Green Horizons

Volume 3, Number 3
Summer 1998

Beauty and the timber beast

Many landowners are reluctant to consider a timber harvest because the ones they have seen resemble the aftermath of a tornado. They may hike in or live next to their forest and have to live with what they see the rest of their lives.

Professional foresters are trained to help landowners determine forest objectives, including aesthetic objectives. The use of before and after timber sale photos can help landowners judge a satisfactory sale appearance. Touring managed, completed timber sales also can assist in choosing a preferred after-harvest appearance.

Be as specific as possible when communicating with your forester. Ask some of the following questions so you will know what to expect when the harvest is completed.

  1. Will there be openings created and, if so, how big will they be and how many can I expect? How will they look in 5 or 15 years?
  2. Do you have pictures of past sales or can we visit one of your completed timber sales?
  3. What unavoidable damage should I expect? What clean-up activities can I expect loggers to do?
  4. How will your services increase the aesthetic quality of my harvest?
  5. Would I be happier if there were buffer areas to soften the edges of the harvest?
  6. What benefits will the sale have for wildlife?

If we expect to rely on private forests to supply wood products in the future we must meet more landowner aesthetic objectives. Foresters and loggers alike need to accumulate timber sales that retain some aesthetic values, to showcase the ability to combine product demand, economic need and environmental sensitivity in a form that is acceptable to a greater number of landowners. - Skip Stokes

(Skip Stokes is a consulting forester who lives in rural McDonald County. "Creating a photo album of my sales with before and after pictures has given me a whole new way to communicate harvest appearance to my clients," she says.)