WOLF LODGE - Steve and Janet Funk won't sugarcoat it. Managing a tree farm will not make you rich.

"You can't quit your job," Steve said with a laugh on Wednesday, sitting at their home at Edgecreek Tree Farm on Wolf Lodge Creek Road. "It usurps a lot of money."

But that's not why the Funks, named 2011 National Outstanding Tree Farmers of the Year by the American Tree Farm System, invest so many hours of labor and study into the pines and firs across their 369 acres.

It's because healthy trees provide a better setting for wildlife and outdoor recreation, Janet said.

And they absorb runoff, keeping local water sources clean.

"We figured our land can be beneficial to others," Janet said.

Hopefully, she said, their efforts will gain more attention because of this recognition from ATFS, a network of more than 95,000 woodland owners that provides sustainable forestry certification.

"The Tree Farm System certification is recognized internationally. It's not just a nice little title," Janet said. "We're blown away by the acknowledgment that we're doing something well."

But it shouldn't be that surprising.

Since they moved to Wolf Lodge from Columbia, Mo., 39 years ago, the Funks have planted 12,000 pines on their property. They thinned trees themselves by hand and horse, and rallied efforts to restore the creek after an oil spill in 1983.

The Funks, both 68, have even hosted forestry tours for teachers and students.

"We don't want our grandkids and their age of peers to take as many years as it took us to learn how to take care of the forest," Janet said.

It took them about four decades - "and we're still learning," she added.

Owning forest land was the last thing on their minds when they first moved to North Idaho in the '70s, brought by a job offer for Steve, an anesthetist.

When their arrangement for a home fell through, they desperately accepted an offer to move into a house on the Wolf Lodge land.

It was horrible, Janet recalled.

"The heating system was bad, the electric system, if you plugged in two things at once, it exploded," she said. "The barn door was lying in a field, full of bullet holes."

Then there were the trees.

Some areas were overgrown, too dense to even walk through. On acreage the Funks purchased later, trees had been totally clear cut.

Learning about the issues roused their curiosity.

"We saw things could be better," Janet said.

So they've taken forestry classes at the University of Idaho Extension Office, and sought advice from a forestry consultant. Steve has become a master forestry steward.

Now they have a stock of anecdotes about thinning, planting, pruning and bank stabilizing.

"You ask, why do we do this?" Janet said. "Because it makes us happy."

The couple was also awarded the ATFS Western Regional Tree Farmers of the Year for 2011.

Edgecreek stands out, said ATFS spokesperson Brigitte Johnson, because of the family's extraordinary efforts.

"They took over this land that was almost not sustainably managed, and turned it into something that's phenomenal," Johnson said.

Well managed woodland provides clean water and clean air, she reminded.

"People don't necessarily think about that," Johnson said. "But over 23 percent of our nation's water comes from private owners."

The couple raised their four children on the property, Janet said. Their daughter, Janelle Sells, and her husband, Jeff, live across the street, and pitch in with the forestry work.

Dips in lumber prices preclude them from harvesting, she added.

"There was a time we thought in our old age, we could take off a truckload and have some extra income," she said. "That's not going to happen."

But how many times can she say it? The goal is keeping the forest healthy.

And the trees look after the Funks, too, in a way. A stroll through the forest will pluck up Janet's mood immediately, she said.

"Something in the woods makes you be honest with yourself. It makes you realize there's something bigger," she said. "Something in the woods makes you want to be the best person you can be."