Last week, my first grader brought home his reading assignment from school. It was a book called “Help the Forest.” The book talked about all of the animals that lived in the forest. The book also showed a picture of loggers and on the same page it said the loggers didn’t take care of the forest, that they left trash in the forest. It also said the loggers destroyed homes for birds and animals and hurt their food supply.
I immediately contacted my state Farm Bureau and asked if there was a book I could take to the school that showed the many benefits of forest management. Our state Promotion and Education Director recommended “The Tree Farmer” by Chuck Leavell. This book was the 2007 American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture’s Book of the Year recipient and it has amazing illustrations of Charlane Plantation which is owned by Leavell and his wife.
I took the book to my son’s school today and read it to both first grade classes. The book talked about all of the benefits of having trees in our lives, and how tree farmers work hard to plant trees. The book reinforces the need to harvest trees to make products we use everyday in our lives.
Each class is receiving a copy of this book to include in their class library. It is very important we help our schools understand the important role farmers and ranchers play not only in providing food for our nation, but in protecting our forest and managing them. Tree farmers manage our forest properly to encourage new growth and to meet the needs of our growing nation.