Forest Management plans

[Mountaineer2020]

Currently an WVRF/working for the forest service. Contemplating leaving the circus and going to teaching locally (50k with experience, I taught for several years out of undergrad/local) and working as a consultant during the summers. Currently trying to roughout a business plan before I talk to a few retiring locals.

For consultants are you:
-Charging by the hour? How much? is 40 too much to little?
-Do you have a tiered acreage system for Forest Management plans?
-I assume prices change based on complexity/landowner goals.
-Is is worth getting TSP certified and doing NRCS forest management plans?
 (Ive done several while at NRCS, however curious to see if its worth it still)
-Is it worth getting into writing plans for American Tree Farm?
-Trying to avoid buying timber but marking/helping a landowner with a sale would be fine.
-How do would you charge for spraying/herbicide application?

[beenthere]

Where are  you located?

What graduate degree?

Anything published?

[Mountaineer2020]

Where are  you located?

What graduate degree?

Anything published?

-WV
-Forest Management
-Just master's thesis

[Ron Scott]

Where in WV are you located?
Are you a member of and a Certified Forester by the Society of America Foresters, (SAF)? and Association of Consulting Foresters of America, (ACF)?

The Society of American Foresters and Association of Consulting Foresters of America have a good book on becoming a Consulting Forester that you may find worthwhile. They also offer a course on becoming a Consulting Forester which is also worthwhile in answering a lot of your questions on becoming and practicing as a Consulting Forester.

Seek out a recognized local Consulting Forester that will serve as a mentor while you get established in your own business.

[Mountaineer2020]

Where in WV are you located?
Are you a member of and a Certified Forester by the Society of America Foresters, (SAF)? and Association of Consulting Foresters of America, (ACF)?
-Licensed through the State of WV
-4 months from completing the 5 year requirement for the SAF CF
-Licensed commercial applicator in WV and VA

The Society of American Foresters and Association of Consulting Foresters of America have a good book on becoming a Consulting Forester that you may find worthwhile. They also offer a course on becoming a Consulting Forester which is also worthwhile in answering a lot of your questions on becoming and practicing as a Consulting Forester.

-I will take a look into the course, I ordered the book last week. Hopefully it comes in soon. 

Seek out a recognized local Consulting Forester that will serve as a mentor while you get established in your own business.
-Will have to look around and see if anyone is willing.

I answered in the quote. Thank you for the response

[Ron Wenrich]

I never had too much luck convincing landowners to have a written plan.  Too much expense for most.  I did do some inventories.  Most of those I used when I was doing buying/selling timber.  It gave me a more informed estimate of timber and valuation.  I also had a couple of sales I developed for the landowner and allowed them to sell it.  I did those both on marked sales or just inventory.

If I was to write a plan, I'd be looking at about 60/hr plus expenses.  I was doing 50/hr over a decade ago for mill consulting work.  You have to take care of both sides of the SS, retirement funds, healthcare, insurance, etc.  Although you might have someone else taking care of some of them, you still should be charging for them, like the rest of the consultants. 

You could go on an acreage figure, but you must know your costs before you can quote a number.  A lot of that depends on terrain.  How many acres can you do in a day?  I did some timber marking on a per Mbf basis that worked out pretty good. 

I found the American Tree Farm was mainly gratis work.  It does get your foot in the door. 

If you're only interested in summer work, maybe hook up with a consultant that can give you the work.  Maybe work with a few mills just for marking timber or doing inventories.  Trying to work as a part-time consultant can be pretty difficult.  Finding clients can be difficult, depending on the competition.

[TreefarmerNN]

The Va. Dept. of Forestry staff will write plans.  There's a small fee so you might check with them to see how they set the fee.

I've had them sign off on plans written by a consulting forester but not had them start from scratch on a new plan.  I'm in the process of updating a plan now but it's way more detailed than I'm going to submit as I'm putting a lot of information in it for my kids, like soil types, stand history etc.  I'll do a much more concise summary for submission but have enough detail to qualify for use value assessment and keep my Tree Farm status as well as satisfy the rules on a conservation easement. 

[Mountaineer2020]

How many of you work as TSP's for NRCS. DO you have much success with that?

[ID4ster]

I'm a TSP certified in several states in the pacific northwest. Getting certified takes a bit of work to pass all the courses and then build your profile so that you can be certified. Plan on it taking four to six months before you're approved. 

In my case I've gotten a lot of work from it, and it does help sell forest management plans because of the NRCS cost share feature. You will need to learn to sell yourself to the landowners however and your success in that area will depend on your own attitude and forestry experience. You don't make a lot of money off the plans. What you're looking for is the follow up with those landowners in terms of planting, PCT, setting up and administering timber sales, etc. Depending on the laws in your state there may be other services that require a degreed Forester such as tax plans. TSP certification may not be necessary to do them, but it does help prove that you are qualified to do the work.

As for the rate that you charge. You need to charge enough to make you expenses and a fair profit. Your labor charge is not profit, that only compensates you for your time expertise and training. You have to be careful not to charge too much but charging too little will put you out of business quicker. I charge enough to make sure that the landowner will pay attention to what I've told them or developed for them. They'll ignore free advice, since it didn't cost them anything and especially if it conflicts with preconceived notions or information that they received from folks or organizations that don't believe in active forest management.