KALISPELL — One Kalispell Tree Farm isn’t quite what you’d expect as Tibetan yaks help keep the land at Spring Brook Ranch healthy and prepared in case of wildfire.
Montana has more than 600 tree farms covering over 237,000 acres. Tree farmers who take care of the land do more than you may expect.
"They are good forest stewards. They care about the land they sit on," tree farmer board member Holly McKenzie stated.
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To be certified by the American Tree Farm System, the farmer must own ten or more woodland acres while also having a management plan to keep their forests healthy and growing quality trees.
"A managed forest is often called a tree farm, but it doesn't mean it's in little straight rows of trees," McKenzie said.
Each state selects an 'Outstanding Tree Farmer of the Year' every year. In 2024, Ed & Christy Ferruzzi won the award in Montana. In 2023, Jim Watson and his partner Carol took home best in the state.
Watson even won best in the northwest that year.
"Once somebody's won the local state 'Tree Farmer of the Year' award, they get elevated up to the Western Regional tree farmer, which Jim ended up winning," McKenzie said.
Watson isn't your typical farmer.
"No, I don't fit the normal mold, and I grew up on a ranch and went to engineering school in Bozeman. I'm a tree hugger that carries a chainsaw," Watson said.
His nearly 1,700 acres are home to a diverse population of trees.
“Our focus is on forest restoration and wildlife habitat and having a good, healthy, resilient forest," Watson said.
Trees at Spring Brook are thinned and spaced to keep diversity.
“We did a lot of understory work, cleaning out understory and small trees that weren't thriving and trying to select the trees. You want to keep those high-end genetics within the gene pool," Watson said.
And he does all this farming with the help of a herd of Tibetan yaks.
"We're still grazing yaks. That helps reduce the grass fuel load and it helps with wildfire, but it also helps with general forest management," Watson said.
Limiting fuels reduces the chance of a large wildfire.
"We’re guarding against wildfire, so we don't want the trees crowded too close together because then if a big fire comes through, it can run through the crowns," Watson said.
Watson's ranch has the seal of approval from fire management organizations like the U.S. Forest Service and the DNRC.
“He has islands of fuels where trees are kind of pocketed together, but again, there's that large space in between where that fire intensity is able to drop down and that flame length then will also be a more approachable and safer to access fire," Kellie Kulseth, fire adapted communities coordinator for the Kalispell Unit of the DNRC said.
“It's a great hand to be dealt as a firefighter," said Mike West with the Flathead National Forest.
For Watson, being a tree farmer and using the program's resources has set his course for the rest of his days.
“There's more to do every day than possibly can be done. So I just pick and choose what I enjoy," Watson said.
