Providence’s Bielling heads up Florida Forestry Association.
PROVIDENCE — The area surrounding Lake City is filled with forests. It is also filled with forestry leaders.
After serving as president of the Florida Forestry Association for two years, Lake City resident Carlton Jones recently handed over leadership of the organization to Jimmy Bielling, who lives in nearby Providence. At the same time, Avery Roberts of Lake Butler became the vice president/president-elect.
Forestry is a family tradition for Bielling, beginning with his grandfather, who worked in the turpentine business. Today Bielling works with wife, Kathy, and their son, Jesse Bielling, at Bielling Site Prep and Reforestation, Inc., and hopes that his grandson, Jax, will follow in the family footsteps.
“I was born into stewardship,” said Bielling, who is also a forestland owner. “It’s my responsibility to take care of the land, to protect it and to use it.”
While he enjoys being able to grow trees, Bielling admits forestry holds an even greater joy for him: working with his son on a daily basis for a common cause.
“We know we are managing lands on loan from God,” Bielling explained. “We are careful to protect ecosystems and to promote sustainability.”
Despite facing a string of challenges, such as Hurricane Michael, which hit the Panhandle as a Category 5 just three years ago, wildfires, high fuel prices, supply chain issues and a truck driver shortage, Bielling declares Florida’s forestry community “unbroken.”
“We’re the kind of people that run to the problems, not away from them,” he said. “We pick everybody up in the trenches. We don’t leave anybody behind. We are all in this together.
“If we didn’t have faith. I don’t think we could make it. With faith, adversity is nothing more than opportunity.”
One of Bielling’s many goals for his presidential term is to help people appreciate the importance of forestry, as well as to understand all that goes into it.
“You don’t just go out and put trees in the ground,” he explained. “There’s research and development, best management practices to protect the wildlife and the waterways, reforestation, Master Logger training, and so much more. We call them ‘managed lands’ because they are precisely that — lands that are carefully managed to protect the environment while producing important forest resources.”
According to Bielling, more than 5,000 items that people use every day are made with products from forests. Paper, furniture and lumber are just the tip of a very large iceberg that also includes cosmetics, cellphone, computer and television screens, and even drugs used in cancer treatments.
“Forestry gives you the rare ability to protect the environment, help the economy, and provide needed items for people all at the same time. It’s hard to get a deal better than that,” he said.
It should be noted that Bielling’s connections to Lake City are not limited to forestry. His mother, Billie Bielling, worked for the Lake City Reporter for many years. His father, Jack Bielling, was well-known through his work with the area Department of Transportation’s Right of Way division.