What is the Award about?

The Australian Forest Growers (AFG) Tree Farmer of the Year Award honours and acknowledges landowners or private forest managers who, by their personal efforts, have demonstrably managed to establish or maintain areas of forest on their property for the purposes of sustainable commerce in the products attainable from trees, protection for either catchments or crops, or for reasons of conserving biodiversity or a particular forest ecosystem.

Essential criteria

• Excellence in farm planning and farm forestry
• Good land management, in that the whole farm is either being used or there is a demonstration that a whole farm plan has been developed and that the part development is in line with such a plan
• Innovation in any sector of private forestry – natural forests, plantations, agro-forestry, etc
• Leadership in the community in these developments
• Wide application of the principles adopted
• Integration of forestry with other farm developments

Nominations

Nominations may be received either from:

1. The applicant
2. For the applicant by another person
3. An AFG branch

The award will not be limited by previous awards so that a landowner may enter the award several times.

Eligibility

• Entrants must own the property/forest estate
• A lessee may be eligible if the application is countersigned by the landowner that the work done is due to his or her efforts
• A previous winner of an AFG award may apply 
• An entrant need not necessarily be a member of AFG
• The winner of the State competition is an automatic entrant in the National competition.