At the end of February I'll be 70 and will retire. I own and live on a 75-acre tract of mountain land in western NC which is mostly forest - some mixed hardwoods and some stands of nearly pure eastern white pine. None of it has been logged for 40+ years. When I retire I'll be able to spend a lot of time in the woods, doing all the things the informed and careful landowner is supposed to do to improve the forest. My daughter and son-in-law for Christmas have hired an arborist to go through the woods with me, answering questions and helping me to plan what needs to be done. (I first had to find out the difference between a forester and an arborist, which indicates something of my level of knowledge!)
Anyway, I would be grateful to the readers of this forum for suggestions about how to best use this resource. Questions I have thought of include:
1. Identifying different trees.
2. Advice about building trails, for hiking, and for transporting logs.
3. Advice about dealing with wolf trees.
4. Timber stand improvement projects.
5. Which trees to harvest and which ones to save, and why. I have a WoodMizer sawmill and one of my projects is to learn to use it to make lumber for projects at home. Milling lumber commercially is quite a ways down the road, at this point.
6. Which projects I should do and which ones should be given to hired professionals.
This gift struck me as a thoughtful and creative one, and I would like to use it as well as I can. Many thanks for any responses to this thread.
David
Good luck with your retirement. I think a forester would be a better choice on helping you with your woods. Most arborists ( I am One But have gone back into just logging ) don't have the experience or schooling to make the kind of decisions you need for what is best for your forest and you.
Not to diminish the thoughtfulness of the gift, but I really believe that they have hired the wrong professional for your situation. If the Arborist was the right man, the first thing he would have told you is that you need a Forester. An Arborist's focus is on just the undividual trees, the Forester's focus is the Forest. It is all encompassing.
Ditto! to the above advice. Seek out the services of a professional consulting forester. Have an intigrated resource management plan made for your forest land that will address sustainable forestry and ecoystem management to meet your objectives.
Arborists usually deal with urban forests more so than general forest mangement, though some certified foresters are also certified arborists as well. It is recommenced that yours have the forester credentials.
Thank you Bill, Jeff and Ron for your to-the-point answers to my query. I believe you are right that a forester would be a much better choice for my actual requirements. However, I asked my wife about this issue, and she advised me to keep quiet, and accept the gift graciously and gratefully without any remarks. She said the services of the arborist had been purchased at an auction which was held in order to raise money for a woman who had serious health problems; the woman is now actually doing much better, after medical treatment paid for by the proceeds from the auction. A forester would be a better adviser for my situation, clearly, but I'll use the arborist, since I already have his services; he'll surely be able to be useful to some extent, and it is "for a good cause," and it will keep peace in the family. Anyway, many thanks again for your help. I learned several things from this experience.
David L.
Quote from: davidlarson on January 09, 2010, 11:03:53 PM
she advised me to keep quiet, and accept the gift graciously and gratefully without any remarks. David L.
Wise lady and wise man for listening. It probably won't be a total loss. As a matter of fact, it sounds like you have already gained....just by asking questions here. Doing the same with the Arborist, will broaden your knowledge base. Then when you are spending
your money, you'll know what to do.
In my mind there is a huge difference between forest management and what an Arborist is trained to due. The first step I would do if I were in your shoes would be take an inventory of what you have and figure out what my goals are. You can start managing for timber extraction, or perhaps some enhanced forest management to enable you to cash in on some of the Carbon Credit protocols that are available for woodlot owners/farmers, etc.
Your opportunities are endless and there are some good revenue streams available, just do your research, and most of all, have fun doing it. Like you said, you are retired so don't turn this into a job.