Forest Management

Forest management involves the integration of silvicultural practices and business concepts in a way that maximizes production and meets a landowner’s or investor’s goals. Management plans are used as a specific description and as an outline for the activities that are used to accomplish goals and objectives. 

Management plans consist of three main phases: strategic forest planning, tactical forest planning, and operational forest planning. 

· Strategic forest planning can be performed annually but is more commonly performed every 10 years and takes into account the next 50 years. Strategic planning focuses on the long term and this is where timber production is modeled to meet specific tract goals. 

· Tactical forest planning can also be performed annually but is more commonly performed every 3-5 years and takes into account the next 10-15 years. Tactical planning involves identifying site-specific actions from the strategic planning phase. 

· Operational forest planning is performed weekly or monthly and takes into account the next month to a year. Operational planning is where the management activities of the tactical planning phase are implemented. Some examples of this type of planning include harvesting, prescribed burning, replanting, or forest improvements. 

Throughout the planning process each phase is monitored in order to provide feedback and make the management plan adaptive to real time changes in the timber market.