Jamie Knight Named National Tree Farm Inspector of the Year

Jamie Knight was named the 2013 National Outstanding Inspector of the Year at the National Tree Farm Convention on July 27 in St. Paul, Minn. Jamie was previously honored as 2012 Oregon Inspector of the Year and the 2013 Western Regional Inspector of the Year. Jamie is the first woman and first Oregonian selected to receive the national award.

Jamie, an Oregon Department of Forestry stewardship forester working in La Grande, completed 11 inspections in 2012, and has a long history of Tree Farm volunteering and other activities in support of family forest landowners and stewardship of Oregon’s forests.

Jamie has a number of duties for ODF in Northeast Oregon. She manages the Private Lands Forest Network, a private nonprofit organization that provides seedlings, cold storage for seedlings, tools and technical advice to landowners in northeast Oregon and parts of southeast Washington.

Jamie is also the local manager of the Blue Mountain Western Larch Cooperative Orchard. Still in its infancy, the cooperative’s goal is to grow grafted larch in an orchard setting and meet the seed shortfalls that are being felt in northeast Oregon and southeast Washington.

Jamie’s work includes many Tree Farm landowner visits and inspections. In addition, she has played a major role in assisting the two most recent Oregon Outstanding Tree Farmers of the Year from northeast Oregon Chris and Donna Heffernan and Harry Merlo as well as host tours and help complete their applications for Western Regional Tree Farmer of the Year.

Inspectors are vitally important to the Oregon Tree Farm System. Nearly 900,000 acres on 764 properties are certified in Oregon as meeting the American Forest Foundation Standards of Sustainability for Forest Certification. All these properties have been inspected and certified by Tree Farm Inspectors.

More information on the Oregon Tree Farm System is available at www.otfs.org

Congratulations, Jamie! Oregon’s tree farmers are very proud of you!

For the forest,

Mike Cloughesy
Director of Forestry

 

Photo: Tom Martin (AFF President), Jamie Knight (2013 National Outstanding Inspector of the Year), Joe Arington (2013 National Outstanding Tree Farmer of the Year) and Brad Sorgen (Stihl Chainsaws, award sponsor.)