In the nearly 120 years following Henry and Katherine purchasing a farm in the Wishkah Valley, the Lentz Family has built a legacy of growing vegetables, flowers, and trees and raising cattle.

And on Saturday, Aug. 23, the Lentz family hosted an open house that brought friends, family, forestry professionals, and tree farmers together to celebrate the Lentz Brothers Tree Farms, LLC as the 2025 Washington State Tree Farmer of the Year, a recognition awarded by the Washington Tree Farm Program (WTFP).

Ken, Don Jr., and Mike are the brothers who own Lentz Brothers Tree Farms, LLC. Although the LLC was formalized in 2009, it builds upon the forestland purchases their father Don and uncle Bob made beginning in the late 1940s throughout western Grays Harbor County. The tree farms now encompass 997 acres spread across eight parcels.

Paul Graves, the WTFP inspector who nominated the Lentz Brothers Tree Farms for the state award, shared that conducting the inspections of the tree farms and working with the brothers is why he became a forester.

“When I met them, it was obvious to me their commitment to the forest industry… what they have done year after year after year through the years,” Graves said, “It was my pleasure, and my honor actually, to be able to nominate them for tree farmer of the year.”

Earlier this year, Graves was recognized as the 2025 Inspector of the Year by the WTFP.

And as a testament to how close-knit the forestry community is when celebrating an achievement, those in attendance included John and Jenny Bull (John is the forester for the city of Montesano); John Henrikson, co-owner of Wild Thyme Farm that was awarded the Lewis County 2025 Tree Farm of the Year; Tom Agens, chair of the WTFP; and Keith and Yvonne Townsend, co-vice chairs of the WTFP. They, along with other members of the Townsend family, own Coburg Tree Farm, which is located in Eatonville. The Coburg Tree Farm was recognized as the 2023 Washington State Tree Farmers of the Year and 2024 National Tree Farmers of the Year.

Courtney Kent, a procurement forester for Smurfit Westrock and the Oregon State Sustainable Forestry Initiative chairperson, also came out for the open house. The Smurfit Westrock Longview mill purchases whole log chips from Local Manufacturing, and this Aberdeen-based whole log chip mill has purchased logs from harvest operations conducted on the Lentz Brothers Tree Farms.

“The whole log chips are a big part of our furnish that we use to make paper; we’re probably 20% whole log chips.” said Kent. “And as long as we’ve got people doing sustainable forestry and keeping it going, then we have access to those log chips.”

According to the the Paper Industry Technical Association, furnish is “various pulps, dyes, additives and other chemicals blended together” at a paper mill fed to the wet end of a paper machine to make paper or paperboard.

Following a luncheon provided by Vicki, who is Mike’s wife, and because it wasn’t feasible to visit one of the tree farm’s parcels, Don and Ken took attendees on a PowerPoint tour of the Lentz Brothers Tree Farms. (Seating was silver fir planks placed upon hay bales; the silver fir came from a nearby stand. “It’s beautiful wood, but it’s not good for much of anything,” Ken said.)

But before the virtual tour began, Bob Obedzinski, the central west inspector coordinator for the WTFP, presented a hand-carved wooden stick to Don Jr., who accepted it on behalf of his brothers. He shared that wooden sticks have a long tradition of being tied to nature, land, and the forest, as well as valor, wisdom and wealth.

“The four areas that really become important with a wooden stick are wisdom, wealth, power, and courage,” said Obedzinski. “What we decided in the Tree Farm Program was we wanted to have something that represented that. We also wanted to have something that … gave someone a tie to the land.”

The tour, which was narrated by Don Jr. and Mike, included an overview of the Lentz Family Farm and the conversation that prompted their father to purchase the forestland.

“My dad always told me, in high school he had a teacher that told him that there’s only so much land and you need to invest in land,” Mike said, adding, “He’d look at land that was accessible, that was well-stocked and had good soil and something that would benefit down the road.”

Upon the passing of their father and uncle, the brothers assumed responsibility of the tree farm. In the subsequent decades, they had 14 timber sales and currently 80 acres is of harvest age. Bob’s daughters Robin and Suzie are consulted on the management activities on the three parcels they have co-ownership of.

Raised during the tour were the challenges that managing forestland entails, such as animal damage, natural disturbances and people dumping garbage by their gates. With a number of their parcels containing riparian areas, since 2007 they have participated in Washington Department of Natural Resources Forestry Riparian Easement Program (FREP). Ken brought up their concerns regarding the ongoing discussion of increasing the buffer size on non-perennial streams.

For example, it used to take five to seven years after permitting to receive payment for the timber that couldn’t be harvested. Although the program is now paying landowners more promptly, “that’s going to be the problem [again] with the FREP program if their current law goes into effect. … When all that non-perennial buffers come into the FREP system, we’re going to fall behind because we’re not going to have the money to get paid.”

Following the tour, the brothers answered a few questions, one of which Bull asked, “Are you acquiring any more ground?” to which, Don quipped, “I’m selling.” But in seriousness, they added that the next generation is purchasing forestland, and the next step is developing a succession plan with the six children and eight grandchildren.

A raffle drawing gave away cutting boards made by Marshall, Mike’s son, and Marshall’s father-in-law from wood sourced from their tree farms, which the winners delighted in receiving.

In his closing remarks, Don thanked everyone for attending.

“Being tree farmer of the year has been a lot of work, but it’s done a lot for our tree farm,” he said.

A video of the Lentz Brothers Tree Farm and other tree farmer winners and nominees is available at https://www.watreefarm.org/tree-farmer-of-the-year-award/.