Some of Rob Woodall's property includes a pond and many acres of classified forest. Staff photo by Kate Thurston
Rob Woodall, a local landscaper, has dabbled with nature since he attended college at Purdue University and studied forestry.
Woodall has close to 60 acres of classified forest out of his 68-acre homestead. Many Hoosiers have decided to take part of their property and turn it into classified forests.
According to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Division of Forestry, you must have 10 acres to apply for it to be classified.
A Classified Forest and Wildlands tract is an area of at least 10 contiguous acres of forest or non-forest wildlife habitat where the landowner has agreed (by application) to be a good steward of the land and its natural resources. In return, the State of Indiana agrees to see that the assessed value of the land is significantly reduced and taxed on that preferential assessment. The land is managed for timber production, wildlife habitat, and the protection of watersheds, while conserving other natural resources and values.
Eligible lands may be either native forests containing at least 40 square feet of basal area per acre or at least 1,000 timber-producing trees (any size) per acre. Tree plantations with at least 400 well-established timber-producing trees are also eligible to be classified. Wildlands can include natural or planted grasslands, wetlands, native woody vegetation, or areas of open water averaging less than 4 feet in depth or less than 2 acres in size.
Certain activities cannot take place on Classified Forest and Wildlands:
• Grazing by domestic livestock
• Building of houses, sheds, etc
• Intentional burning unless prescribed under a written management plan
• Growing Christmas trees
Other activities are allowed and are encouraged when appropriate to meet the landowner’s goals and objectives for the land. These activities, however, must not be conducted in a manner detrimental to the health and productivity of the property or its watershed. Allowed activities include:
• Wildlife management
• Maintenance of access roads and trails
• Timber harvesting
• Firewood cutting
• Horseback riding
• Hiking
• Hunting
“I decided to do it for various reasons. I mostly did it to protect the ground for future generations, once you sell the ground, it goes to the next person. Getting the ground out of classified forest is a complicated deal. I did it as a way to protect it, even though you can still go through the state and forest, it remains in forested ground,” Woodall said. “One of the biggest things you can’t do is graze livestock or open it up for pasture. You can’t profit off of it by doing things such as growing and bailing hay, so it protects the land. There is more forested ground now than there was in the early 1900’s, it continues to increase when you would think it would be decreasing. Many people are setting forest aside to help leave it better than they found it. That is my plan.”
Woodall bought the property in the early 2000’s and little did he know, he also has one of the county’s biggest trees on his property.
On the property, a Pignut Hickory (Carya glabra) that’s measurements surpass the current living tree in the county and perhaps the state, grows.
“The forester, Jayson Waterman visited this summer when the foliage was on and will come back in the fall once the leaves have shed to get better measurements and verify that it is the largest.”
The circumference is 113 feet.
Waterman told Woodall the tree is probably from the mid 1800’s.
“I knew there was a large tree here when I bought the property but wasn’t aware that it would grow into such a large tree, or that it would one day be a record.”
Woodall will know the exact standing of the tree this fall. If it is the largest, there are Big Tree Tours of state champion and heritage trees to the public.
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