Jacob & Mary Huber Are 2024 Douglas County Tree Farmers of the Year
Story and photos by Craig Reed
When Jacob Huber visits his coastal redwood forest, he hugs a tree and says, “Hello! How are you?” After a day of forestry management among the trees, he hugs a tree and says, “Thank you. I’ll be back soon.”
It’s that kind of passion that earned Jacob and his wife, Mary, recognition as the 2024 Douglas County Small Woodlands Tree Farmers of the Year.
The Hubers have 1,500 20-year-old redwoods spread over 5 acres between Tyee Road and the main Umpqua River. On a hillside across the road, they have a Douglas fir forest on 70 acres.
With help from son Jacob and daughter Heidi, Jacob planted all of these trees as seedlings immediately after buying 150 acres in 1999. In addition to the Douglas fir and the redwoods, they planted a few European larchs and some ponderosa pine trees.
There’s also a small orchard of apple, pear, quince, persimmon, furry kiwi, Asian pear, plum, and fig trees.
When asked about the attraction of planting and caring for trees, 82-year-old Jacob’s response is simply, “I just love trees.”
Heidi has another explanation.
“He wanted to plant something for the future beyond his lifetime, and it is also how he grounds himself to the world,” she says.
Tami Jo Braz, president of the county’s small woodlands association, says Jacob and Mary are “an excellent example of active and dynamic stewardship forestry and land management.”
Jacob grew up on his family’s dairy farm in Switzerland. To avoid family conflict, he immigrated to the United States in 1960 at age 18, leaving the inheritance of the dairy to his older brother. His first stop in the States was in Wisconsin, where he worked on a farm.
To get out of the cold and to a warmer climate, Jacob moved to central California. He found work with a landscape contractor in the San Francisco Bay Area.
“That’s where I got excited about redwood trees,” Jabob says. “I planted some redwood seedlings during that work.”
His landscaping job was interrupted, however, when he was drafted into the U.S. Army as a noncitizen. He served 2 years in Texas and then returned to California. While living in Auburn, California, he met Mary. They married in 1983.
During a trip to Spokane, Washington, the couple stopped in Roseburg.
“He loved the hundred valleys of the Umpqua,” Mary says. “They reminded him a little bit of Switzerland.”
They found 40 acres of recently clearcut timber ground.
“When I saw this property, I knew this is it, immediately, instantly,” Jacob says.
Jacob and his children began the work of planting 3,000 seedlings—mainly Douglas fir—annually for the next several years. They planted redwood seedlings between 2005 and 2008.
“I was aware Douglas fir was the tree of Douglas County and this part of Oregon, but I also wanted some different species,” Jacob says.
The first year or 2 after seedlings were planted, the Huber teens hauled water by buckets to irrigate each tree.
“We had 90% survival of our seedlings,” Jacob says. “We only sprayed once, during that first year around the seedlings to kill the competition grass. We had very little problem with deer disturbing them.”
Other than some thinning from Jacob, there has been no commercial thinning or logging of the trees the family planted.
“There’s nothing wrong with logging, I just want the trees to be bigger, to be at their maximum for the mills,” Jacob says of the Douglas fir. “Hopefully, somebody will eventually make a commonsense decision on what to do with them. Eventually, somebody will have to put them on the ground.”
Jacob says Oregon lumber mills are not set up to deal with the coastal redwoods, and it’s too expensive to haul them to California mills. He sees a long future for them, as they can live for hundreds of years.
With his children grown and moved on, Jacob has been a 1-man crew in his forest, thinning, cleaning up fallen branches, and making habitat piles for birds and small wildlife. He describes himself as a forest manager.
“It is hard work, but I get motivated to get it done,” he says.
“The work is relaxing for him,” Mary says.
The couple say the Small Woodlands Award was an unexpected honor.
“It’s a wonderful association and we are of the same thinking—trying to keep our environment in good shape,” Mary says.