Michigan Tree Farm chooses Bobiers as outstanding tree farmers of 2024

Bill and Patrice Bobier are Michigan’s 2024 Outstanding Tree Farmers of the Year, honored with the award by the Michigan Tree Farm Committee. Michigan’s chapter of the American Tree Farm System has helped Michigan’s family forest landowners take great care of their woods since 1949.

The Bobiers were given the award after their decades of work in the woods, advocating for good forestry policy and inspiring neighbors by sharing their love of the land with their community.

They have had their forest land enrolled in the American Tree Farm System for five years, but they have been exemplary stewards of the land and active in their community for more than 50 years.

In 1971, Bill and Patrice bought 40 acres of land west of Hesperia in rural Oceana County to homestead and raise a family. They moved an old cabin onto the land the following year. As their family grew, they expanded the cabin a few times with lumber milled from trees grown in their own woods.

A northern spy apple tree now grows where the outhouse once stood. A large garden on the south side of the house provides food for four generations of family and visitors.

Earthscape Farm, as their establishment grew to be called, has also grown over the years. It now spans 415 acres, where Bill and Patrice raise Angus beef cattle and carefully manage 200 acres of mixed hardwoods and lowland conifers.

The Bobier Tree Farm is a multigeneration family and community forest. Bill and Patrice have two adult children, five grandchildren and a new great-grandchild. Their grandchildren have planted white pine and red pine seedlings in the woods, and everyone helps with cutting firewood. Tree tops left after timber harvests heat their cabin and two neighbors’ homes. They also provide income from firewood sales.

Sharing the woods is a given for the Bobiers.

A neighbor, who lives primarily in Chicago, kept getting lost in their woods, so Bill put up birdhouses as trail markers. Birds never nested in them, but the neighbor finds her way home now.

The Oceana Conservation District regularly brings children to their outdoor farm camp to pick vegetables, play in the woods and create art in nature with Bill and Patrice.

Love for wood is a legacy

Bill's father managed a lumber yard, so Bill must have inherited his love of wood from his dad. The Bobiers hired sawyers to bring portable sawmills to the farm ten times over the last fifty years to mill boards from trees grown in their woods. Two years ago, Bill and his neighbor bought their own portable sawmill that they operate together. It takes a lot of cedar posts and ash boards to maintain the eight miles of fencing that enclose the many pastures at the farm.  More than a dozen outbuildings have been constructed on the farm with wood milled onsite from trees grown in their woods. Mill scraps are used for fuel to boil about 15 gallons of maple syrup each spring. Not many Tree Farmers have their own grapple skidder, but Bill has a custom grapple hook on the back of his tractor to drag logs to his sawmill.  Bill and Patrice are active in their community, generously sharing their love of the land with others. They hosted Farm Bill tours for state and national policy makers to showcase important agriculture and forestry issues in the federal Farm Bill. The Bobiers have also hosted several agricultural tours of their farm, showcasing agroforestry systems like windbreaks and silvopasture, a pasture management method where livestock are grazed among trees instead of bare fields. Earthscape Farm was the first farm in Oceana County to achieve verifications of four different systems with the Michigan Agricultural and Environmental Assurance Program: farmstead, cropping, livestock and forest.

Working with professionals to improve the land

Bill and Patrice have worked with several foresters over the years to manage their woods. Consulting foresters David Wilson and Richard Cooper helped with management plans and marking timber for harvest.

Oceana Conservation District foresters Michael Paling and Rod Denning helped with program enrollment, forestry field days and training events. Paling suggested the Tree Farm Program to Bill, who had long admired it for its land ethic and eye-catching sign. Denning recently visited for an inspection to keep the Bobiers current with Tree Farm Program requirements.

Both Bobiers have interesting careers to supplement farming and forestry on the homestead.

They owned a woodshop with three partners who made toys and furniture with wood milled from trees on the farm. Patrice is a midwife who has helped with almost 2,000 births around west Michigan since 1977. Bill taught sustainable agriculture at Grand Valley State University in the 1970s, then started a consulting firm in the 1980s to share advice about agriculture, timber, minerals and homestead design. Bill’s love for the land also led to a career in politics.

Bill joined the township zoning board in 1980 because he was concerned about good land-use planning. He served as the township assessor and supervisor for six years. In 1990, he defeated an incumbent state representative and served Michigan’s 101st District, representing four counties along Lake Michigan from 1991 to 1998. He helped update Michigan’s Commercial Forest Act in his first term as a legislator while serving on the Agriculture, Forestry and Minerals Committee. He was endorsed by organizations across the entire political spectrum, from the Sierra Club to Farm Bureau. He won four legislative awards from constituent groups for his policy work on parks, conservation districts, townships and wildlife conservation.

Best practices and advocacy are important

The Oceana Conservation District gave the Bobiers its Conservationist of the Year award in 2017. Besides taking care of the land, Bill and Patrice work to protect water quality too. The north branch of the White River, a state natural river, runs through their woods. They obtained the required permit from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources when harvesting trees near the water. Putney Creek runs through a cedar swamp before entering the White River, and the Bobiers are especially proud of some tiny cedar trees regenerating under the protective cover of prickly ash that keeps hungry deer away. They are looking to the future by exploring various carbon offset programs for carbon sequestration and climate mitigation. Bill worked as a policy advocate for a decade after term limits ended his career as an elected public servant. His clients included the Michigan Association of Conservation Districts, Michigan United Conservation Clubs, The Nature Conservancy, Union of Concerned Scientists, Environmental Defense Fund, Future Farmers of America and Michigan Townships Association. He served on several boards, including Michigan Nature Association, Michigan League of Conservation Voters, Michigan Food and Farming Systems, and the Oceana Community Foundation. He also worked as a policy analyst for six years for the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. Bill worked on several important property tax issues and helped create the Qualified Forest Program in 2006, which lowers property taxes for thousands of people and hundreds of thousands of acres of family forest in Michigan. The Bobiers have 140 acres of their own woods enrolled in the Qualified Forest Program.

More information on Tree Farm and other programs

A variety of programs help landowners who want to manage their forests responsibly, and some offer tax breaks as well.

• American Tree Farm System: Provides the tools and information to help tree farmers and woodland owners keep forests healthy and productive.

• Qualified Forest Program: Encourages landowners to actively manage their privately owned forests for commercial harvest, wildlife habitat enhancement and improvement of other nonforest resources. Enrolled landowners receive an exemption from the local school operating millage.
• Commercial Forest Program: Offers reduced property taxes for those who manage their forest for long-term timber production. The State of Michigan makes an annual payment to counties with commercial forest lands to make up for lost local tax revenue.
• Forest Stewardship Program: Connects landowners with professional foresters to help them manage, protect and enjoy their forests.