A logger had been coming by Joe and Christel Diliberto’s Portage County home for years, offering his services. So when they wanted a few trees removed — and he said he’d pay them, rather than the other way around — it sounded like a great deal. “He was real nice,” Joe remembers. “I thought he was okay, and I gave him the contract.”

The logging crew arrived with huge machinery and a portable sawmill, drove straight into the woods, and spent the entire summer taking everything that could be milled across 40 acres. The Dilibertos did everything they could to get them to stop, but it was no use. “I thought I would have a heart attack,” Joe says. “There are no words to describe it.”

With exploitative timber practices on the rise across northeast Ohio, theirs is far from the only story like it. What the Dilibertos lost can’t be undone — a forest timbered in such a destructive way may not recover for a century or more. But they’ve turned their grief into action. They now partner with conservation organizations across the region, speaking openly about their experience and urging landowners to work with a certified forester before signing any timber contract. “If one person makes a different choice because of our story,” Christel says, “we’ll get a good deal.”

Theirs is just one of the stories in Ways to Love a Forest, a new publication from Holden Forests & Gardens’ Working Woods Hub celebrating the people who steward northeast Ohio’s woodlands. This Arbor Day, we’re proud to share it with you.

Inside, you’ll meet a fungal ecologist who forages mushrooms and studies soil health, a Latin teacher who holds class in the woods, a double-amputee birdwatcher who patrols 27 acres of hemlock forest in an all-terrain wheelchair, and a third-generation furniture maker whose family has planted thousands of seedlings a year since he was a kid. You’ll also find maple syrup farmers, trail builders, urban foresters, and neighbors who banded together to protect their village’s tree canopy — each finding their own way to love a forest.

Read: Ways to Love a Forest: Stories of Woodland Stewardship in Northeast Ohio.

About the Working Woods Hub at HF&G: The Working Woods Hub is a network of passionate educators, natural resource professionals, and scientists who partner with forest landowners and other professionals throughout the region to manage, protect, and create resilient forests in Northeast Ohio. We work to promote best practices in forest management in our region, achieved through tried-and-true forestry practices, scientific research, and community outreach. The Hub provides programs and skills workshops, Ohio-specific forest management resources, a seed bank, and a consulting forestry business that offers personalized advice to individual landowners. Learn more about the Working Woods hub > 

If you are a woodland owner in our area, sign up for the Working Woods email newsletter to find out about upcoming events, opportunities, and new resources. If you would like to speak to someone with Holden Arboretum Consulting Forestry, fill out this interest form. 

Questions? Reach out to forestry@holdenfg.org.