Profile: Dennis Galway, National Leadership Award Recipient

- By Kathy Westra

When Hurricane Sandy struck in October 2012, leaving many New Jersey families without heat, the vice-chair of the New Jersey Tree Farm Committee sprang into action. Dennis Galway loaded his pickup truck and, navigating around roads still closed by downed trees and power lines, managed to deliver several cords of firewood, accepting payment only from those who could afford it.

When the storm was over, Galway made sure that his clients, many of them Tree Farm families who had suffered devastating damage to their woodlands, knew about federal restoration funds that could help them recover from their loss. Two years later, he continues to work with them as they negotiate a maze of federal requirements for assistance.

 To help people in need is nothing new to Galway. Before the hurricane, he had started the Foresters’ Free Firewood Program to assist low-income New Jersey residents who use wood as their primary or supplemental heating fuel. These and other efforts exemplify Galway’s “above-and-beyond” approach to his volunteer Tree Farm responsibilities—a level of commitment that recently earned him the American Tree Farm System® (ATFS) National Leadership Award.

The award, presented at the ATFS annual National Leadership Conference in February, recognizes a Tree Farm volunteer who has been instrumental in accomplishing the national Tree Farm Committee’s goals on the ground, motivating volunteers and educating landowners. Galway has done all this, and more, never seeking the spotlight of recognition for his exceptional efforts.

 In accepting the award, Galway said that the honor was “totally unexpected.” In his youth in the 1960s and 1970s, he related, he was a disciple of karma yoga, “a discipline of action” that is all about selfless service. “Do your work as perfectly as you possibly can without thought of rewards, and only then can you be a happy person,” he told the Tree Farm audience.

 Selfless service has been the hallmark of Galway’s involvement with Tree Farm. He has served on numerous state and national committees, and has helped judge the regional outstanding Tree Farmer of the year award program for the past seven years. As a consulting forester responsible for recertifying New Jersey Tree Farms, he is paid $100 by the state for each recertification he completes—and quietly donates all of these funds to the state Tree Farm Committee.

Galway has helped gain unusual visibility for Tree Farm in his home state, spearheading a public service advertising campaign, a highway billboard campaign to inform the public about the state’s Tree Farmers and advertisements on buses wishing the public happy holidays from New Jersey’s Tree Farmers.

His creative thinking extends to volunteer outreach with local schools. He suggested that the state committee purchase The Tree Farmer by renowned rock musician and former National Outstanding Tree Farmer of the Year Chuck Leavell. Not only did they purchase and distribute 60 books to school and public libraries, but Galway personally visited several schools to read the book aloud to students and lead them in exploring the plants and ecosystems on their school grounds.

True to his youthful ideals, Galway is quick to downplay his own contributions, crediting instead the wider Tree Farm community. “We’re all responsible, committed, dedicated folks, not just in my state but nationwide,” he says. “The Tree Farmers who make up the membership are fantastic people who do things without looking for reward. These people put their life into their forestry, and into the education and advocacy work they do. They just want to see Tree Farm be successful.”

As a national leader, one of Galway’s greatest concerns is with keeping the Tree Farm “brand” strong into the future. “Being a Tree Farmer is important, and having the Tree Farm sign on your land tells the public that a lot of good things are going on behind that sign,” he says. “We need to protect that brand and grow it.”

Being part of Tree Farm is “a passionate occupation, because you’re dealing with life—the life of families and the life of forests,” Galway says. “Helping to keep Tree Farm family forests and all the life within them healthy is a big part of my life and why I do this work! I am blessed to be part of one of the best communities one could be part of, Tree Farmers. I have a profession I love and no need to ever retire from.”