Ken Stephens says he was "speechless" when he was presented with a distinguished service award during the New Zealand Farm Forestry Association's recent annual conference.
"You just do what you do and enjoy it. It's been a fun ride," the Kaka Point man, who has been involved in farm forestry for more than 40 years, said.
After World War 2, his father, Vic Stephens, also very well known in farm forestry circles, starting planting trees on his Kakapuaka farm and was later a foundation committee member of the South Otago branch.
Few trees were being planted on farms but the Stephens family "just kept plugging away", aided a lot by the forestry planting encouragement scheme.
In the early years, the branch started marketing trees and his father was selling several million seedlings a year.
The branch had always been strong and much of that could be attributed to the nursery which generated a lot of enthusiasm in the area, Mr Stephens said.
His award citation said he had been a "vital force" in farm forestry in the district.
He was elected to the South Otago committee in 1990 and served a term as president, and was later elected to the national executive.
In 1993, he and his wife, Carolynne, won the South Island farm forester of the year award.
In 2002, he was elected president of the New Zealand Farm Forestry Association and his two-year term was marked by his "no-nonsense straight-forward style", the citation said.
He oversaw conferences in Wellington and North Canterbury and also travelled widely around the branches.
An enjoyable project had been the establishment in 1995 of an extensive cypress trial block on the Stephens' property.
The planting was the result of a request by the Forest Research Institute for trial sites throughout New Zealand to test clones and seedlings of many different origins.
The hope was the best variety for each region could be identified and planted.
It had been a very satisfying project and he believed cypress timber had a "fantastic" future.
Highlights of his involvement with the farm forestry association were the people he and his wife had met and his time on the national executive.
The association was "just one big happy family".
He praised his wife for her great support, particularly in the early days of his involvement with the executive. "She was my walking secretary," he said.
Mr Stephens hoped more young people would get involved in farm forestry, saying there were "huge benefits" in succession planning, as long as the ownership of the trees was structured correctly.
Trees had allowed him and his wife to retire from the farm, leaving the work to the next generation.
He continued to manage the farm forestry for a family trust.