Inspector of the Year Awards

2024
Luke Tuschak

Luke Tuschak has been an inspector since 2016. During his time as a volunteer, he has conducted 22 inspections including 12 new Tree Farms. He has enrolled at least one new property in the program each year for the past six years. In 2022, he participated in the third-party assessment with PwC.

2023
Phil Mead

Phil Mead has been an active inspector since 2011. During his time as a volunteer, he has conducted 28 inspections, including 3 initial inspections. In 2022, he participated in the third-party assessment with PwC, helped with two educational videos for woodland owners and assisted with a Tree Farm tour in Moore County.

2022
Bryan Hulka

Bryan Hulka has been an active volunteer with the N.C. Tree Farm Program since 2007 and has served as vice president of inspections and certification since 2009. He has served on the ATFS Standards Review Panel, four third-party assessment committees, trained almost all of the program’s current inspectors and conducted 13 inspections representing 1,891 acres.

2019
Jeremy Isom

Jeremy Isom has been an active volunteer with the N.C. Tree Farm Program since 2012. He has organized forestry field tours that promote forest stewardship, has certified 12 new Tree Farms representing 4,026 acres and re-inspected 14 Tree Farms.


2018
Allen Plaster

Plaster, a retired consulting forester who is also a Tree Farmer, has certified 14 new Tree Farms representing 6,160 acres and re-inspected 29 Tree Farms during his years as an inspector.

 

2017
Nathan Cartwright

In the year and a half since Nathan Cartwright became a Tree Farm Inspector, he has certified 31 new Tree Farms representing 8,097 acres and conducted three re-inspections.

2016
Thad Banks

Thad Banks has been an active volunteer with the N.C. Tree Farm Program since 2004. He has certified 24 new Tree Farms representing 6,200 acres and has conducted 30 Tree Farm re-inspections on more than 8,400 acres.

2015
Larry Thomas

Larry Thomas has been an active volunteer with the N.C. Tree Farm Program since 2002, when the program was reactivated. Since then, he has certified 33 new Tree Farms into the program and conducted 37 re-inspections on nearly 7,000 acres.

2014
Steve Cox

Steve Cox has served on the N.C. Tree Farm Program’s Board of Directors, including three years as vice president of outreach and education. He has conducted four Inspector Training Workshops that trained 62 new Inspectors, made numerous Tree Farm presentations at landowner workshops, organized field tours, participated in the N.C. Tree Farm Program strategic planning process and conducted six inspections.

2013
Mark Bost

Mark Bost helped coordinate two Inspector Training Workshops that trained 27 new inspectors and assisted with the 2013 Price Waterhouse Coopers audit. In 2012-2013 he also conducted 10 inspections and has conducted a total of 16 inspections over the years.

2012
Al Weller

Al Weller was one of the key players in the re-establishment of the N.C. Tree Farm Program in the early 2000s. Since that time he has remained active with the program in a leadership role and as an inspector. He has certified 36 new Tree Farms representing 11,685 acres, re-inspected 67 Tree Farms and trained most of the current corps of inspectors.

2011
Dave Halley

2009
Jason Lefler

2008
David Henderson

2005
Derek Ware