Commonwealth to Present Crown Award to Plow & Hearth Inc.

The Virginia Department of Forestry (VDOF) will recognize the environmental leadership of Plow & Hearth Inc. during the presentation of the first-ever corporate Crown Award. The presentation will take place during a recognition ceremony Tuesday, May 23 at 7 p.m. in the Madison Fire Department.

State Forester Carl E. Garrison III will present the VDOF’s highest honor to Plow & Hearth Founder Peter Rice. A dessert reception will follow.

“Plow & Hearth Inc. is being recognized for its outstanding leadership and commitment to Virginia’s forest lands,” said Garrison. “Through an innovative program the company developed, 1 Million tree seedlings have been planted across a five-county area (Madion, Greene, Rappahannock, Orange and Culpeper counties). This reforestation of Virginia land comes at a time when the Commonwealth is losing more than 20,000 acres of forest land annually to development and other uses.”

Plow & Hearth was concerned about not being able to use recycled paper for its catalog. The company’s leadership shifted the paradigm and came up with an out-of-the-box solution: for every tree used to produce the catalog, Plow & Hearth donates two tree seedlings to Virginia landowners in the five-county area surrounding its headquarters. This year, the company hit the 1 Million tree seedling mark.

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Members of the news media are invited to join officials from the Virginia Department of Forestry, Plow & Hearth Inc., local government leaders, forest landowners and other special guests at the Madison Fire Dept., located on Main Street in Madison, Tuesday (May 23rd) evening at 7 p.m. for the award presentation.

The Virginia Department of Forestry protects and develops healthy, sustainable forest resources for Virginians. Headquartered in Charlottesville, there are Forestry staff members assigned to every county to provide service to citizens of the Commonwealth. VDOF is an equal opportunity provider.

With nearly 16 million acres of forest land and more than 248,000 Virginians employed in the forest products industry, Virginia forests provide more than $30 billion annually in benefits to the Commonwealth.