With 23 million acres of forest land, Alabama has a lot to offer. Most of it (94%) is privately owned, and this surprises many people. Our forests are owned and cared for by a real person, many of whom have held it in their family for generations, but others have just begun their journey as a forest owner.
Forests are the lifeline for many rural economies. They enable many to remain rooted in their communities and find fulfillment in the area where they were born. It’s a way of life for many people. Others come to their newly acquired forestland to gain a sense of balance and recover the memories and experiences that they thought were lost.
AFOA began in 1981 as a place for forest landowners who desired to be better informed and knowledgeable about timber markets, legislation, and regulation that could threaten their livelihood, and to find assistance in marketing their products. They wanted to help each other be effective as a group and provide a way of cooperating with each other and with other similar groups.
With the encouragement of Bill Moody, the State Forester, Lee Laechelt was drafted to pull together a group and point them in the right direction. Lee said, “ The Forestry Commission gave me a roll of stamps and I mailed a letter to each county ranger asking him for three names. By August of 1981, we had 70 who wanted to join. We charged them $10/ year for dues, so we had $700.00 to start. That roll of stamps was the only outside funding we needed. We never needed help after that.”
Without an office or any staff, most of the work took place around Lee and Eyvone Laechelt’s dining room table. Lee began to organize a volunteer Board of Directors and started by setting up monthly meetings with informative speakers. Initially, the group met in Vestavia Hills in the upper floor of the AmSouth Bank building on Highway 31. Lee made sure everyone had the opportunity to drink Sanka out of a Styrofoam cup.
Every year, the group met to have an Annual Meeting as required by its bylaws. The first meeting was held at the Hoover Civic Center. “This was when you could actually do a potluck dinner,” Lee said. These meetings became an all-day event with numerous speakers and eventually field tours and auto tours.
Always guided by volunteers, the group maintained a board of directors and a President who presided over the meetings. Soon, AFOA grew to about 250 members. Each person had one vote regardless of how much land he or she owned.
Lee said, “I used a typewriter to do the newsletter. It had a ball that had the fonts on it, so I removed the one I had and borrowed a better one from another office, then replaced it.”Each member received a newsletter with short articles—designed so that a member could read it from the mailbox to the kitchen table. Always practical and useful information, the newsletter became the main point of contact for forestry information for many people, and a welcome treat at the beginning of each month.
AFOA leadership decided early on that it did not want the organization to require members to follow a code of conduct or conform to an ideal of what a responsible forest owner was supposed to be. Rather, those who guided AFOA believed that just being a private forest owner was enough. Each person could follow their own dreams, leading to a diverse patchwork of ideas.” I sent information out to over 2,000 people, and some of them will do what you say. I never worried about that because I always wanted to not compromise and say what I thought. I know if I did that, things would turn out ok.”
Many AFOA members enjoyed hunting, and others wanted to lease their land to hunters to help pay taxes. Around this time, AFOA was approached by an insurance company to experiment with the idea of owning a group policy for hunting insurance. The first year, no one applied. Later, the idea took root, and today AFOA offers successful hunting lease liability insurance as well as insurance for vacant land to protect against injury to trespassers.
With one of the most complete landowner databases of its kind, AFOA communicates with members through postcards, direct mail, emails, and publications. Lee always attempted to alert people if there was a vote, especially a local vote, which would occur at times other than the general election. He was able to send postcards to landowners who owned land in those communities.
AFOA has always supported consulting foresters and provides members with the opportunity to meet with a consultant free of charge. It maintains contacts with forestry suppliers and service providers, and members can access lists of timber buyers in their markets.
AFOA was a pioneer in podcasting before the term was even coined, recording more than 175 interviews with forestry experts. Its website provides daily forestry news, helping members stay informed without needing to sift through endless sources.
Even in today’s digital age, the AFOA newsletter remains a centerpiece of the organization. Filled with short, practical articles and upcoming events, it continues to provide value – now for $20 a year, after 44 years of service.
Lee retired after 44 years as the guiding force behind AFOA. His kitchen table is no longer stacked with newspapers and magazines. New leadership has emerged, but the same sound principles remain in place.