Sean C Morgan
Sherman and Leslie Weld, Linn County’s Tree Farmers of 2018, are managing their tree farm not only for wildlife and harvest, but to provide a family gathering place as well as provide for the next generation.
Crescent Hill Acres Tree Farm, south of Holley, is 140 acres of rolling hillsides. From its top, on a clear day, Mt. Jefferson can be seen 80 miles away.
Lester and Faye Weld, Sherman’s parents, purchased the property 50 years ago. Known as the old Weed Place, formerly owned by Harvey Weed, the tree farm once was home to a sawmill.
Sherman, 76, a First Citizen of Sweet Home, former volunteer firefighter and a City Council member, has lived in Sweet Home for 71 years. He married Leslie, a San Diego native, in 1962 while he was serving in the Navy.
After completing his term of service, “he said you have three weeks to pack up,” Leslie said. “We’re moving back to Sweet Home.”
They loved raising their family in Sweet Home, they said. The couple has two children, Scott, 54, and Shelby, 52. They have three grandchildren, Maren, who is a sophomore at Sweet Home High School; Sten, 23, lead mechanic with Buck’s Sanitary Service, the family business; and Milah, a freshman at Linfield College.
“My dad bought this place 50 years ago,” Sherman said. “He started Sweet Home Sanitation in 1947.”
“He bought it for a landfill,” Leslie said.
About eight acres of the site was used as a landfill. Today, that land is covered in 29-year-old Douglas fir. Cascade Timber Consulting and Melcher Logging will thin 80 to 90 acres in the coming weeks.
“It’s all been rehabilitated,” Leslie said. “And now it’s growing trees.”
“Making it right again is what we are doing here,” Sherman said.
He noted that his father raised cattle as well.
“At one time, we had a hundred head of cattle,” Leslie said.
The land was all fields, and Lester ran cattle all over it, Sherman said.
Some 20 years ago, the Welds sprayed the land, ripped it to 36 inches and planted it in Douglas fir. Pockets of oak woodlands, 100-year-old pear and apple orchards, natural cedar in wet areas, along with three ponds, provide wildlife habitat that attracts deer, elk, turkeys and cougar.
“We are good stewards of the land,” Sherman said. “We have managed the place to enhance wildlife values. The wildlife means a lot to us.”
Fed by year-round springs, one of the ponds serves as a gathering place for three generations of family members. A clubhouse overlooks the pond, which offers shoreline for sunbathing or jumping in for a swim.
“The ponds just make it more enjoyable,” Sherman said. “It’s just a place to come and relax.”
“Kind of a family sanctuary,” Leslie said.
Leslie takes the reins in organizing family gatherings. She describes herself as “support crew” for the tree farm operations. She was also involved in operating Sweet Home Sanitation, now owned by Waste Connections.
Their son, Scott, is active in tree farm operations too .
“It has a good road system because of his efforts,” Sherman said. He also keeps up the buildings around the property.
Sherman still has the energy to get out into the woods. He has been an avid bicyclist throughout the years, although he’s dialed that back in the past year.
“I do a lot of limbing, trimming trees and brush control,” he said, noting that the farm always requires some work.
Sherman’s parents gifted the property to their four boys, Sherman said. Ultimately, Sherman and Leslie bought out his siblings.
The decision to grow timber was easy.
“Trees don’t talk back,” Sherman said. “Cattle are work. We decided we didn’t want to work all the time.”
The family planted 35,000 to 40,000 trees with CTC.
“We’re lucky to have a company like CTC,” Sherman said – and Mike Melcher too. “They’ve been very helpful to us over the years.”
The Welds’ goal is to “leave a working tree farm for the next one or two generations,” Sherman said.
“We just want to leave this property better than we found it for future generations,” Leslie said.
The Weld family will host the Linn County Tree Farmer of the Year tour at 10 a.m. on Sept. 22. The event is free and open to the public. Food and drinks will be provided.
The Welds will represent Linn County in the competition for 2018 statewide Tree Farmer of the Year. Winners of that competition will be announced on Oct. 27 at the Oregon Tree Farm System annual meeting in Silverton.
The primary purpose of the competition is to promote responsible forest management across the state and nation.
The annual Linn County Tree Farmer of the Year selection is carried out by the board of directors of the Linn County Small Woodlands Association. Linn County has been represented at the state competition for at least the past 25 years.