Written by Madeline Bodin This article is reprinted from the Summer 2019 edition of Woodland Magazine with permission from the American Forest Foundation Caude Burlingame has no problem identifying any tree on his roughly 300 acres of forested land scattered throughout four parcels in the northwest corner of Montana. "If a tree is dying, I can figure out why." His goal as a Tree Farmer is to leave his land in better shape than he found it. Even though he has a deep knowledge of trees and how to manage them, a stand of trees on land he purchased recently had him baffled. He was particularly concerned about the grand firs there, which were being attacked by beetles. "This was a distressed property," Burlingame said. "It had been logged a couple of times in the last 20 to 30 years and was kind of junky. I didn't know if I could find a logger interested, because there was not enough profit. As a landowner, I just wanted it cleaned up." Burlingame had started working with Idaho Forest Group (IFG), a Coeur d'Alene, ID-based lumber company, when he harvested trees on one of his properties just a few miles from the Idaho border. IFG foresters Russ Hegedus and Skyler Hoefer had been helpful in the past, so he turned to them again for advice. Hegedus and Hoefer were happy to help Burlingame figure out how to improve the trees on the new property. They, like Burlingame, are thinking about the future, with a common goal...
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