Bill Hull has had a passion for trees and conserving working forests since he was 15 years old. 

Cultivating a lasting passion for forestry

Bill Hull, 2019 recipient of the New England Leopold Conservation Award, has had an affinity for trees since he was a teenager. Bill founded Hull Forest Products in 1965 as a backyard sawmill in Rhode Island. Today, he has grown his operation to more than 27,000 acres of forestland in Pomfret Center, Connecticut, and manufactures more than 10 million board feet of lumber into sustainable building wood products each year. 

Rural roots 

With a business dependent on healthy and productive forests, Bill is committed to conserving working forests that provide bird and wildlife habitat and biodiversity across New England. He credits his rural background with teaching him the value of improving the environment. “At age ten, I began helping my father on his small sawmill behind our house, and I knew from then I someday wanted to be a forester and make a life out of it,” said Bill.  His passion for growing and harvesting trees improves the environment by increasing wildlife habitat, improving air and water quality and increasing carbon sequestration. 

A lasting and sustainable impact 

Bill follows his words with action. He has voluntarily placed conservation easements on 90% of his southern New England forests. And the Hull family permanently protected 27,740 acres of forestland through Hull Forestlands to ensure the working forests remain a source of timber for generations to come. These unique and environmentally important landscapes are home to wetlands, streams and forests that sustain drinking water supplies for urban areas and provide habitat for migratory waterfowl.

With multiple generations of the family working in the business, Hull Forest Products looks forward to continue working alongside their lender, Farm Credit East, to manufacture sustainable wood materials, provide long-term forest management and preserve the working forests of New England.