A land ethic was instilled in Dr. James “Greg” Kuhns from an early age.

He grew up in a family where conservation was taken seriously and frequently discussed. While working on his family’s farm and camping in its forests in his youth, he was further influenced by the Boy Scout’s ethics of conservation. 

When Greg and his sister, Anne Van der Steur, inherited the cattle, hog, and tobacco farm their grandfather established in the 1890s, they were concerned about encroaching development, the health effects of tobacco, and environmental impacts of swine production. The siblings shared a moral obligation to steward the farm’s forests and to prevent water pollution from soil erosion. 

Located among the steep slopes of Kentucky’s Knobs Region, where flooding is common, they phased out of hog production. They also shifted their farm’s focus from tobacco to timber stand improvement, and prioritized improving their beef cattle herd’s genetics.

They sought the guidance and partnership of many experts to sustain the health of their land and the farm’s productivity. Greg joined organizations focused on agronomy, land, water, and timber management, including the Kentucky Woodland Owners Association Kentucky Natural Lands Trust, and Kentucky Conservation Committee.

Greg follows the best practices outlined in the Kentucky Forest Conservation Act and the federal Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). He reseeded logging trails, and a Master Logger is present during harvest. Forest pools have been created for wildlife. 

As a volunteer sampler of the Salt River Watershed Watch, Greg helped discover an e-coli contamination through bacteria sampling in Crooked Creek. As a result, he refenced his pastures to contain cattle from the creek. 

Elsewhere on the farm, he’s initiated practices to suppress invasive plant species like Autumn olive and Honeysuckle vine. Riparian buffers have been preserved and expanded to prevent erosion, improve water quality and provide wildlife habitat. Milkweed patches provide breeding sites and way stations for the endangered Monarch butterfly. Prescribed burning prepare fields of forbs and wildflowers for other beneficial pollinators. 

As rapid development in Bullitt County caused widespread loss of natural land and resources, the Kuhns pursued a way to preserve some of their farm’s natural lands in perpetuity. Greg believed that converting some of their land to public ownership would be the best solution. 

From this came the formation of the Knobs State Forest, established in 2006 with a 1,100-acre tract and expanded in 2018 with another 498 acres. Greg and his wife Joan sold another 700 acres of forestland to the Lincoln Heritage Boy Scouts Council to form Camp Crooked Creek. 

Kuhns’ farm and Knobs State Forest are the origins of the Crooked Creek wildlife corridor that passes under Interstate 65, where motion-activated cameras have documented many species traversing a wildlife tunnel. These areas make up the eastern portion of a wildlife corridor that connects to the large natural land tract of the Fort Knox reservation. 

With the support of his local historical society and county government, Greg is in the process of creating a historical park around a stone furnace that burned charcoal fuel to smelt iron ore in the 1800s. 

Greg was named the Kentucky Tree Farmer of the Year in 2000 by the American Tree Farm Association. Such accolades arise from Greg’s innate desire to embrace ethical farming and forestry practices, preserve natural landscapes, and to benefit the public with access to forested areas.