Forest Management for Private Landowners
Forest management is usually an afterthought for private Landowners. People usually call me to do a timber sale when they need money for something. That’s fine, except for once, I would like someone to call me and say something like “I just inherited, purchased a tract of timberland and I want to do high quality intensive forest management. Can you be our forester for life.” Well, I can only dream. I usually get something like “I want to cut my timber, I’m going to sell and I want to sell the timber off first” or this old classic ” I want to have a good stand of timber for my kids but I need all the money I can possibly get now”
Forestry Consulting
isn’t rocket science, its harder. In physics, there are formulas that are always true, but when you work with living ecosystems, there are no formulas. There are basic procedures that have to be tweaked based on experience and the environment you are dealing with. Having been around enough years to see the results of my work, I know a little more than the theory that Foresters learn in college. While anyone can squirt paint on a tree and tally up the board footage, it takes an intimate knowledge of how forests respond to disturbance (logging) to mark a timber sale so as to avoid damage to the property and the remaining stand. Mark and Tally timber sales are the most boring thing about this business. What’s more fun is to take the goals of the Landowner, hopefully increased wildlife holding capacity and attraction and high quality, multi-aged timber stands and carefully mark the stand, find appropriate buyers and contractors and do a project that will enhance the value of a property now and in the future. Treat your timber not like a commodity but like a living ecosystem that should be properly managed. Doing so will be very rewarding.
Here is a link to a Penn State Forestry Extension booklet, enjoy
