Couple planting not just trees but a legacy

MOSCOW - Stu Goldstein's green John Deere Gator hums down a grassy trail on a bumpy embankment on his rural Moscow property.

He's wrapped up in brown coveralls and black gloves to fight off the cool of the Palouse fall. A gray bucket hat is pulled down tight over his forehead.

When he looks out in front of him, a stark contrast stares back.

To his right, acres and acres of wheat fields roll off as far as the eye can see. Off to his left stand 30,000 trees - trees he and his wife, Annemarie, planted over a three-year time span 13 years ago.

He stops.

And reverses.

High above a conglomeration of ponderosa pines that cover the crest of the hill, two hawks hover, unwavering blots against the pale blue sky.

"Look at those two hawks riding thermals," he says as he allows the Gator to idle. "There's some real beauty there, isn't there?"

When the Goldsteins moved from California to Moscow, it was in the depths of an Idaho winter in January 1996.

They were looking for a place to retire.

What they found was an 80-acre parcel of land that would not only have future implications for them, but for the whole of Latah County.

The land was first enrolled in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Conservation Reserve Program in 1987, about 10 years before the Goldsteins would call Moscow home.

The CRP is a way to encourage farmers to convert highly erodible cropland and other environmentally sensitive acreage to vegetative cover.

At the time of purchase, the property had been taken out of crop production and a ground cover of grasses had been laid down, Goldstein said.

The property was homesteaded in 1887 and became a family farm, growing wheat, oats, barley and hay. The barn's hand-hewn white pine post and beam construction still stands, originally built in 1911. The couple's home was built in 1917.

Stu Goldstein said it has been a pleasure to get to know the families who came before them.

"We've met the people born and raised here, people who farmed here," he said. "We've really had the opportunity to meet and walk the ground with those families. It really gives us a sense of history of the place. It's a treasure."

In 1997, the couple re-enrolled in the CRP with a reforestation project written with an Idaho Department of Lands private forestry specialist and included management methods of the Idaho Forest Practices Act.

The Goldstein's participated in the Idaho Fish and Game Habitat Improvement Program, and renewed the ground's CRP contract for 10 more years in 2007.

The CRP, a cost-share and rental payment program for millions of the acres of land across the country, is run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency. The program was established as farmers know it today by the Farm Bill of 1985, but many practices and aspects of the CRP were established by legislation as early as the 1950s.

Latah County's FSA executive director Jim Knecht said there has been a recent decline in re-enrollment of CRP land in the county.

Latah County has about 42,000 acres of land enrolled in the CRP down over the last several years from a high just shy of about 50,000 acres.

In contrast, Whitman County has nearly 180,000 acres of CRP land, and nearly all of the acreage belongs to farmers who also have farmland in production, according to Fred Hendrickson, Whitman County CRP program technician.

When the Goldsteins decided to convert the dormant farmland into a living forest, they knew the task would be far from simple.

"We knew we had to be prepared," Stu Goldstein said.

Stu and Annemarie Goldstein took forest management classes at the University of Idaho. Their class schedules included a range of course work from agricultural machinery systems to environmental and natural resources economics to plant diseases. They've taken IDL forest stewardship workshops and have a private pesticide applicator license from the Idaho State Department of Agriculture.

The couple worked with several local nurseries, sometimes a year in advance, to order the thousands of trees. The 6- to 12-inch starts had to be grown in an elevation and climate comparable to where they were planted, Annemarie Goldstein said.

About 95 percent of their forest is composed of ponderosa pines, and the rest is made up of mainly Douglas firs and western larch. All tree species used are native to Idaho.

Initially the couple started tree planting with just the two of them, but quickly realized they'd need more help.

She said they hired a crew to help plant the trees each of the three years. Spreading out the planting over several years helped minimize annual costs and risk of loss due to unpredictable environmental factors.

"They won't be full grown for some time," Stu Goldstein said, "But we've already begun some thinning. They're healthy and vigorous. There's some 20 footers out there, and we're pleased that they're really doing well."

Several piles of animal droppings line the side of Stu Goldstein's carefully managed pathway.

"I dunno what that came from, but it looks fresh, doesn't it?" he said as he leans over the Gator's steering wheel.

Providing a welcoming, healthy environment on the Goldstein's property for the region's wildlife can't be understated, he said.

Annemarie Goldstein said the couple frequently spot a mother and baby moose on their farm, along with deer, birds and the occasional coyote.

Stu Goldstein said the couple added an elevated nesting box for geese and were fortunate enough to observe six goslings bailing out of the 6-foot-high nest to join their parents on the Goldstein's nearby pond for their first swim.

"I've talked with Fish and Game guys that have never seen that kind of thing their whole careers," he said. "It's a special place here."

He said improving the environment around their home has practical implications as well, such as less erosion and windbreak on neighboring farmlands and improved drinking water quality.

"People remember from before the CRP how this water would run brown because of the erosion," Stu Goldstein said. "I think our creek now is a visible testimony to the effectiveness of the CRP."

Stu Goldstein knows he won't be around forever, but he said he's happy to contribute to a project that will benefit his family and the surrounding area's wildlife for years to come. The couple have four grown children in their 30's and 40's.

"We like that this is a safe corridor for critters that are moving along the basin," he said.

The 30,000 trees will take 50 to 80 years to mature, and by that time, Stu Goldstein said he'd be at "the ripe old age of 130."

Some of the trees can eventually be used for market, he said, including uses like firewood and wood to make furniture.

"We know that without the land, we're nothing" Annemarie Goldstein said. "We know that we must be good stewards or we have nothing else."