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Joe Ball’s passion for the woodland was deeply rooted in his love of the land through his childhood experiences on his grandparent’s working farms in Henry County, Kentucky and Franklin County, Tennessee. He spent his 38 years of “retirement” embracing the role of tree farmer on his and his wife’s properties in Pulaski, Wayne and McCreary counties as well as 2,000 acres near Pall Mall, Tennessee near the headwaters of the Wolf River.
Joe received his B.S. in agriculture from the University of Kentucky in 1955 and his Masters in adult education from North Carolina State in 1965. He spent 26 years working to improve the lives of rural Kentuckians as a county extension agent and as a community development specialist with the UK College of Agriculture Extension Service before retiring in 1983. Joe utilized these leadership experiences and skills toward his devotion to the woodlands and woodland owners. One of his early personal goals was “to someday have a little farm” where he raised a few crops, calves and children. With very limited financial resources, he bought his first farm in 1965, a 1250 acre cut-over timber tract for $15 per acre on the Little South Fork of the Cumberland River in Wayne and McCreary Counties. He made an initial purchase in Tennessee of 1600 acres in 1993 from Stearns Coal and Lumber Company with additional tracts of 400 acres purchased in 2002 and 2019. |
Joe spent the next 56 years perfecting his practice of tree farming and formulating his conclusion that woodlands must be managed to produce income on a 5-to-10-year cycle to be sustainable. Joe believed the woodland must grow high value timber, and selective harvest of damaged and less desirable species periodically was the means to the goal. An uneven-aged management of selective harvesting and regrowth has been the most effective method.
The ability to market lower grade pallet, tie and pulp logs would allow timber stands to “break even” on their stewardship and improvement. The payoff would be the highly productive and high-quality timber stand to be harvested by this generation or the next. Joe logged oak, walnut and cherry as well as pine for fiber laminated beams. He emphasized using every part of the timber harvest for the wood products industry.
In 1999 Joe was named Kentucky Outstanding Tree Farmer of the Year for his leadership and innovation. His work was innovative in how the roads and trails he built made forest management and selective logging efficient and sustainable. He diverged from the traditional logging practice at that time of skidding logs down the mountainside. Joe referred to his method - building skid paths like spokes from the landing hubs along the contours of the hillsides – as logging with the hill instead of vertical to it. Regarding government involvement in private woodland management, he thought the federal government should provide technical assistance to build proper logging roads.
Joe got Timber Stand Improvement assistance in exchange for allowing people to hunt, ride and hike on his property. He constructed a rustic pavilion, camping site and fire pits deep in his woodlands for family and friends to attend, participate and appreciate the scenic woodlands. The Tennessee property has great geologic diversity, more than 1,000 feet of vertical relief and a wide range of wildflowers. Joe and Doris shared it with family, friends and professional acquaintances on many spring wildflower hikes and fall cookouts and camping trips.
The ability to market lower grade pallet, tie and pulp logs would allow timber stands to “break even” on their stewardship and improvement. The payoff would be the highly productive and high-quality timber stand to be harvested by this generation or the next. Joe logged oak, walnut and cherry as well as pine for fiber laminated beams. He emphasized using every part of the timber harvest for the wood products industry.
In 1999 Joe was named Kentucky Outstanding Tree Farmer of the Year for his leadership and innovation. His work was innovative in how the roads and trails he built made forest management and selective logging efficient and sustainable. He diverged from the traditional logging practice at that time of skidding logs down the mountainside. Joe referred to his method - building skid paths like spokes from the landing hubs along the contours of the hillsides – as logging with the hill instead of vertical to it. Regarding government involvement in private woodland management, he thought the federal government should provide technical assistance to build proper logging roads.
Joe got Timber Stand Improvement assistance in exchange for allowing people to hunt, ride and hike on his property. He constructed a rustic pavilion, camping site and fire pits deep in his woodlands for family and friends to attend, participate and appreciate the scenic woodlands. The Tennessee property has great geologic diversity, more than 1,000 feet of vertical relief and a wide range of wildflowers. Joe and Doris shared it with family, friends and professional acquaintances on many spring wildflower hikes and fall cookouts and camping trips.
Joe came to understand the enterprise of tree farming to be very similar to other crop farming:
- The land must be put in a productive state through the efforts of the farmer over time.
- Equipment and investment are necessary to be effective.
- “Do-it-yourself” makes production cost effective.
- Planning is the foundation.
- The selling of the crop can be on the tree farmer’s schedule (unlike row crops and livestock). Marketing of the tree crop was key to getting a fair return on the tree farming effort.
Joe personally oversaw the most major and minor details of timber stand improvement and timber harvesting. In his 38 years of active tree farming, he owned and operated his own skidders, dozers, loaders, trucks and timber cutters.
Henry Duncan, who succeeded Joe as KWOA President, comments, “I could feel Joe's passionate breath breathing down as we embarked on long range program plans for the organization.” Duncan says Joe was passionate in his encouragement for the Kentucky Woodland Owners Association, agriculture organizations, universities and any other organizations to, first and foremost, plan for, support and promote the challenging needs of commercial timber woodland owners.
In an interview with M.E. Dickerson for the May 13, 1999 Somerset – Pulaski News Journal Joe referred to a person’s life as “a cycle which interacts with other biological cycles in a very calculated, precise manner”. He loved the crop cycle, working with livestock and human interaction with the farm community.
Leon D. “Joe” Ball “cycled out” at age 87 on October 18, 2021. During his last year, Joe began marketing the timber off his 1250-acre tract. His wife, Doris, and his three adult children are working to complete the cycle that Joe started more than 50 years ago.
