Craig Olver: a lifetime in forestry

By TOMKANE

HONESDALE, PA — Trees and timber became the interest and even the obsession of Craig Olver as he grew up on a dairy farm in Beach Lake, PA.

He joined the 4-H Club in middle school and began raising hundreds of trees from seed, planting the seedlings on his farm. This lifetime obsession has carried him through 27 years of service as a forester for the Wayne County Conservation District.

Now, he is about to make a life change but it will still involve trees and timber. Olver, 55, will retire from the district on January 31 and become a consultant for landowners and the logging industry.

When he came to the conservation district in 1978, he was the district’s first full-time employee. Since then the district has grown to eight full-time employees.

“There were 12 loggers when I began,” Olver said. “Now there are 68.”

His role with the district is to advise landowners and inspect local loggers to be sure they follow best practices. Another of his duties besides inspections is education. Olver is often seen in Wayne County schools teaching students about forests and the necessity of managing them by judicious cutting.

“We have an extensive educational program for students, for property owners and for loggers,” he said.

“I spend a lot of time with property owners explaining to them how to manage their woods, how they help the industry and make themselves some money,” he said. “A landowner can harvest his or her property about every 12 years of so,” he said.

But most of his educational efforts go to holding workshops for loggers.

“We hold numerous and multiple workshops during the year,” he said. “There’s a lot of regulations from the feds and the state that they must follow.”

Which brings us to what he’s going to do after retirement.

“Mostly, I will consult for logging companies and advise land owners,” he said.

An important activity will be managing his family’s 566-acre wood farm.

“I was looking originally for about 100 acres but I ended up with 566, which I can easily manage,” he said.

Olver sees a lot of changes going on in the industry.

“A lot of timber is going out of the country, which is not so good,” he said. Most U.S. timber is going to Canada where there are huge sawmills.

“Those companies are being subsidized by their government,” he said.

Like so many jobs that were once plentiful in America, they are going to other countries.

“I think this is not good for the industry and the country,” he said.