Forest Management Plan

By Tim Pierson

The Tax Saving for the Private Landowner meeting presented by Lloyd Casey was very informative and lead to a very good discussion on the importance of having and utilizing a forest management plan. An effective but concise management plan and corresponding inventory can be extremely helpful. Especially when identifying your forest property as a business and thus being able to deduct expenses on an annual basis on your taxes. A forest management plan is also required if you are interested in entering the carbon market in the future and is helpful if looking to be part of an incentive cost share program like the conservation stewardship program.

Mostly, a forest management plan based on your objectives should be a living document that you review and adjust annually. Keeping your forest management plan current with your objectives is crucial and most beneficial for understanding your intentions by your family.

Obviously, a forest management plan is best developed by a resource professional like a forester and wildlife biologist working hand in hand with the forest landowner. Forest management plans like forest stewardship plans or tree farm plans are examples. However, the forest landowner with some basic training can actually develop a very useful forest management plan for themselves that would probably meet the needs of most landowner and a tax auditor.

During the course of this year we will include a forest management plan section where we will include a forest management plan section where we will discuss the various components of a forest management plan and provide tips from our members on how to develop those sections.

Again, any forest management plan is only effective if it is based on you and your families’ objectives for your forest land. Therefore, that is where we will start. Answer the questions in the attached section to assist you in getting at what is important to you, your family, or partners. (i.e. deer hunting, firewood utilization, timber, ginseng or maple syrup production, Etc.)

I developed a program in 2002 for training consulting and NYDEC foresters in New York on how to write forest management plans that work for forest landowners. The program utilized the following acronym “Get Lifted UP” that reflects most of the characteristics foresters and landowners identified a successful and usable forest management a plan should do for the forest landowner. We will strive to help you meet these in the management planning section of the newsletter. I’m sure we will also have some associated field training activities this and next year. A very good start will be our “Forestry and Wildlife Conservation Stewardship Field Day” on June 19 in Port Allegany.

So, let’s: GET LIFTED UP!

Goals and Objectives

Enjoy your woods too!

Think of the future

Learning new practices

Incentives available

Follow-up annually

Time is a valuable resource

Earning Income

Doable

Understandable by all

Practical for landowner and family