The solace at Solins': by practicing an inherited ethic and careful stewardship, these Wisconsin brothers hope to pass along "eternity" with the family business.

I see my dad in these hills, the trees we planted together, the old stumps of trees he cut when I was a kid," says Don Solin of the tree farm near Antigo, Wisconsin, where he grew up. The rolling hills of northern Wisconsin's glacial kettle moraine are densely forested with hardwoods, birch and aspen and pitted with potholes and lakes.

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It was to this lush green landscape that Don and Dave Solin's grandparents emigrated from Czechoslovakia at the turn of the century and established a homestead that was to remain in the family for generations. Solin Hills Tree Farm was founded on the premise that forest stewardship cannot merely be employed now; it must be taught and inherited by the generation that follows. Don and his brother Dave share ownership of Solin Hills, and they've managed the property since the 1970s guided by a land ethic learned from their father, Joseph.

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Their mother, 86-year-old Hattie, remembers moving to the farm from Chicago with her husband in 1941 when his father was killed in a farm accident. "I was a city slicker, and getting used to pumping water and using an outhouse was pretty hard," she remembers. They began with 40 acres, and Joe harvested pulp and cut firewood to pay for the farm.

Hattie and their seven children worked in the woods peeling pulp and planting trees. "Joe used to make the holes, and I'd put the tree in and step on it," she recalls. Even back then, local foresters advised the couple on which species to replant.

Pulpwood began providing revenue for the Solin family as early as 1942, and Joseph Solin supplemented their income with trapping. Don remembers his father buying a brand new Farmall H tractor--considered top of the line--with money earned during the years when beaver pelts sometimes brought $70 each. In 1967 the premiere episode of Marlin Perkins' popular TV series, Wild Kingdom, was filmed on the Solin Tree Farm. If we take care of the land through sound forestry and conservation practices, the land will take care of us was Joseph Solin's land ethic, and it remains the guiding force for managing the woodland.

"All the knowledge my dad passed on to us makes this tree farm what it is today," says Don.

Lumber from trees harvested to clear the land built the original farm structures, and the first forestry management plan for the property was developed in 1967. Solin Brothers Forest Products was formed in 1979 with Dave and Don as equal partners. Today Solin Hills is much more than a woodlot, and the brothers have increased their property to more than 1,200 acres. They have diversified into everything from Christmas trees, balsam wreaths and maple syrup to cabin rentals, fishing and hunting excursions, birdseye and curly maple lumber products, and veneer for Popsicle sticks.

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When she was just 11, Don and Kathy's daughter Stacy told tour groups that one cord of birch, an odorless and tasteless species, would make 250,000 Popsicle sticks. One year three of the Solin children dressed for Halloween as a birch tree, a logger, and a Popsicle. White birch bolts from Solin Hills also produce toothpicks, tongue depressors, and other medical supplies.

Severe drought threatened the Solins' birch resource back in the late 1980s, so Dave and Don tried a new technique to regenerate birch. With the help of Don's father-in-law, they built a scarifier--a device that will disk, turn, or till the soil to prepare it for receiving seeds--to pull behind their pole skidder after harvesting a birch plot. A pole skidder, similar to a tractor, is used to get logs or pulpwood out to a roadside.

"The scarification needs to be done in late August or early September to maximize seed germination and growth potential," says Don. "Strip clearcuts of at least 40-foot widths, preferably going north and south, seem to do best, and you need to leave a fair amount of birch trees for seed reproduction between these strips."

Seedling counts show 11,000 to 22,000 white birch seedlings per acre where the ground was scarified and no seedlings where it was not. In an area that was scarified 10 years ago, healthy birch saplings, more than an inch in diameter, stand 15 feet tall, promising another generation of Popsicle sticks. Similar intensive site preparation preserves red and white oak and white pine for future generations.

The Solins' sound forestry practices earned them second place nationally in the Tree Farm program in the mid-1990s. Two things about the Solin operation impressed Bob Simpson, director of the American Tree Farm System.

"It was their ability to inventory their entire resource and responsibly and profitably manage for all of it and do it all with family participation and family pride," he says. "So many times forest owners hone in on one particular area and become so focused on that they don't realize the full potential of their forestland.

"The Solins consider every aspect of their ecosystem and manage accordingly," he adds.

Because he was born into a tree-farming family. Dave Solin's son Jeremy grew up with an awareness of the natural world and of issues faced by small private landowners. That provided the foundation for an environmental ethic that led him into environmental education. Jeremy is now Wisconsin School Forest Education Specialist serving as a resource to over 300 school forests in the state.

"The most important lesson I learned growing up was the value of hard work and perseverance," says Jeremy, who remembers peeling popple by hand when he was 8 and earning 10 cents for each white pine tree he pruned when he was ten. "When I had pruned all the pines I could stand, I submitted my bill for $5," he recalls. "I enjoy walking through those pines today and seeing the healed over branches.

"My family has always had an incredibly strong connection to the land. Much of their management is done to enhance wildlife habitat. I remember my dad leaving dead-standing trees (snags) long before the practice was recommended. The most specific value my family instilled in me is that resources can be used and protected simultaneously." Jeremy conducted ruffed grouse drumming surveys on the property each spring and did point count surveys of songbirds in later years.

Northern hardwoods including red oak, hard and soft maple, white and black ash, basswood, white and yellow birch, aspen and butternut thrive in the forests of Solin Hills, as do softwoods such as white and black spruce, balsam, white and red pine and white cedar. Because of this diversity of tree species, migratory songbirds such as scarlet tanagers, hermit thrushes, and chestnut-sided warblers return to nest there each spring.

Over the years the Solins have improved brook trout habitat by installing wing deflectors in the Eau Claire River and seeded wildlife openings for deer and game birds. "Our 16-year-old son Joe knows these openings produce some pretty good hunts," says Don, "and our 12-year-old daughter Susie shot her first ruffed grouse on the fly last fall."

They've constructed loon, goose, and duck nesting platforms as well as wood duck and bluebird houses. Wildlife ponds built to attract waterfowl are stocked with minnows, which provide extra income. To benefit local residents, the Solins create and maintain cross-country ski and snowmobile trails. Don is active in the local chapter of the Quality Deer Management Association, and the Solins donate a yearly father-son hunt on their property to promote that organization.

As strong advocates of the benefits of sustainable forestry, the Solins have helped develop a school demonstration forest, spoken at national forest conferences, conducted tours of their property and been leaders in organizations from 4-H to Lake States Independent Loggers Association to National Woodland Owners Association.

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"The easiest way to spread the forestry word," says Don, "is to manage our property for wildlife habitat. Timber management and wildlife management go hand in hand. That practice has spread to our neighbors since they've seen what we have on our property, and most of them are now managing their timber for wildlife, too."

Don's wife Kathy handles much of the paperwork for the business, and she is grateful that their children can grow up in the country. "When they come home from school, they can go for a walk in the woods, pick berries or grab a pole and fish in Anderson Lake," she says. "They've learned an appreciation of nature and are proud of the land we own."

Despite the family's emphasis on wildlife management, Don Solin points out that pulpwood and timber products are their primary source of income. He and Dave have mechanized in recent years, and they use a harvester to cut and process their wood.

"Dave and I are loggers," he says. "We have options to do many other things, but it's the logging operation that sustains our tree farm. In 2001 Dave and I clearcut an area that our father had clearcut in 1941."

Because clearcutting is necessary to regenerate aspen, a species beneficial to many types of wildlife, the brothers harvest patches from two to 15 acres in size. They select cut hardwood areas to create an uneven age stand of timber varying from seedlings to maturity of over 100 years.

The Solins have harvested some 10,000 cords of pulpwood and 200,000 feet of saw timber in the last two decades. Their trees go to WausauMosinee, Stora Enso, Thilmany, Weyerhauser and Louisiana-Pacific for paper products. They go to Columbia Forest Products for veneer core panels for hardwood doors and to Kretz and Kersten Lumber companies. Wetterau Wood Products manufactures pallets from their timber.

"This is an enterprise, make no mistake," Norm Sonderman, former University of Wisconsin Extension agent, says of the Solin Tree Farm. "But this is an enterprise with an eye to the future, and an enterprise of stewardship as well as profit. The same hand that holds the ax also holds the shovel, and planting is as important as the harvest.'

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In 1987, the Solins planted 15,000 trees, including 12,000 pine and some hybrid larch. After the 2004 growing season, they will do a row-thinning harvest of the 30-foot pines for lumber and pulpwood. The larch, now more than 40 feet tall, will also be sold for pulpwood some day.

In the years ahead, Don and Dave will face many of the same challenges as others in the forest industry: escalating land values and property taxes, global competition and consolidation of the industry into fewer and larger companies. The brothers hope to pass on their forestry philosophies to the next generation along with the land.

"Our father taught us to work hard and to respect the land," says Dave. "I've tried to instill in our children the importance of harvesting only what is needed to maintain a healthy forest and not to abuse or overuse our natural resource. I hope they will be able to keep the land intact and undeveloped."

Dave and Don are working on ways to simplify the inheritance of the land for the next generation. "I want to teach our children that land is a precious commodity," says Don, "and if we take care of it in a sound and ethical manner, it will take care of us. Nobody is eternal, but by passing on the knowledge that I've gained to my children and their friends, I know that someday they, too, may realize that eternity can be passed on by tree planting projects or a walk in the woods."

By Margaret A. Haapoja; photos by Eileen R. Herrling.

Margaret Haapoja writes from Bovey, Minnesota.