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Have you noticed the large mountain of logs near the corner of Center Road and Smokey Hollow Road? Impressive, isn’t it?
That’s my brother Ward Johnson’s farm. A tree service company is harvesting timber from the woods towards the back of his farm, once owned by the Jamieson family. Most of the trees being harvested are Scotch Pine, with a bit of White Pine tossed into the mix. They will eventually be turned into pallets.
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Meanwhile, the hardwood left standing in the woods will possibly be harvested at a later date — as in, 30 years or so. Ward says that will be up to his son, Nic, to decide.
He says he called around to lots of tree service companies, but found only one — Deering Tree Service, based in Maple City — who would bring their equipment out to harvest the timber. The others felt that the amount of timber was too small.
Deering has already taken one load away, so the logs you see at this writing will be the second load. In addition to being a revenue source for the farm, harvesting the timber is good forest and farm management, as it allows for better airflow to the orchards in that area. Without airflow, the cherries are more prone to brown rot.
In fact, one secluded orchard surrounded by woods could not be harvested last summer due to brown rot. Here’s a photo of that orchard, on the left of this photo. Timber is being harvested on the right to allow airflow.
And here’s a photo of the woods after timber harvest. The hardwood is left to possibly be harvested in a few decades.
This farm is part of the Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) program, which our dad, Walter Johnson, helped to establish back in the 1990s. The program harks back to August 2, 1994, when Peninsula Township residents first voted to approve a property tax increase to fund a $6 million program to purchase development rights on farmland.
In 2002, voters once again approved the PDR program for the next 20 years, then again in 2022.
Developed over many years by township farmers, elected leaders and concerned citizens, the PDR program helps to support the local farming industry and better manage growth by limiting development on PDR land. Dad was the first Peninsula Township farmer to commit to putting his land into the program if the voters passed it.
Glen Chown, OMP resident and executive director of the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy (GTRLC), told me once that without Dad’s support of the program, it would have been a much tougher sell to voters.
In Dad, Peninsula Township voters could see a lifelong farmer who was willing to sell his development rights for a variety of reasons: to preserve the farmland that had been in his family since the 1800s, to protect the scenic views and rural landscape for all Peninsula residents, and to allow his own family to continue farming that same land.
My brothers, Dean Johnson and Ward Johnson, continue to farm land that’s been in our family and other OMP families for generations. Both Dean and Ward have said they would not still be farming today without Dad’s vision and participation in the PDR program.
Each PDR contract is different, based on the topography of the land, viewshed, crops and other things. Ward’s PDR contract for this farm includes timber as a harvestable crop. He is able to make money from timber “thanks to Dad trying to foresee everything that the farm could possibly make money on,” he says.
Here’s a video of Deering’s tree harvesting machine through the woods.
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Thank you for sharing your family timber/farming history and, especially, your dad’s important gift of his initial support of the important Peninsula Township PDR’s initiative. A blessing in perpetuity!
Thanks, Nancy! When you’re a kid, you don’t think of your dad as being a visionary, but looking back, he definitely could see the future coming and did his part, both with the PDR program and our family’s farms, to preserve the land in the coming decades. Farming has changed over the years, so we’ll see how it looks in the coming years as my brothers look to possibly retire at some point. We do have younger farmers in the family who can hopefully take over at least part of the land they currently have.
Thank you Jane. Always interesting facts on the OMP.
Thanks, MJ! Ward and I were trying to think if maybe Doc Jamieson might have planted those trees or if they were just always there. Some are definitely 75 to 100 years old.
LOL Can already see the difference in the airflow. Lots of blowing snow and drifting in that stretch now. Drive careful out there. 🙂
Thank you, Jane! My husband and I have passed by all the timber and wondered what was going on. Thank you to your dad’s initiative with the PDR and how it has helped the farmers on OMP! Great story!
Thanks, Laurie! They’ve really harvested a lot of wood out of that parcel back there. You can practically hear the forest breathing a sigh of relief at being able to breathe again.
Thanks for the article. I was cringing every time I drove by those logs in dread of yet another subdivision. BTW, I’m wondering about the recent land clearing on the East side of Center Rd. accross from the island scenic viewpoint.