Considering a Harvest?
Know Your Objectives
Determine what you want your woodlands to provide. Is it wildlife, recreation, timber, or even a park-like setting? Maybe some of each? Depending on your goals, different trees may need to be harvested. A forester is trained to select the right trees for your intended goals. For example, if producing income and developing good habitat for wildlife are primary goals, a forester can design a harvest that will both promote the growth of higher value trees and improve habitat which benefits desired wildlife species.
Inventory Your Woods
Having an inventory of your woods is like having an appraisal of your home's value. It's important for you to know the species composition, health condition, income potential and habitiat features of your woodland.
Keep Your Woods Healthy
Taking note of what you want your woods to look like, and the benefits it will provide now and in the future, provides a road map towards a healthier woodlot.
Working Together
A plan designed and carried out by a knowledgeable forester working with a logger will help assure that the harvest meets your needs as a landowner. Putting together a successful plan takes time to ensure your forested property remains in a condition that will allow it to grow back healthy and provide value into the future. Planting more trees, removing invasive species, releasing desirable trees, improving conditions for oak regeneration or conducting a harvest are just a few of the activities that might make up such a plan.
Select Trees Carefully
When a tree should be cut depends on many things, such as its age and maturity, its contribution to your woods' health, the market price of different timbers, and your own goals and needs. Make sure that you mark and scale trees based on all these things and not just the current value of the tree. There is no "Kelly Blue Book" or "Market to Market" report to look-up the value of a tree. Working with a professional forester will help you improve the growth of the residual stand, increase regeneration of desirable species and ensure the interests that are most important to you for your woodland are protected for the long run.
Protect Your Interests
Market your timber properly to ensure you receive a fair value and oversee the implementation of your harvest carefully so your land is not damaged. You only get a chance to sell the trees on your property a limited number of times during your lifetime, that is why it is important to seek advice from those trained in the field of forestry. Accepting an offer for your trees wtih no prior planning and without consulting with a professional forester may result in a lower sum recieved for those trees and the condition of the remaining woods may adversely affect the future income, quality and habitat of your woodland.