SLT 0723 Stumpin

SOUTHERN STUMPIN’

By David

Kids’ Stuff

and hopefully to have an interest in this industry.

As it happened, Stephanie’s oldest sister had recently published her own children’s book about their hometown called Searching for Santa in Chambers . That gave Stephanie an epiphany: ForestryWorks® could produce children’s books about logging. She pointed out kids already have other books that offer a more environmentalist per-

never get a Penguin House to even look at us,” Stephanie admits. Her sister had been working on her book with a company in Virginia called Amplify Publishing, and recommended Stephanie to the editor. Turned out they were interested.

Three years later they have published two completed books (Lucy Meets a Logger officially released in 2021, and Travis Visits a Tree Farm in 2022), with a third (Sam Visits a Sawmill) on the way later this year. Amplify will continue to publish the rest of this “Tiny Timber Crew” series, planned for one book a year, as it explores the entire supply chain, from “woods to goods.”

based in Chambers County, Ala. “It is a family legacy,” Stephanie says. “I grew up in a family of five girls; daddy had no sons, so we knew the legacy would have to continue through a son-in-law.” The sisters knew at least one of them had to marry a logger! As it happens, Stephanie has one brotherin-law who is a logger and another is a forester.

Though she says she was “homeschooled” in forestry by way of her upbringing, Stephanie actually got her degree in agricultural economics from Auburn University. She knew she wanted to do something with economic, workforce, and business development and political advocacy for agriculture and forestry in rural communities, but she wasn’t sure just how to do that.

She found the answer when she happened to meet Chris Isaacson, President of the Forest Workforce Training Institute, at Alabama Governor Kay Ivey’s inauguration in 2019. “He was behind me in line for a reception and overheard me talking about my dad being a logger, and he asked who he was,” she recalls. “In a former life Chris was a timber buyer that my daddy cut for years ago.” This chance encounter led to an opportunity for her at the Forest Workforce Training Institute, which also goes under the promotion brand name ForestryWorks®. “It was a perfect fit.”

During her first year in the job, Stephanie began to notice a trend in the organization’s efforts to interest young people in a logging career. When they would visit middle school career events, students often expressed a negative view of forestry based on common misconceptions. “We realized we spent more time educating them about sustainable forestry than talking to them about career opportunities,” she says. She wondered how to educate younger students, elementary school age, about sustainability, so that when they get to 14 or 15 and start thinking about what they want to be when they grow up, a foundation has been laid for them to understand

The Lorax, who “speaks FernGully: The Last Rainforest, both of which have been adapted into animated isn’t necessarily anti-forestry, but it doesn’t tell the complete story of reforestation,” Stephanie says.

She continues, “We wanted to give our industry members a tool that they can take into the schools in their communities to tell the students what they do every day through a fun, interactive children’s book. What we have found is that through these book readings, it not only educates the students, but also the teachers, public officials who read it to the kids, and if there is a media outlet there, it educates that person who is writing for that newspaper. It’s a way to advocate for the forest industry through early childhood education. Sometimes our teachers and parents are spreading misinformation about the forest industry, not maliciously, but because they are repeating all they have ever heard. If we don’t tell our story, someone else is going to tell it for us.”

Stephanie doesn’t have kids of her own, but she has nieces and nephews under age six who proved to be a good test audience as she developed her concept. Still, writing a children’s book seemed outside her wheelhouse. “I have an economics degree; I have never claimed to have any sort of creative ability,” she says. “It felt like a massive undertaking when I took the project on. I had no idea how I was going to do this.” But she grew up in the industry and has fond memories of visiting the logging woods, so she tried to channel that inner child and relate what it felt like to see everything so big and so loud. She started writing from that perspective, and soon the words came to her.

Getting published as a first time author of a very niche book is no easy task. “We knew we would

Stephanie writes her story in a Microsoft Word document and sends it to her editor. The publishing house has an illustrator bank who work on contract; from their art samples, Stephanie eventually chose artist Agus Prajogo from Indonesia to illustrate the books. “He makes the vision come to life,” she says. “It’s a really cool process to see how well he represents an industry he has never seen.”

The books are available on Amazon and anywhere books are sold: Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Target, Wal-Mart and so on. The publisher handles distribution, shipping nationwide from warehouses in Virginia and Texas.

ForestryWorks® in Alabama maintains stock in their offices from which they donate copies to classrooms and public libraries.

ForestryWorks® owns the copyright and proceeds from sales go back to the Institute to order more books or reinvest into future publications. “This is a unique part of my job,” the young author considers. “I never thought I’d be doing this, but we believe that forestry education is forestry workforce development. If you don’t have those conversations early you’re never going to be able to have those conversations later on.” SLT

Author Stephanie Fuller withAlabama Governor Kay Ivey

The book series helps kids learn about logging.

Fuller introducing a class to Lucy MeetsA Logger