Consulting Forestry Services   

Monday, October 25, 2004 Advocate-Messenger  Danville, KY

Danville resident helps landowners manage their forests

By JOHN T. DAVIS
Staff Writer

With all of the highly publicized disputes over national forests in Kentucky, you might think that most of the state's timber is government-owned.

But you would be wrong. More than 90 percent of the forestland in the state is privately owned.

"Private landowners are responsible for providing management of wood products, habitat for wildlife, water quality, areas for hunting, nature walking ...," said Christopher Will, a Danville resident who as a consulting forester helps landowners deal with those responsibilities.

 Will operates Central Kentucky Forest Management as a sole proprietorship of which he is the only employee. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in forestry from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse. After working for 13 years in the forest products industry, mostly in the area of log and timber procurement, Will started his own forest management business in 1999.

"The business was created with two objectives in mind," Will said. "To provide private timberland owners with a timber sales process that protects their interests and to provide forest management services that allow landowners to manage their forests for the long-term and in a sustainable way."

A plan is needed
To protect the value of their forestland, property owners need to plan ahead. Will said.

"People don't really think about forests in terms of management until there's need or some question about selling timber," Will said.

"The most important thing people can do, would be to develop a forest management plan, which can be quite simple or complex depending upon their goals and objectives."

A management plan should be completed even before property owners consider a timber harvest, Will added.

To develop a plan, the consulting forester meets with the landowner to determine his goals and objectives for the land. Then the forester collects data on the forest's health, tree species, age and density (number of trees per acre) of the trees, and timber quality. After he has collected the data, the forester can make recommendations on such courses of action as thinning the forest, making openings to improve wildlife habitat, planting trees or harvesting trees.

"If an objective is to improve deer habitat, you can remove some trees to encourage growth close to the ground to provide forage for the deer," he said. "Or you may want to increase the forest area by planting old pasture with tree species."

If the landowner is looking to sell some timber, Will is able to appraise the value of the timber for the landowner rather than as is done in most cases, having the purchaser establish that value.

Will said having the timber buyer set the price is like asking, "How much would you pay for my house? ... That may be a dangerous business strategy."

If the timber is valuable enough, Will said, a consulting forester can solicit bids from several timber-buying companies to make sure the landowner receives fair market value.

"Once a contract is signed, I also do oversight of the timber harvest to make sure they follow the terms of the contract," Will said. "I do that through oversight, and I also require a damage deposit.

"I'm very selective about who I invite to bid openings. I want to have someone who has the reputation and experience to do the job right."

Most common method is "cut on share"
Most timber in Kentuckyis sold without the use of a consulting forester, Will said, and the most commonly used method is "cut on share," in which the landowner receives 50 percent of the revenue generated at the sawmill.

Will encourages his clients to sell their timber on a lump-sum basis, in which the landowner receives the full amount of money at the time the sales contract is signed.

There are several advantages for the landowner of using that method, he said. The landowner doesn't have to constantly monitor the logger to make sure he's getting 50 percent of the proceeds, and there is also a difference in the way the sale is taxed.

In most cases, Will said, a lump-sum sale is treated as a capital gain, which usually has a lower tax rate than cost-sharing.

"A lot of people don't realize that until they've already done it and they're sitting in front of their accountant," he said.

Another service Will provides is timber trespass appraisals.

"Sometimes landowners or loggers may not have complete information on a boundary line," Will said. "That's the best case scenario. The worst case is that loggers may see something they want across the boundary line and cut it down."

By having a forest management plan and updating it periodically, landowners can make sure that cases of timber trespass do not go unnoticed. When a trespass has occurred, Will can determine damages by measuring the size of the stump, and he also can give expert testimony in court on behalf of the landowner.

Under state law, people who illegally remove trees can be liable for triple damages if they did not properly notify neighboring property owners of their intent to harvest trees next to their boundary.

Will also can do timber appraisals for people who are planning to sell forest land and want to establish a value for the property or for people who have just bought or inherited forest land and want to establish a tax basis for future timber sales.

Not one to bad-mouth loggers
Having worked on the timber-buying side of the business for 13 years, Will is not one to bad-mouth loggers.

"Loggers play a very important role in removing wood safely from the land, but you don't want loggers to manage your forest land ... They have the incentive to take out the most valuable trees.

"A logger's training is in removing timber. The forester's training is in growing new forest and managing forest.

"We need timber buyers because they provide a market that adds to the value of our trees."

Boycotting the use of certain hardwoods can be counter-productive because it destroys the market value of the forest, thus encouraging its destruction for agricultural or development uses, he said. "It's that value as a timber product that allows owners to pay taxes, build roads, cabins" and otherwise benefit from forestland.

Though you won't find him camping out in trees to prevent them from being cut down, Will said he is an environmentalist.

"I believe in the wise use of our forest resources so they can benefit people today but also be available to future generations. That's the basis of a forest management plan.

"I got involved in this line of work because I enjoyed being outdoors ... It's a great way to earn a living."

The Web site for Christopher Will's company, Central Kentucky Forest Management, is www.growingforests.com.

Copyright The Advocate-Messenger 2004