Income from the land is the second priority in the restoration process. Without income, many land restoration projects stall and many landowners move on.
There are many ways for your forest land to produce income. The most traditional method is through wood harvesting. The trick is to perform the harvests in such a manner that the long term health of the forest is not compromised - it is improved.
In the past, many woodland harvests degraded the remaining forests. We have all seen examples of this, and it can be summarized as exploiting the forests. But wood harvests, like tending a garden, do not need to be destructive. In fact, many of our Lake States forests are now showing the signs of recovery from these past practices.
Red Oak off the mill
In restoration forestry, a large proportion of our harvests are what we call intermediate treatments. This means that we enter the forest at an intermediate point in the life cycle and remove only a portion of the fiber. The simple way to think of this is as a thinning operation. We can help walk you through your thinning options and make you aware of how wood markets function. We can also prepare you for the dramatic days when machinery enters your woods and the loggers go to work.
Wood harvests, whether a few cords for your stove or hundreds of cords for the paper mill, are only one option for income from your property. There are also tax rebate programs for actively managed land, cost share programs for certain land improvements, and a growing market for non-timber forest products, which includes spruce tops, maple syrup, seed collection, berries and a host of niche market products.