Couple’s tree work a legacy as farmland becomes vibrant forest

MOSCOW, Idaho – Stu Goldstein’s green John Deere Gator hums down a grassy trail on a bumpy embankment on his rural Moscow property.

When he looks out in front of him, a stark contrast stares back.

To his right, acres and acres of wheat fields roll off as far as the eye can see. Off to his left stand 30,000 trees – trees he and his wife, Annemarie, planted over a three-year time span 13 years ago.

He stops.

And reverses.

High above a conglomeration of ponderosa pines that cover the crest of the hill, two hawks hover against the pale blue sky.

“Look at those two hawks riding thermals,” he says as he allows the Gator to idle. “There’s some real beauty there, isn’t there?”

When the Goldsteins moved from California to Moscow, it was in the depths of an Idaho winter in January 1996.

They were looking for a place to retire.

What they found was an 80-acre parcel of land that would not only have future implications for them, but for the whole of Latah County.

The land was first enrolled in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve Program in 1987.

The CRP is a way to encourage farmers to convert highly erodible cropland and other environmentally sensitive acreage to vegetative cover.

At the time of purchase, the property had been taken out of crop production and a ground cover of grasses had been laid down, Goldstein said.

The property was homesteaded in 1887 and became a family farm, growing wheat, oats, barley and hay. The barn’s hand-hewn white pine post and beam construction still stands, originally built in 1911. The couple’s home was built in 1917.

In 1997, the couple re-enrolled in the CRP with a reforestation project written with an Idaho Department of Lands private forestry specialist and included management methods of the Idaho Forest Practices Act.

The Goldsteins participated in the Idaho Fish and Game Habitat Improvement Program and renewed the ground’s CRP contract for 10 more years in 2007.

The CRP, a cost-share and rental payment program for millions of acres of land across the country, is run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency. The program was established as farmers know it today by the Farm Bill of 1985, but many practices and aspects of the CRP were established by legislation as early as the 1950s.

Latah County’s FSA executive director Jim Knecht said there has been a recent decline in re-enrollment of CRP land in the county.

When the Goldsteins decided to convert the dormant farmland into a living forest, they knew the task would be far from simple.

The Goldsteins took forest management classes at the University of Idaho. Their class schedules included a range of coursework from agricultural machinery systems to environmental and natural resources economics to plant diseases. They’ve taken IDL forest stewardship workshops and have a private pesticide applicator license from the Idaho State Department of Agriculture.

The couple worked with several local nurseries, sometimes a year in advance, to order the thousands of trees. The 6- to 12-inch starts had to be grown in an elevation and climate comparable to where they were planted, Annemarie Goldstein said.

About 95 percent of their forest is composed of ponderosa pines, and the rest is made up of mainly Douglas firs and western larch. All tree species used are native to Idaho.

Initially the couple started tree planting with just the two of them, but quickly realized they’d need more help.

She said they hired a crew to help plant the trees each of the three years. Spreading out the planting over several years helped minimize annual costs and risk of loss due to unpredictable environmental factors.

“They won’t be full grown for some time,” Stu Goldstein said, “but we’ve already begun some thinning. They’re healthy and vigorous. There’s some 20-footers out there, and we’re pleased that they’re really doing well.”

Providing a welcoming, healthy environment on the Goldsteins’ property for the region’s wildlife can’t be understated, he said.

Annemarie Goldstein said the couple frequently spot a mother and baby moose on their farm, along with deer, birds and the occasional coyote.

Stu Goldstein said the couple added an elevated nesting box for geese and were fortunate enough to observe six goslings bailing out of the 6-foot-high nest to join their parents on the Goldsteins’ nearby pond for their first swim.

“I’ve talked with Fish and Game guys that have never seen that kind of thing their whole careers,” he said. “It’s a special place here.”

The 30,000 trees will take 50 to 80 years to mature, and by that time, Stu Goldstein said he’d be at “the ripe old age of 130.”

Some of the trees can eventually be used for market, he said, including uses like firewood and wood to make furniture.

“We know that without the land, we’re nothing” Annemarie Goldstein said. “We know that we must be good stewards or we have nothing else.”