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Forest Assessment: A forest assessment provides a summary report of a property's forests including forest stand maps, thorough stand descriptions, photographs, and some discussion of stewardship opportunities. Forest stand maps are based on field work, data collection and computer analysis of aerial imagery. All forest stand maps and the associated attributes are created using ArcGIS mapping software and available in digital form to the landowner. Field data collected for the assessment provides information on species composition, age class, diameter distribution, growth rates, forest structure, forest health, and wildlife habitat for each stand type on the property. The assessment includes photographs, a detailed description, and potential management options for each forest stand type. The written assessment also includes summary data for the entire property detailing major concerns, highlights, and opportunities.
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Stewardship Plan: Forest stewardship planning includes a forest assessment, as stated above, but includes determining landowner objectives and using these in combination with the assessment to define specific stewardship goals and actions. The plan usually covers a 5 to 10-year time frame. Properties whose stewardship plans include commercial timber management as an objective can also qualify for significant property tax savings through North Carolina's Present Use Valuation program.
Conservation Plan: Conservation planning includes a forest assessment and determining landowner objectives. The conservation plan differs from a forest stewardship plan in that it does not necessarily include forest management as a priority. Instead, the conservation plan can include identifying biologically sensitive areas for protection and ideal locations to site roads, trails, and/or home sites.
Stewardship or Conservation Plan utilizing Decision Support Analysis: This service is designed for stewardship planning that involves a set of stakeholders instead of individual property owners. The service helps facilitate a democratic process of forest stewardship to ensure that the values of stakeholders are respected and reflected in stewardship planning. The service includes a workshop to determine stakeholder values, determination of resource indicators to measure whether stakeholder values are maintained, and a thorough forest assessment. Finally, this service culminates with a variable set of stewardship proposals based on differing stewardship scenarios that are passed through a forest growth and stewardship modeling software, the Landscape Management System (LMS). To name a few, examples of scenarios may include "no active management", "maximize revenues", "maximize biodiversity", or "balance stakeholder values equally". The selected indicators are measured to summarize how each scenario achieves the stakeholder objectives. The presentation of these scenarios and associated measurements to decision makers helps initiate a clear dialogue and well defined process for making the best natural resource stewardship decision to support the democratic process.
Forest Inventory: A forest inventory provides a report of typical numerical forestry values (boardfeet, basal area, and trees per acre) by species for different forest stands. The measured components, intensity, and scope of the inventory are variable depending on the landowner's needs.
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Wildlife Habitat Analysis or Botanical Inventory: These services include maps and descriptions of wildlife habitats or botanical resources on the property. If either of these resources are a high priority for a property owner, this additional information can help facilitate stewardship decisions. Such inventories can tell a landowner whether or not they have any rare species or problematic invasive species on their property.
North Carolina Wildlife Conservation Land Program Plans: Landowners meeting certain qualifications can receive significant tax breaks by properly managing certain habitat types on their properties. The services provided include identifying these habitat types and creating comprehensive plans for their management.
General Forestry Consulting: This service is for landowners that have concerns about their forests and simply want some expert advice to explain and answer questions.
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Timber Sales: While many landowners have specific financial income needs that sustainable forestry practices may provide for, the strategic harvesting of trees frequently also serves the non-income related objectives of landowners. For example, many of our forests are even-aged as a result of past clear-cutting. If a landowner desires to restore their even-aged forest to diversity and habitat that simulates old growth conditions, then it is frequently advantageous to mimic natural disturbance patterns that create gaps in the forest. The strategic creation of gaps can favor the growth of more healthy and dominant trees, increase overall botanical diversity, and increase habitat for numerous wildlife species that depend on the structural variability of a forest that has multiple sizes and ages of trees.
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During any timber sale, we work on behalf of the interests of the landowner by receiving the highest possible price for the timber while achieving the greatest potential for the landowner's stewardship objectives. Before any timber harvesting takes place, we mark every tree that is to be removed and establish a harvest plan so that both the logger and the landowner understand the means by which stewardship objectives will be achieved. FS has developed relationships with a set of loggers that are both trustworthy and capable when it comes to low-impact logging that protects residual trees, water quality, and other forest resources. Before any management activities take place, we will represent the landowner in establishing a contract that states the terms of payment and how a logger is to engage in stewardship activities (i.e. how trees are to be removed, how trails are to be constructed etc.). Subsequent to this agreement, we will oversee the terms of this contract and withhold a performance bond from the logger until work is satisfactorily completed.
Forest Restoration: Forest restoration is a broad category of forest management by which a landowner seeks to restore forest health and vitality which has been compromised by past management abuses. While this work can sometimes be done in a manner that provides a profit to the landowner, restoration work often comes at a cost. The cost to the landowner is a result of the need to remove lower quality and less healthy trees in favor of improving the health and vitality of larger and more dominant trees. As previously described of a timber sale, FS will mark trees to be removed and oversee logging operations to achieve the greatest potential for the landowner's stewardship objectives while minimizing the costs.
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Crop Tree Release: Crop tree release is a stewardship action which reduces the number of competing trees whose crowns are impeding growth of a “crop” tree. Crop trees are chosen usually based on species, form, superior health, and/or larger size. This practice is usually applied to developing stands of trees that are 15-30 years old. Because the trees are small, this practice comes at a cost to the landowner, but can pay off in the long run since selected trees will increase in health and size more rapidly following the treatment.
Wildlife Habitat Improvement: There are numerous means by which to enhance or create habitat for wildlife. Stewardship actions are dependent upon the landowner's objectives, natural resources, and preferred wildlife species.
Prescribed Burning: prescribed burning is increasingly a stewardship tool that serves many purposes. It can be used to enhance wildlife habitat, improve forest health, improve aesthetics, promote biodiversity, restore historic forest conditions, or to prepare an area for planting. Increasing evidence suggests that fire played an important historical role on drier oak and pine sites. Fire has been suppressed in the past century and needs to be reintroduced in some cases if restoration to more historical forest conditions is desired by the landowner.
Invasive Species Removal: More and more, undesirable species introduced from foreign lands are crowding out native species and even causing local extinctions. FS provides the service of mapping where these species are, planning for their removal, and then actively removing the species. Follow-up monitoring is almost always required to keep invasive species in check over time. The time and costs of this service is highly variable dependent upon the species and scope of infestation.
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Timber Appraisal: A timber appraisal provides the total value of the timber on a given piece of property. This estimate is arrived at through a thorough forest inventory and the use of up to date timber prices. Knowing the full value of timber on a property can assist a landowner in stewardship planning and/or financial planning.
Forestry Financial, Tax and/or Estate Planning: These are complicated issues that usually require expert advice. FS can provide such advice and has lawyers knowledgeable in this field on call for questions we cannot answer.
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GIS Mapping and Analysis: Many of the aforementioned services come with maps using GIS maps as part of the package. Some landowners are very interested in maps of their property and may desire additional maps of their trails, favorite wildlife areas, or even a map of their entire neighborhood. We can also offer some degree of analysis like providing acreage or mileage calculations or viewshed projections (the area visible from any given point).
GIS Service Center: For some large landowners, it is useful to have all GIS data stored and managed in one place where mapping experts can provide a continuous supply of GIS maps as needed. We can provide this service while allowing for the update of old data and assembling of new data.
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Conservation Easement Planning: Some landowners wish to permanently protect and enhance the scenic, historic, agricultural, and natural resource values of a property by working with a local land trust to establish a conservation easement. Conservation easements also allow a landowner to take advantage of financial benefits through Federal and State tax deductions and credits. For these landowners FS can provide expert advice on the benefits of conservation easements and the best means to go about planning to establish one. As a landowner moves into the conservation easement process, we are able to represent landowners in the dialogue with land trusts that would be the holders of the conservation easements.
Conservation Easement Monitoring and Baseline Reports: Conservation organizations that hold conservation easements often need assistance in the development of these reports. The staff of FS has years of experience working for land trusts in this capacity. We provide high quality reports that detail the biological and physical characteristics of a property prior to a conservation easement and any changes that come thereafter. Reports include high quality GIS maps with accurate property boundaries, aerial photography and topography in addition to digital photographs of prominent features of the property that correspond with specific coordinates and line of site directions.
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The conservation development services of FS are mainly confined to advising our clients on how to balance income and stewardship goals with the additional potential to maximize these goals through the sale of real estate. Landowners that desire to sell all or a portion of their land frequently want to do so in a manner that preserves the integrity of their forests and protects sensitive biological areas. FS can provide advice and plans on where to best site homes and roads that balances these stewardship objectives with financial income goals. We can advise on whether or not some amount of forest management prior to the sale of land would enhance or subtract from total potential income. Lastly, FS is part of a network of conservation organizations and realtors that specialize in finding “conservation buyers.” A conservation buyer is a buyer of real estate who appreciates and wants to protect and enhance the scenic, historic, agricultural, and/or natural resource values of a property and who is willing to work with a local conservation organization to protect these values with a conservation easement and take advantage of the financial benefits from the Federal and State tax deductions and credits.
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