John Atwater hopes someday to achieve the full essence of Dauerwald, the historic German concept of allowing trees of all ages to grow together in harmony in a forest. “It’s the ultimate natural approach to forest management,” says Mary Wigmore ’80, the land management consultant for Atwater Farm, “but it is rarely practiced any longer because it is deemed to be uneconomical.” Wigmore says that’s true only in the short run. “John sees the creation of a Dauerwald as being a wise, long-term investment, and he is right.”
“He is an enormously disciplined, patient, precise, highly selective, and intelligent landowner who knows that his trees represent an enormous financial asset,” says Wigmore. “He is fully aware that the older a tree is the more valuable it is, especially given the location and overall health of the land on which his grow.”
As with any investment, there are risks. If Massachusetts’ Franklin County became overdeveloped, the forest could suffer from soil contamination, for instance, says Wigmore. “Global warming, or deforestation of neighboring forests could also have adverse effects,” she says.
John Atwater works approximately 300 of his 400 acres, which Wigmore inventories once each year. “Oak is the prime tree in the forest, growing in nearly pure and uncontaminated Deerfield River Valley soil,” says Wigmore. John’s forest plan for Atwater Farm, now 20 years old, ensures that his carefully managed trees are part of his legacy to his sons; he would like his trees to grow to be 200 years old, says Wigmore, “so that a next generation and beyond will see what the words ‘the finest wood available’ mean.”
