A Guild Model Forest at Work – Crummies Creek Tree Farm, Arnoldsburg, WV

[West Virginia] Our long standing goal with Crummies Creek Tree Farm is to balance our portfolio by managing for and deriving income from as wide a variety of sources as possible. In addition to annual timber sales on our 965 acres, Crummies Creek produces non-timber commodities including black Cohosh, American ginseng, Goldenseal and log moss. And we like to tell others about what we are doing by regularly holding forest management programs and demonstrations. We’ve found tremendous income potential and interest from our clients in managing non-timber commodities, however this work has also focused our attention on the ground, where non-native plants threaten to compromise our new found opportunities. In addition to eliminating many important understory plants from our native woodlands, invasive species like Japanese stiltgrass, garlic mustard, Asian honeysuckle and Chinese tree of heaven are now becoming recognized for their negative impact on hardwood regeneration. [From the latest Forest Guild newsletter]