Forestry associations have chosen two brothers and their families in Linn County as Oregon’s top tree farmers for 2023.

Brothers Jim and Ed Merzenich, 75 and 82 respectively, and their families co-manage Oak Basin Tree Farm, an approximately 938-acre tree farm in the Coburg Hills south of Brownsville.

Tree farm inspectors made the judging decisions, and the Oregon Small Woodlands Association and Oregon Tree Farm System jointly announced the Merzenichs as Oregon’s 2023 Outstanding Tree Farmers of the Year. More than 150 people attended the awards ceremony during a recent conference.

Rick Zenn, executive director of the Oregon Small Woodlands Association, said three factors set the Merzenich family apart, tilting the judging in their favor: their family collaboration, active managing including habitat restoration and interest in sharing strategies with others.

“Congrats to Jim, Ed and families,” Mike Barsotti, president of Linn County Small Woodlands Association wrote in an email.

A ‘total family effort’

Ed Merzenich said he felt “very honored” by the selection.

“This was a total family effort,” he said in a statement.

“The whole family is involved in it and has been since its inception,” echoed Jim Merzenich in a conversation with Capital Press.

The family has been in forestry for decades.

Ed Merzenich first bought forestry acreage in 1992 — a cutover the previous owner had not replanted. He received a repair order from the Oregon Department of Forestry and set to work reforesting more than 400 acres, a project that involved years of clearing brush and replanting trees. Merzenich spent more money on restoration than he had on the property itself.

“Ed was the Linn County tree farmer of the year in 1998 because of his Herculean efforts to get this tree farm back into production,” said Jim Merzenich, a trained forester.

In 2004, Jim and his wife Karen Merzenich bought a 386-acre block adjacent to Ed’s property. They have since commercially thinned much of the property, restored more than 200 acres of oak woodland and worked to control weeds, including non-native blackberries and hawthorn.

“It’s a never-ending thing to fight the noxious weeds,” said Jim.

Weed control, he said, involves mowing and judicious spraying with targeted herbicides. Jim said removing weeds has “made a profound difference across the whole landscape.”

Compatible goals

The Merzenichs manage Oak Basin Tree Farm with both timber and wildlife goals in mind. Their properties feature agroforestry, a small cow-calf operation with Scottish Highland cattle and a sustainable flow of harvestable timber.

Scottish Highland cattle, Jim Merzenich said, are a hardy heritage breed with a strong herd instinct, allowing the cattle to better resist predation. They are small, give birth easily and eat a varied diet, making them ideally suited to forests. The cattle control invasive weeds, encourage native plants to thrive and reduce fuels, limiting fire danger.

On the timber side, the Merzenichs do small-scale clear cuts, such as 5 to 10 acres, and do commercial thinning in larger stands. This summer, the family plans to thin about 40 acres. The Merzenichs have sold logs to Weyerhaeuser, Murphy Co., Seneca Sawmill, now owned by Sierra Pacific Industries, and other buyers.

The family also has secondary markets, including distilling conifer needles for essential oils, cutting rustic broom handles for a specialty broom company and splitting firewood to sell in bundles through the Oregon Woodland Co-op.

According to the Linn County Small Woodlands Association, Jim and Ed Merzenich have restored natural oak and meadow areas and created habitat for game species including deer, elk, bear, cougar, wild turkeys and waterfowl.

The family has received support from USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other entities for projects.

The Merzenichs have also supported tiny creatures, including Western bluebirds and nickel-sized Fender’s blue butterflies, both of which have suffered from habitat loss in the region for decades.

For the bluebirds, the family has built nest boxes.

For the butterflies, the Merzenichs worked with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to restore upland prairie landscapes. Due in part to the family’s efforts, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this year announced it will downlist the Fender’s blue butterfly from endangered to threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

“Our goal is to show that economic timber management and wildlife habitat enhancement are compatible,” said Jim Merzenich.

Jim Merzenich expects the tree farm will continue operating under future generations of his family, including potentially his daughter, who is studying ecology, and his nephew, who studied forestry. The Merzenichs also rely on help from foresters outside the family.

The runner-up for Oregon’s top tree farming award was Rail Creek Tree Farm in Lane County, owned by Diane Kaldahl and family.