decades.  In fact, John recalls participating in the very first meeting in Brainerd. 

John & Marci’s country estate is a 150-acre farm located just north of Deer River that has been in the family for 109 years.   When John was young, the farm was mostly pasture on which his father raised beef cattle.  When John went off to forestry school at the University of Minnesota, his father began planting the pasture to red pine and white spruce.  Today, all but 20 acres are forested.

For more information you will find an article John wrote for Carving Magazine in which he describes his process in detail.

Neal Chapman’s home is in Roseville, Minnesota and his woodland is in Polk County, Wisconsin, just a few miles north and east of Taylors Falls, Minnesota.  He is a member of MFA, Wisconsin Woodland Owners Association and American Tree Farm Program.  He is a Master Woodland Steward, Woodland Advocate,

Wanted: volunteer educators-mentors

By Neal. W. Chapman

What do you value about your land?  Do you enjoy sharing your passion with others, talking about what goes on there, sharing pictures taken there as if it were a child or grandchild? 

If you answered in the affirmative, then I ask you to consider becoming a volunteer educator/mentor with other landowners. One opportunity would involve putting on a class at your local community education program. I have found this to be a relatively easy way to reach others.

Last winter, I piloted a woodland stewardship program to reach woodland owners through local public school Community Education Programs.  I contacted three school districts with my idea, and was enthusiastically received.  The class “Learn About Your Woodland” was first offered through the Roseville Community Education program during the winter of 2012, followed by 2 schools in Wisconsin.  These classes were offered in two-hour increments over two or three evenings, and focused on identifying landowner goals and objectives in preparation for professional visits from a forester.  I chose the Community Education venue because this simplifies the location, registration, equipment, and some of the promotional activities associated with class offerings.  It also provides a local, inexpensive opportunity for landowners to learn about and become engaged in woodland stewardship, and to network with others.

Working with Eli Sagor at UMN Extension, I chose to use the text “Woodland Stewardship”, 2^nd ed., as the foundation for the class and provided participants with a number of handouts. I also focused on wildlife management on their properties.   There were 21 total participants and I found my audiences engaged, full of questions, and ready to take the next step in managing their woodland properties. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in class and was very personally rewarded.

I am prepared to share the process and resources with others who have an interest and passion for sharing their knowledge and experiences in a casual environment.  It really is easier than you may think!  You will come away with more information as well, not quite a walk in the woods, but close.

Recent cuts in funding at all levels has dramatically affected the ability of both DNR and University Extension to provide the level of services previously available to assist private landowners in caring for their land.  Volunteer educators/mentors can help deliver woodland stewardship information to help meet landowners’ needs. 

There are many other ways that volunteers can make a difference working with fellow landowners. Discussions are ongoing with DNR Forestry leadership, University Mn Extension, and other resource professionals to best utilize the time and talents of those who volunteer.

This effort is currently very much in the development process, but volunteers are needed NOW to help shape the effort.  Please contact me directly if you wish to explore the opportunity to help other woodland owners make informed decisions about managing their land. The commitment is small, the reward great.

Contact Neal W. Chapman at 612-998-7901 or via email at woodland.steward@gmail.com

The Big Woods Farm

Dave Medvecky was working on a power line project near Cambridge in Isanti County in the mid-1970s when he saw a For Sale by Owner sign outside a small farm that looked appealing to him.  Dave wrote down the phone number meaning to give the owner a call.  A year later, Dave hadn’t gotten around to calling when he saw the owner’s obituary in the local newspaper.

Most of Isanti County is in the Anoka Sand Plain, suitable for pine.  The area around the Medvecky’s farm has heavier, clay soil and was called the “Big Woods” by local farmers in the early days because of the huge maple, oak and basswood growing there.  The original owner named the place, The Big Woods Farm, a name the Medvecky’s have kept.

While Dave was working, he’d spend his spare time in the woods at the farm.  He learned that it takes a full winter season to thin five acres of woods.  At that rate, he spent eight years covering the entire 40 acres.  Then, in 1995, Dave was laid off from his job and went to work full time on the farm.  “Now I work out in the woods from sun up to sunset and love it,” Dave says.  “One question is what would happen if I were to get hurt out in the woods?  I don’t have a cell phone because I’d probably smash it somehow while working.  But, without the phone, Bev wouldn’t come looking for me until after dark.”  Good reason to be careful in the woods!

Through the years, Dave has found markets for most of what comes from his woods.  “Maple syrup is the easiest product to sell.  People ask to be put on a waiting list for it.  Last spring was a total bust but we’ve had good years, too.  Our best was the year we produced 90 gallons of finished syrup.”

“One problem with producing maple syrup,” Dave says, “is that you have to be in the woods during breakup when the roads and trails are most vulnerable to damage.  It seems that some years we’ve spent most of our maple syrup revenue on fixing up the trails after the season.”

Somehow, Dave got connected with a woman who calls herself The Nature Lady.  She collects rustic items and resells them to floral shops in Dallas and Austin, Texas.  She was at Big Woods Farm recently and loaded up on birch logs, branches and bark plus mushrooms that grow on birch trees and hornets nests Dave found in his woods.  Dave and Bev’s 14-year old grandchildren, a boy and a girl, helped load the woman’s truck and saw Dave collect the money.  “It is good for the kids to see that you can make money from the woods but I had to warn them that most sales aren’t as easy as this one.”

Dave has a local fellow bring in his Wood Mizer saw mill several times a year.  They saw lumber for a local outfit that makes flooring and paneling.  Also, logs with figured wood, ones with what normal mills would call defects, are sawed for local bowl turners. 

In all, the Medvecky’s have more than two dozen other customers who buy everything from cherry wood for smoking on grills to logs for export to Japan.

The only major piece of equipment Dave uses in his woods is this Iron Mule.  Dave says, "I like to keep my logs free of dirt and.  With this Iron Mule, I can wind my way up to a felled tree and pick up the logs without ever skidding them."

One of Dave’s favorite customers, is the Ebner family in Elk River.  Five members of the family, who are the 5^th generation in the business, make wooden berry boxes.  The do it all by hand with no outside help.  They do have machinery that is approaching 100 years old.  Like the flour mills used to be operated, all of the machines are run off belts from a single shaft that is powered by one three-phase motor.  The berry boxes have seen an increase in popularity thanks to the organic fruit market.  Recently the Ebners received an order for one million boxes!  On average they buy three semi loads of basswood from the Big Woods Farm each year.

What to do with the wood scraps?

The Medveckys have always heated their home, and all their hot water, with wood.  Their only back-up system is a second wood burner.  Recently Dave bought a new outdoor wood furnace from Classic Sales located just down the road in Isanti.  At some point in the near future, the U.S. EPA will ban the current models, smoky models of outdoor furnaces and require that all new models be a more efficient type that produces less smoke.  A problem with the efficient type is they require seasoned wood for fuel.  Dave says, “As a tree famer, we always have wood scraps we can use for heat but they are not dry.  I bought this new furnace so we can put into operation when the old one, that is 25 years old, needs replacement.”

Since they purchased the place 35 years ago, the Medveckys have never used any fertilizer or pesticides on Bev’s garden or anywhere on the farm.  Dave says, “I guess this makes us organic, although we have never applied for certification.”

Minnesota Woodlands editor:  “John, I know you and Mary have done a lot with buckthorn.  Since our next issue will feature this pest, I’d like to come out to your place in Delano to talk about what you are doing and take a few photographs of actual work on the buckthorn.”

John Peterson:  “You are welcome to come and we’re always happy to share what knowledge we’ve gained about dealing buckthorn.  But, if you want photos, we’ll have to go over to our neighbors since we no longer have any on our property.”

Minnesota Woodland editor:  “This I gotta see!  I’ll be out.”

Mary & John Peterson

The land was homesteaded by the Peterson family in 1899 and is currently in a family trust.  It is located on Highway 12, just east of Delano.  25 acres of the land is wooded while the rest is cropland and wetland.  John and Mary’s home is nestled in the woods, far enough from the highway that one gets the feeling of total privacy yet they are just a mile and a half from a McDonalds.

The Petersons’ buckthorn story began five years ago, in 2007, at a Woodland Advisor class where buckthorn was discussed.  John & Mary checked their 25 acres and concluded, “It’s everywhere!”  Next came motivation as DNR foresters Art Widerstrom and Alan Olson presented the Petersons with a sign designating their woodland as a Big Woods Heritage Forest.  With that John said, “We became motivated to get rid of the buckthorn to help live up to the recognition Art and Alan gave us.”

In 2008, John and Mary went to work.  Their first efforts were failures.  John tried a foliar spray with 2,4,D but it did nothing.  Then he tried cutting a few plants off at ground level but learned they would re-sprout.  He tried digging up some smaller buckthorn plants but leaned you have to get nearly 100% of the root or what is left will sprout.  Finally, he tried pulling up some larger plants with a Weed Wrench.  He found it is easiest to do when the ground is wet but it was still far too much work.

Finally, later in 2008, John and Mary settled on the approach they would follow to complete elimination of their buckthorn:  Cut off the stem and, to prevent re-sprouting, immediately treat the stump with a mixture of one part Garlon and two parts base oil.  For cutting, they use a chainsaw, lopping shears or hand clipper depending on the size of the stems.  A pint-sized oil can is used to apply the Garlon-oil mixture, to the entire stump of small plants and to just the cambium layer of larger plants.

The Big Woods Heritage Forest designation provided motivation to clean up the woods.	John's main tools: a lopping shears and a pint-sized oil can with the Garlon mixture	John likes clean-looking woods so he and Mary loaded all the larger stems on to a hay wagon and hauled them off to one of many burning piles.

A few other things John & Mary have learned along that way may help others:

·         The Petersons have worked on their buckthorn in all seasons but the fall is best because buckthorn holds its leaves longer than other plants so it is easy to spot, plus there are no mosquitoes and temperatures are cool.

·         The female seed-bearing plants (the ones with the berries) are the priority.  If John were to start over on the buckthorn project, he’d look for and deal with these plants first to stop reproduction.  Young female plants do not produce seeds until the stems are about 3/4 inch, which is about seven years old, so there is plenty of time to go back and deal with the young female and all male plants.

·         Working in patches of young buckthorn plants, John has determined he can cut and treat 400 per hour.  (For us older folks, that means bending over 400 times an hour!)

·         The process of eliminating buckthorn takes time.  With good records of their work, John knows he and Mary invested 200 hours in 2008, 400 hours in 2009 and 500 hours in 2010!

·         While Garlon is expensive, (about $125 per gallon), the oil can approach to applying the Garlon-oil mixture is very economical.  John bought a 2-1/12 gallon jug of Garlon four years ago and still has half of it.

·         After leaves have dropped, it is hard to distinguish between buckthorn and chokecherry.  However, after it is cut, the chokecherry wood is white and the buckthorn wood is more orange.  When John does accidentally cut a chokecherry, he just doesn’t treat the stump with Garlon so it will re-sprout.

·         In working with buckthorn, you never get it all on the first trip through.  John and Mary have covered parts of the land five times.

For Joe Crocker, 73 of Isanti, harvesting 35 cords of pine last winter was a highlight in an adventure.  It began in the late 1970s when Joe and wife, Jean, mentioned in conversation that, “We should buy some land.”  A short time later, a friend told Joe about 70 acres for sale near Isanti and the adventure began.

Joe and Jean had the land but no plan until a few years later when they said, “Maybe we should plant some trees.”  Five years after that, 20,000 mostly red pines were in the ground.  Those that the pocket gophers didn’t get are now ready for a second thinning, which Joe started this past winter.

Once on the ground, limbs are removed and the trunk is skidded with his 35-horse John Deere tractor to a mini-landing, where it is cut into 100-inch lengths and sorted into three piles by size.  The pile with the largest diameter wood will go for saw logs.  The other two piles will go to a local log furniture maker whose business is so good he can’t get enough wood.  He particularly likes the small diameter wood, down to 1-1/2 inches, for his furniture.

Working four to five hours per day, Joe says, “I was amazed at how much I was able to get done thanks to our great weather this past winter.  Two more winters like this one and the second thinning will be completed.  I’ll then do a third thinning in eight to 10 years and the best trees remaining will be left for future generations to enjoy.”

Joe spent the bulk of his career selling overhead hoists and cranes.  Some were big units used in huge industrial plants.  Others were smaller, used in auto repair shops.  “I started out as an employee and then, in the late 1980s, had a chance to buy the company.  I was very fortunate that, for the next few years, the American economy was doing very well.  By 1998, two of my employees bought the company from me and Jean and I made plans to move from the Twin Cities to our Isanti County land.”

The entire second floor of the house is used for Jean’s studio.  There she does various kinds of artwork including painting with water colors and making decorative windows with stained glass.

The Crockers have four grown children and 10 grandchildren who live in Minnetonka, Brainerd, Seattle and Wakefield, Rhode Island.  “We had the whole family here on one occasion,” Jean said, “and it was pretty crowded.  More recently, we’ve had one or two of our children and their families at a time.”

Joe and Jean are serious about energy efficiency.  They tried heating with solar panels on the roof but that didn’t work.  Now they have one large panel that supplies their hot water and an array of solar panels installed out in the yard that supply up to 1/3^rd of their electricity.  In addition, Joe built a root cellar using 120 old truck tires and concrete where they store potatoes, carrots and other vegetables over the winter.  They have a 500-gallon waste water treatment plant that does such a good job no mound system is needed.  Then, Joe recently installed a geo-thermal system that will heat the house.

That casual conversation of some 40 years ago, when the decided they should look for some land, has resulted in a very happy retirement for Joe and Jean. 

Says a professional forester, “Roger Howard is the best private woodland manager I know.  He has an outstanding woodland because he is constantly working on his woods.”

Roger and his wife Linda live on their land in Aitkin County.  The main place has 560 acres, 160 acres of which is crop land and pasture, leaving 400 acres of woods and wetland.  In addition, the Howards have 120 wooded acres nearby and Roger and 15 partners own 640 acres of hunting land, also in Aitkin County.

The Howard’s home land has lots of oak and ash, some aspen, a few balsam but very few other conifers. 

Now, in retirement, Roger’s work day starts about 7:30 a.m. as he heads outdoors.  “I usually work until about 9:30, com in for breakfast and then go back out until dark.  Linda seems happy that I’m out of her way for most of the day.”

Roger works steadily at timber stand improvement by removing lower quality trees.  “Some years I take out 100 cords and some years it’s only 50 cords.  I’m a fair weather logger because I don’t work outdoors when it is really cold or when the snow it too deep.  Days like those are spent working in the wood shop.”

Roger hauls the logs he cuts to one of several small landings where he sorts and stacks the wood.  Some is saved to be sawn by a contractor whom Roger brings in every couple of years.  When he gets enough pulp wood stacked up he calls a trucker who has a contract with Sappi in Cloquet.  The trucker gets a fee for hauling and a percentage of the payment with Roger getting the rest.  Whatever wood Roger can’t sell to the mill he cuts for firewood.  He uses 16 cords a year in his Heatmaster furnace, which is enough to heat the house and the garage-woodshop, and sells the rest.

The Howards have two daughters and six grandchildren.  All of the land is in a trust to avoid probate.  Roger is the trustee.  All of the forest land is enrolled in the SFIA.  “That payment last year was pretty nice,” Roger said.  (Last year SFIA enrollees received over $15 per acre.  This year, the payment is down to $7 but still nice.  We are very fortunate the SFIA program survived in light of all the cuts made by the legislature last year.)

Roger grows and manages balsam fir for Christmas trees which he gives to friends and relatives.  And relatives they have plenty …. Roger and Linda each have about 70 cousins, with most living in the area!

In the spring, Roger taps one maple tree for each grandchild.  They have a contest to see which tree produces the most sap.  From the sap Roger make a couple quarts of syrup.

“Have you ever tried producing Shiitake mushrooms?”, Roger was asked.  “You bet!”, Roger said.  He has them in three locations in is woods, experimenting to see which location is best.  While many people like ironwood for mushrooms, Roger has found that red oak works better for him.  By soaking a log for just the right amount of time, he found he can force the mushrooms to flush.  Roger has an aluminum tag with a number attached to each log so he knows which were soaked and when. 

 

A physician talking with a patient in St. Paul in the 1940s was the start of the Skunk Lake adventure.

The patient knew of 200 acres and a very rustic cabin on Skunk Lake, 17 miles north of Park Rapids.  Soon after, the physician, Dr. Sidney Hedeen, piled his family into the car for the day-long trip to Park Rapids.  They found the woods, the lake and the rustic cabin appealing but the purchase price was a problem.  On returning to the St. Paul, Dr. Hedeen talked a colleague into buying half the land which made the transaction affordable and, thus, the beginning of the Skunk Lake adventure.

Fast forward 40 years, to today.  Carter and Florence have a home in Park Rapids, where he spent his career practicing osteopathic medicine.  And they still have the Skunk Lake property, now with a new cabin they built themselves just after retirement in 2000.  The cabin is cozy and rustic, with no running water, no plumbing and no electricity.  It was built with as many recycled windows and other materials as the Hedeens could find.   Being just 17 miles from home, the couple spends a lot of time here, winter and summer.

The Woods

The land is rolling hills covered with birch, aspen and pine.  The Hedeens purchased an updated Stewardship Plan last year that included the ecological classification analysis of their properly.  Harvey Tjader, the ecologist who did the work, concluded, “This land is made for pine.”  Heeding the advice, the Hedeens planted 500 white pines last year and now spend many hours each fall bud capping the young trees to protect them from deer.

The Hedeens’ Passion

The Hedeen’s believe in volunteering, starting with Florence’s two-year stint in the Dominican Republic with the Peace Corp in the 1960s.

While they love the cabin, the lake and the woods, today the Hedeens’ passion is the North Country Trail which is a 4,600 mile walking trail extending from Lake Champlain on the Vermont-New York border to the Missouri River in central North Dakota.  The Hedeens’ interest is in the 45-mile segment from the Cass / Morrison county line west to Itasca State Park. 

Because the North Country trail is for walking only, it consists of a two-foot wide walking track with another one foot on each side cleared of brush.  Being so narrow, all the work on the trail is done by hand, cutting brush and then grubbing out the roots.  Since 2000, Carter has invested over 5,000 hours working alone and with others while covering the 45 mile segment multiple times.  Today this section of the trail is completed so the Hedeens’ work is limited to annual maintenance.  See more information at www.NorthCountryTrail.org.

So, that conversation between doctor and patient more than 60 years ago led to a lifetime in Park Rapids, on Skunk Lake and on the North Country Trail.

The home and land that Ken and his wife Sharon Wonsil own is 20 acres located outside Oronoco (Try pronouncing the name of the town.  It’s fun!), which is just north of Rochester.

“We’ve planted about 4,000 trees over the years,” Ken said.  “Some of them were planted during planting parties with friends and relatives.  The rule during those events was ‘no food or beer until the trees are in the ground!’ Now we often hear from someone who participated in one of those parties who wants to know how their trees are doing.  The parties and the people who helped plant them are all part of the memories we cherish.”

When Ken and Sharon bought the place, it was a farmstead with few trees.  “During the first year we planted black walnut seedlings but the deer ate most of them,” Ken said.  The walnuts finally did take hold and are now 30 or 40 feet tall.  In addition to walnuts they have planted red, white, pin and swamp white oak, Norway spruce, red cedar, high bush cranberry, shag bark hickory, various fruit trees and lilacs.

Now that the trees have grown, watching birds and wildlife out the window is a regular enjoyment.  Sharon said, “When we first moved in after purchasing the land, we’d race to the window to see a squirrel. 

Ken has been an enthusiastic attendee at various training sessions.  He’s taken many Woodland Advisor classes.  His favorite class was the Wisconsin Woodland Leadership Institute for which Blandin Foundation provided scholarships for MFA members in 2008 and 2009.  The Institute is currently on hold while more funding sources are sought.  When it does become active again, Ken would highly recommend it.  In fact, he said, “If I had a bunch of dollars, I’d contribute it to the Institute to get it going again right now!”

Ken and Sharon obtained a Stewardship Plan the year they moved in and had it updated last year.  “There is a lot of talk about the economic value of Stewardship Plans,” Ken said, “but I think caring for the woods is good for the soul.”

Janine & Laverne Ehnert with Daisy

The Ehnerts’ 120 acres is located outside Frazee, which is near Detroit Lakes.  Laverne’s father purchased the first 80 acres in 1950 from a fellow who had moved to California to work during World War II and never came back.  Since, another 40 acres has been added.

Laverne does some harvesting every year and, over the years, has harvested a total of nearly 30,000 board feet of white pine.  “We have a problem with blister rust here,” Laverne said.  “The only pines I cut are those with a dead top due to the blister rust or other reason.”  A fellow down the road provides an unusual market for the big pines.  “He builds timber frame homes.  He lets me know how many logs he needs and how long they should be and I go get them.”

 

The Ehnerts' son, Erik, is very handy with metal.  He built this firewood processor from scratch without any plans.

One recent problem has been too much water.  “Our water table is high here,” Lavene said.  “Last year, the water started rising on the north side of the property, flooding an area that had never had standing water before.  It looks as though the 30-year-old white pines in that area will be killed.  I plan to harvest them  this winter.”

Laverne uses this ancient cable skidder to haul trees out of the woods.  It has 100 feet of cable  operated with a tractor PTO.  Thanks to his nine miles of trails, Laverne can reach almost any tree from a trail.

 Besides trees, the land is a haven for wildlife.  An eagle has built a nest atop one of the white pines and deer enjoy a food plot with turnips, clover and chicory planted especially for them.  Deer hunting is an annual event for the family.  “Last year Erik got a beautiful 10-point buck that he’s had mounted,” Laverne said.

“I have a great idea,” Jerry Lentz, who in 1971 was a young math professor at St. John’s University, announced to his wife, Mary Lou.  “Let’s sell our house here in St. Joseph and move to a quaint log home on some land near Avon, about 20 miles from St. Cloud.”

Looking out on a newly planted field in 1973 from next to the log "Chicken Granary", one of several 1860s-era buildings on the property.

The original piece of land was 11 acres to which another 70 acres was added a short time later.  The land “wasn’t good enough to be marginal farmland,” Jerry said.  It was, however, plenty good enough to grow trees.

Each spring was tree planting time for the Lentz family.  “Eventually, we planted everything that was plantable,” Jerry said.  “Our daughters loved the land but they lost most of their enthusiasm at tree planting time.”

“Survival rate for the seedlings was nearly 100% except for those two drought years in the late 1980s.  At that time, we picked out a few of our new seedlings to care for with buckets of water carried from the house.  All of those seedlings survived while all the rest died.”

I

During Mary Lou and Jerry's 50th anniversary celebration, their daughters named the land the "Lenz Family Forest" commemorated by this bench.

Among his many retirement projects, Jerry is researching and writing the history of MFA from its founding in 1876 to the present.  When finished, the work will document our claim that MFA is Minnesota’s oldest conservation-related organization. 

This is the Lenz family tree planting crew in 1973.  They are, l-r, Sue, Laurie, Anne and Julie.  They're on the family's 1947 Jeep, a perfect vehicle for getting around on the land.