The Rural Voice, 2000-10, Page 28Experience can be a bitter
teacher but a mistake more
than 20 years ago has changed
Roger and Elaine Cook into
advocates of woodlot management,
and changed their practice on their
Stratford -area farm.
Looking back, Roger takes some
of the blame for the botched
harvesting of his 33 -acre woodlot
that was to turn him into a booster of
the need for good woodlot
management. First of all, though he
had someone mark the bush for him,
he now thinks that marking was too
generous, calling for the cutting of
too many trees that may have met
minimum dimension requirements,
but weren't nearing maturity. Though
someone else marked the bush, he
approved it, he says.
Then there was a lack of
supervision of the logging. The
logging company arrived one July
day just before the family was to
leave on a vacation. They went
anyway, leaving the loggers to do
their work. When they came home
Roger was sickened to see the
devastation left behind.
Not only had the bush been
heavily cut because of the aggressive
marking of trees, but the damage to
the remaining trees had been
extreme. Now, Roger says, he'd
never allow loggers to cut during the
spring or early summer seasons when
the bark on trees is more easily
damaged. Along the trails in the
Cook woodlot, you can still see scars
in some trees that are otherwise fine
potential log specimens damaged by
the log skidding.
Not only was Roger shocked
when he saw his woodlot but so were
others. "I see you slaughtered your
bush," he recalls a neighbour telling
him in a statement that took him
aback at the time.
"Over the years I began to realize
he was pretty well right," Roger
recalls. "We've come to treat our
woodlot and trees in general with a
lot more respect."
Though the couple milked cows
until three years ago and still raise
replacement dairy heifers, wood has
always played a big part in their
lives. Roger earned a living as a
carpenter for several years before
coming home to take over the family
farm. Now he operates an historic
24 THE HURAL VOICE
Lessons learned
A disastrous woodlot cutting 20 years ago turned
a Stratford -area couple into woodlot
management advocates
Story and phous by,Reith Roulston
sawmill he moped to the farm and
works with wood in a shop on the
farm. El4ine does wildlife carving in
wood.
Roger also inherited a sense of
concern for the environment from his
father Mervin, who had earlier
planted some windbreaks, fenced
cattle out of the stream bordering the
barnyard, and dug a pond which the
family still uses for swimming.
Roger and Elaine have since
added about 15 acres of woodlot
during their years on the farm. "I tell
people I'm a no -till farmer," he jokes
as he makes his way down one of the
paths in the woodlot. "I'm not a fan
of tractor driving."
Many of the trees planted have
been in windbreaks or buffers along
the stream but there have also been
several larger blocks, one of six acres
and two others totalling four acres.
One sizeable plantation to the
west of their house has changed the
whole climate of their yard, he says.
In their early years on the farm, the
wind sweeping over miles of Perth
County's flat landscape had meant
there was a constant struggle to keep
Elaine and Roger Cook (above)
enjoy a pond first created by
Rogers father, part of their
heritage of caring for nature.
Below, Roger labels some trees
to educate guests at their bed
and breakfast.