It’s a Small (Forestry) World After All

It was a typical North Idaho snowy morning as I drove out to check on an active logging operation in Garfield Bay near Sandpoint, Idaho. I rounded a corner on Sagle Road to see a pickup truck in the ditch of the oncoming lane. I assessed the trucks predicament and after a quick chat with the driver, I got my tow strap out and was ready to hook it up when a propane delivery truck came by and offered to pull him out (more weight and tire chains). With a little tug the pickup was back on the roadway.

The driver thanked me for stopping to help and asked if I was a forester. His wife had pointed out to him I was wearing a University of Idaho Logger Sports sweatshirt. I introduced myself as a forestry consultant with Inland Forest Management and handed him my business card, wishfully thinking he might own some forestland nearby that I could help manage. As it turned out, he was also a forestry consultant from Shelton, Washington, temporarily house sitting for their daughter in our area. The world grew even smaller as we continued to chat on the side of the road and realized we were both members of the Association of Consulting Foresters, a national organization of consulting forestry professionals who manage private timberlands for forestland owners.

Of the hundreds of vehicles that travel this route every day, one of only a dozen ACF members within a 200 mile radius happened to be the one to stop, and, unknowingly, lend a hand to another fellow ACF colleague visiting from over 400 miles away. As foresters, we are uniquely aware of how relatively small our profession can feel at times, and even smaller still as a consulting forester. I hope to run into him again someday at a future ACF convention and we can laugh about our unlikely encounter.

Ryan Pennick, ACF