Approaching Foresters

[WDH]

Don't give up.  What you are proposing has great benefit.  Maybe the concept needs a little soak time since things are such a confounded mess.

[Sprucegum]

Those letters need to be followed up with a phone call " Hey its me, did ya get my letter? What did you think of it?" or something to that effect.

Then you send them another note thanking them for taking the time to talk to you.

Then you drop in to say Hi

Then...........you never stop, do you?  And that's when you get the job  ;D

[PAFaller]

Ya that makes sense, just dont want to come off as an irritating PITA! When I first started this thread that was one of my concerns. I know in times such as these that foresters are probably getting calls all the time from guys looking for something to do. Most of the mills here are on quotas and/ or are laying guys off, so the phones are full of guys trying to keep their iron pulling wood. I think I stand apart because of my degree and ability to understand the forestry side of whats going on, and a focus on low vlaue timber. My markets are sound just because I spend one Saturday a month in a Professional Timber Harvesters meeting and have networked with guys from all over the state who have clued me in to what works and to things that are 'outside of the box' so to speak. I just dont want to come off as a pesky kid trying to find a handout, which shouldn't be the case but could be seen as such on a bad day.

[woodtroll]

Be a pest to the state foresters. Drop in shoot the breeze. Keep your name on their minds. just remember forestry work takes time to set up. Show case your next job, or a previous one. I mean this in two ways. Take pictures, before and after. Take people (state foresters, private land owners) out to the jobs. Maybe have them meet a client. I avoided consultants for now, they will be skeptical. It affects income sometimes and if you don't perform their reputation. if you are as smart as you sound with a forestry back ground they may be worried about losing landowners also.
Hang in there. If you are giving money for low grade they will find you.

Last thing, some people tend to think loggers moving low value stuff are more "duct tape and baling wire" operations. That is something you just need to prove wrong.

[Ron Scott]

Ditto! to what Sprucegum said.

Do the "personal follow-ups" and let them get to know you, your interests, and availablity better. The letter is an intoduction but it is often filed away without any response, especially if no references were listed.

The personal contacts and follow-up interviews will help to generate any work that might be available. Also ask to be placed on any bidders list for such work and be sure to give them a correct address and telephone number where you can be contacted.    

[Phorester]

There is a great need for the type of practice you are offering.  It's similiar to weeding a garden to improve the growth of the garden.  But we offer to mark woodlands to accomplish that here for free, and landowners still don't want to do it. We mark it, they go looking for offers, no buyers want just the junk, or they offer them such a low price that the landowners say, if it's only worth that much I'll just let'em stand.  I tell them that such a thinning is not designed to make money, it's designed to improver the future value and health of their forest.  But if a landowner can't get what they consider "good" money for cutting their trees, they don't want to cut them. Good forest management goes out the window if the landowner can't make a big profit on it.

Again, there is definitely a need for what you are offering.  But you've got a big selling job to do to convince private landowners.  There's good advice in this thread on how to approach it. I hope you fine a way to do it.

[jrdwyer]

PAFaller,

Sounds like a good plan to make a living and improve the forests at the same time. 

My situation is similar to Phorester in that most of the timber buyers/loggers will not cut the junk unless there is some good stuff to go along with it.

I work on a commission basis for timber sales and obviously I like large tracts and big trees. I also work on low-value bottomland timber (gum, sycamore, wormy maple) and/or small tracts. I look at all lower value jobs from the standpoint of making a certain minimum amount per day worked. Sure it will not be as much as selling 3 veneer walnut trees per acre, but I don't have the luxury of just working on the good stuff. I never discount the value of a small job turning into other better jobs.

Best of luck.

[faster1]

what diameter wood are you wanting to cut? the larger chip mills in NW pa want the pulp to be a minimum of 5" on the small end or it shatters in the debarker.