STRUGGLING FARMERS TURN TO LOGGING (Short Version)

Some orchard farmers are facing a bad crop year. So farmers are turning to other resources on their land for income. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

Transcript

Some orchard farmers are facing a bad crop year. So farmers are
turning to other resources on their land for income. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:


Some fruit tree orchard owners, such as the tart cherry farmers in
northwestern Michigan, are expecting almost no crop this year. If they
also have a stand of hardwood forest – such as maple, ash, and beech
trees – on their farm, farmers are considering allowing logging. Rick
Moore is a forester in that region. He says farmers should be careful
before letting someone on their land to cut hardwood timber:


“What I encourage and landowner, any farmer, any cherry
farmer who calls me up and says someone has offered me some money
for my hardwoods, I strongly start encouraging them ‘You want to go
out and solicit bids. Through the bid process you know you will get fair
market value.'”


Moore says timber buyers are aware of the plight of the cherry farmers
and the less than reputable ones are taking advantage of the situation.
Moore says farmers should also carefully limit the tree cutting so the
timber stand is not cleared so much that it’s no longer able to produce
good trees in the future.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.