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.

“We were hoping to cut a million board feet of timber this winter but, because of the weather, we probably won’t make it,” said Mike Greenheck.  After a little more discussion, it became clear there is a lot of land involved in two states and a lot of people, not just Mike.

Part of the Greenheck family:  Mike and Pete with Johnny and Little Mike.

“Our grandfather began woodland work in the 1930s and 40s on land he owned in Richland County, Wisconsin” said Mike.  “One of his neighbors at the time was Aldo Leopold.”  (Aldo Leopold authored A Sand County Almanac and is recognized by many today as the father of modern conservation.  Learn more about him on the Leopold Foundation web site,  www.AldoLeopold.org.)

Mike went on to say, “After our parents married in 1951, they moved to Wabasha County, Minnesota where our father continued in the dairy business as our family had done for 100 years.  Whenever dad got a few extra dollars together, he’d buy an abandoned farm.  For some, he paid as little as $1.25 per acre yet people still thought he was wasting his money.  Dad saw it as taking unproductive farms and turning them into something beautiful.”

Over the years, farms totaling some 2,500 acres were purchased.

The young Greenhecks, Mike, his brother Pete and five sisters, were introduced to woodland work at an early age.  Riding on the back of a tree planter, Mike estimates they planted over two million trees.  From that early start, Mike learned to love working in the woods, calling it “my golf”.

Today the Greenhecks are heavily involved in tree stand improvement in a process Mike calls “reverse high grading.”  A couple of winters ago, Mike, Pete and brother-in-law Steve got into a Monday routine.  “We’d start out from St. Paul at 4:30 in the morning and have a 90-minute business meeting while driving to the farm.  Once there, we’d spend the day on TSI work and drive back home in the evening.  Between September and March, we covered 118 acres.”

Mike’s views seem to be consistent with Aldo Leopold’s.  Mike sees forestry as socially valuable because it helps promote clean water and air and prevent soil erosion.  He is concerned that, with corn up to $7 per bushel, many farmers will be tempted to go back to plowing erodible lands.

“While dad was focused on trees,” Mike said, “we are interested in a diverse landscape.  As a result, we’re also working to restore prairie and wetlands wherever appropriate.”

Having woodland in both Minnesota and Wisconsin, Mike has worked under both our Sustainable Forestry Incentive Act (SFIA) and Wisconsin’s Managed Forest Law (MFL).  He actually prefers the Wisconsin law because it requires people to actively manage their land, in addition to forgoing development.  “The MFL plans are very specific,” he says.  “For example, it might identify a several acre parcel of oak and specify it be clearcut by a certain date.”  Of course, such a practice is required only if it contributes to the long term health of the woodland.

 

Mike is also conservation-minded in his business, Nelson Cheese Delicatessens.  He believes in finding locally grown, natural foods but not necessarily organic.  He found a new party tray that is made of cardboard and is recyclable which will replace the plastic trays currently in use.

For an inspiring story about Mike and Pete’s father, Francis Greenheck,  and the Tree Farmers of the Year award he won nearly 40 years ago, click here.

Kurt King

The man who made Terry Helbig smile!

“I am glad I told Margo before we were married that I love hunting and fishing.  She says now that she heard me but didn’t understand quite how involved it would be,” said Kurt King.

Kurt and Margo live in Edina.  Their four children, two daughters and two sons, are grown with families of their own.  After 48 years in his profession, Kurt still works three days a week.  He is a dentist specializing in children with special needs.

Kurt’s love of hunting led him to look for a land back in 1970.  He found 80 acres that straddle the Elk River near the town of the Elk River.  “I just wanted to hunt, plant some trees and enjoy the outdoors,” Kurt says.  But, by the mid-1990s, his land was surrounded by housing developments so he decided it was time to sell and look for something more rural.

The inside of a pretty nice hunting "shack" Kurt built on his Lake City land.

Right after he purchased the land, Kurt asked Terry Helbig to come out and update a Stewardship Plan.  Kurt recalls that as they were walking over the land, Terry asked him, “What do you want to do with the land?”  Kurt said he wanted to improve the woodland, especially the oaks.   Terry said, “Oaks take a long time to grow.”  Kurt said, “I know but that’s o.k.  I still want to improve the oaks.”  With that, Kurt says Terry got a big smile on his face and shook his hand.

One piece of advice Kurt would pass to other woodland owners is something he follows himself:  Get to know the professionals in your area.  The DNR forestry people, soil and water people and others can be a big help in deciding what should be done, how and if there are any cost sharing funds available.  One of the professionals he has worked with is local consulting forester, Jon Alness, Zumbro Valley Forestry.  Because of his work schedule, Kurt can’t spend as much time working on the land as he’d like.  As a result, he has contracted with Alnes and his crew to actually carry out  several timber stand improvement projects.

Another piece of advice Kurt follows is advocated by Mike Reichenbach, U of M Extension educator.  That is to keep a journal.  Kurt records everything – what was done on the land, when, how, how much time it took, etc.  He also records all expenses.  All of this information could be of value in supporting tax deductions.  It will also make for interesting reading by future generations and help them understand Kurt’s love for the land and the wildlife.

Kurt with his 30-hp John Deere.  Kurt's grandson, Mark, center, and his friend were creating a food plot for a Boy Scout merit badge. 

Recently, Kurt teamed up with a neighbor who owns 500 acres next to his to promote quality deer management which emphasizes leaving the young buck go to grow up.  They have trail cameras installed and can see more and bigger bucks after just a couple of years.

The way Kurt and his family are managing their land for oaks makes DNR forester Terry Hebig smile!

A Century Farm – And Woodlot

Tom & Kyle Schulz

In the background are Tom and Kyle’s miniature horses and, in the foreground, is the burro that watches over them.

Tom has a Stewardship Plan for the 40-acre woodlot. Dated November, 1978, it must be one of the first done in Minnesota. 22 of the 40 acres are being harvested this year. The area contains many 100 year old pines that are being cut because Tom fears they would be susceptible to wind after nearby trees are removed. 

When it comes to conservation, Tom and Kyle “walk the talk”.  They heat with this new, efficient wood furnace, all lights in their home are fluorescent to save energy and Tom’s winter exercise is with cross country skis over a 3-1/2-mile trail.