J.B. Michaels again named Woodland Owner of the Year
There was no need for the Putnam County Soil and Water Conservation District to go out on a limb in naming its 2013 Woodland Conservationist of the Year.
The familiar winner is J.B. Michaels, who has made history by becoming the first two-time Putnam County recipient of the award.
Michaels, who was unable to attend the Soil and Water Conservation District (SWDC) annual meeting in January, collected his award Wednesday at the SWDC office in Greencastle.
Michaels spends nearly every fair-weather day tending to his forest or plantations to improve the trees. He considers it his hobby and passion to have one of the best plantations and forests in the state.
"He's always doing something," District Forester Allen Royer praised in presenting the plaque to Michaels at the Soil and Water Conservation District office.
"It's unusual for me to drive by and not see his truck there," added Royer, who represents Putnam, Parke, Hendricks and Vermillion counties as district forester.
Forest management has long been an active part of the farm practices of Michaels, who has 55 acres of woodlot alone in his Maplecroft Farm along County Road 900 South in Jefferson Township.
Last year with the assistance of consultant forester Perry Seitzinger, Michaels coducted a timber sale, completed a 12-acre timber stand improvement practice and cleared 10 acres for site preparation to replant a new forest plantation.
In addition, his 25-acre tree planting, done in the 1980s, was marked to be thinned.
Michaels' woodland and plantation has been designated as one of Indiana's elite "Demonstration Forest" areas, used to educate the public on what can be done when proper forestry practices are implemented.
The timber stand improvement conducted by Michaels in 2013 included thinning, crop tree release, cull tree deadening and invasive honeysuckle control.
The newly acquired 10-acre woods has had low-quality trees and underbrush cleared in preparation for a planting site. This spring a total of 4,800 white oak, walnut and cherry trees will be planted.
All the work has and will be done without any government cost-share grants. Total cost will be funded by Michaels.
Besides being the first two-time winner ever in Putnam County, Michaels had a big year overall in 2013, also picking up a sesquicentennial Hoosier Homestead Award for one of six family farms honored with Homestead Awards this past summer at the Indiana State Fair.
Honored as a family Hoosier Homestead farm, the property has been in Michaels' family for more than 150 years.
He said the property actually has been in his family for five or six generations over the past 170 years, including the last 20 in his care.
The original owner of the property, he said, was Jacob Piercy, a Revolutionary War soldier reportedly buried in the Cloverdale Cemetery.