management on Its lands 

 and to influence 

 nonindustrial owners to do 

 the same is the nationwide 

 American Tree Farm 

 System®. A tree farm is 

 defined as an area of 

 privately owned forest land 

 dedicated voluntarily by its 

 owner to the growing and 

 harvesting of repeated 

 forest crops. The emphasis 

 is on timber as a crop. 

 (The State of Alabama has 

 carried this a step further in 

 recognizing the importance 

 of other forest amenities, 

 such as wildlife, water, etc., 

 by certifying properties as 

 Treasure Forests if they 

 meet specified standards in 

 these expanded aspects.) 



Tree Farm No. 1, 120,000 

 acres owned by the 

 Weyerhaeuser Timber 

 Company in Washington 

 State's Grays Harbor 

 County, was dedicated on 

 June 12, 1941. Chapin 

 Collins, editor of the local 

 Montaesano Vidette, 

 suggested naming the 

 forest the "demons Tree 

 Farm" in honor of the 

 well-respected pioneer 

 logger Charles H. Clemons. 



The idea of an 

 industry-sponsored 

 nationwide tree farm system 

 grew rapidly, if somewhat 

 erratically, in the ensuing 

 years. The National Lumber 

 Manufacturers Association, 



at the urging of western 

 members, officially resolved 

 in November 1941 that a 

 nationwide tree farm system 

 be established. In the 

 following year, the American 

 Forest Products Industries, 

 then a subsidiary of the 

 National Lumber 

 Manufacturers Association 

 and now known as the 

 American Forest Institute, 

 accepted responsibility for 

 the American Tree Farm 

 System. Under its 

 sponsorship, the program 

 spread in 5 years to about 

 half the States, each 

 developing its own 

 organization and criteria for 

 certification. 



The tree farm movement 

 came to the South with the 

 dedication of a tree farm 

 near Brewton, AL, on April 

 4, 1942, under the 

 sponsorship of the State 

 Chamber of Commerce. It 

 was followed on June 6, 

 1942, by the first tree farm 

 in Arkansas. Before long, 

 the Southern Pine 

 Association, now the 

 Southern Forest Products 

 Association, assumed 

 sponsorship of the program 

 throughout the South. 

 During the first 10 or 12 

 years, each sponsoring 

 organization had its own 

 criteria for certification. 



In 1954, in order to provide 

 a truly national system with 



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