Forestry & Ecological Services

Range of Services

A. Seed: Site visit, walking & talking, introduction to species/ecosystem where you live and general tending concepts. Suggested native plantings & simple to-do list for your outdoor work. Includes write-up. $75-100

B. Sapling: Providing you with guidance and/or labor to take action/projects to tend the land/forest (examples: simple grant writing, installing deer exclosures, native plantings, tending wild foods, selecting trees sustainably for timber/ firewood/ tapping/ mushroom logs etc.) $45/hour basic labor, $60/hour grant writing

C. Tree: Mapping your land, writing ecological/forestry grants such as New York State DEC Regenerate NY, NRCS EQIP, and/or creating & implementing a 10-20 year plan (forest/land tending guide) $60/hour grant and plan writing; but note that there are programs that can pay for you to get a forest plan.

Forest/land plans can be developed to help you enroll in Family Forest Carbon Program, meet conservation easement requirements, 480A Forest Tax Law Program, and/or sustainable forest stewardship certification

Further Details

A. Seed/Site Visit & Consultation
  1. Visit land with you
  2. Talk about your questions, concerns, goals & ways you relate to the land
  3. Follow-up with impression of forest & ecosystem condition & possible approaches & resources
B. Sapling/Examples of Projects for your land
  1. Provide you with basic map of your land you can use with GPS on your phone
  2. Apply for Regenerate NY, Trees for Tribs, Propagate Ag, NRCS EQIP or other grants for your land
  3. Protect plants most threatened by excessive deer browse
  4. Prune/remove overabundant plants/shrubs/trees while improving growth of others (marking or doing work with you)
  5. Plantings to restore biodiversity (typically bareroot or seed)
  6. Sustainable timber/firewood use plan (marking trees and/or providing labor)
  7. Developing a food forest/ecosystem: identifying, weeding, protecting & propagating edible native plants, planting additional edible plants/trees/shrubs as needed
  8. Hunting program for your land
C. Tree/10-20 Year Plan Process
  1. Full discussion about forest & goals (range of goals from forest health improvement, to ecosystem restoration, to food and materials, to education, to cultural access, to sustainable timber harvest, etc.)
  2. Gather historical land information
  3. Create map library: cultural features, Indigenous land context, geology, topography, soils, water, wetlands, key species or communities, historical aerial photos, land cover and land uses, any other features of note
  4. Develop forest/ecosystem inventory plan & sampling design: overstory, understory plants, native and introduced species, density, carbon storage, timber quality and quantity, insects and diseases, wildlife habitat features, deer density, regeneration, wild foods, culturally important species etc.
  5. Conduct inventory
  6. Delineate forest stands
  7. Analyze data
  8. Provide multiple options for each forest stand. Potential actions include non-commercial thinning for forest health, careful selective timber harvest & log sale administration if forest can benefit from it, protecting regeneration of diverse species with deer exclosures or hunting plans, plantings, riparian buffers, vernal pools/microtopography, management of impacts from recently introduced species, forest gardening, conservation easements, cultural respect easements, community hunting, fishing, gathering or education programs
  9. Make projections depending what interventions are done or not
  10. With you, choose best course of action for each forest stand
  11. Confirm forest management plan with local and watershed codes, land conservancy and other standards, obtain permits
  12. Mark out boundaries, project areas, trees, conservation/protected areas, roads and trails
  13. Coordinate contractors/loggers, plants, seeds & materials needed
  14. Implement plan
  15. Monitoring & adapting plan as needed

Left: Example of a forest inventory sample plot design

Costs

Grants and other funding may be obtained for projects to enhance the forest ecosystem and serve communities. If the forest can benefit from a stand improvement harvest, wood that is cut and sold may cover the forest plan, consultation, loggers’ costs and/or plantings and other stewardship. Alternative non-timber forest products and uses can also cover costs of tending the land.

Below: Example of a forest stand map

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