North Carolina Forest Management Plans: is yours tailored to your needs?

Odds are, if you have a forest management plan, you need a better one. With land values skyrocketing, many landowners focus solely on lowering their property taxes while ignoring their plan’s impact on long-term value and health. The NC Forest Service writes most of these plans—boilerplate, by-the-book plans, usually with a single-minded focus on industrial-style tree farming (clearcut, spray herbicide, and plant dense pine monocultures). You and your land deserve better.

Your land is a reflection of you. Your forestry plan should reflect your values, financial needs, uses, and long-term plans—a strategic, whole-land plan that considers the big picture, not just the timber. Implementing a balanced, nuanced plan will provide income, improve wildlife habitat, enhance aesthetics, and result in greater overall land health and property value.

Your forest management plan should consider the big picture.

My Plans

Rule 1 is to do no harm to the land or the property’s long-term value. Rule 2 is feasibility. Timber markets have changed dramatically over the last decade, and that change is accelerating. Buyers are fewer and more selective. Small tracts and mediocre timber are much harder to market today than in the past, so thoughtful harvest scheduling is critical for a workable plan.

I offer three levels of plans. Most plans have a 10-year planning horizon.

• Level 1 is the most basic of plans. Timber types are delineated, described, and mapped. A forest management timeline is established. High-quality enhanced aerial, terrain-topography, and soils maps are included.

• Level 2 includes timber volumes and values, along with a Level 1 plan.

• Level 3 includes Level 2, plus an appendix with historical maps, property history, and records such as surveys and deed copies, geological maps, soil reports, notes, etc.

All levels meet the requirements for the Forestry Present-Use Property Tax Program. Since every property is different, plans are priced on a case-by-case basis.

Getting Started

Too many times, I see landowners turn over their planning to someone (usually a government agency) who has no accountability for their advice or doesn’t share their values or vision for what land management should be. To write a plan tailored to your needs, I need your input—the best plans come from collaboration, ensuring you get the results you want in the future.