Trout Mountain Forestry
Full Service Forestry
Management Planning
A good plan provides a blueprint for management activities that will achieve landowner goals and objectives. We provide family forest owners with stewardship planning that brings our experience to bear on the many challenges and opportunities facing the small woodland owner. Often we can secure cost-sharing grants to offset a portion of the expense. Our plans are pragmatic and practical, and have been held up as models of quality in forums such as a recent Oregon Department of Forestry workshop on stewardship planning.
Large properties often face complex challenges, and this is especially true of public ownerships. For these we apply a policy framework, a proven method that enables flexible, adaptive management. Our forest vision is long range (50+ years), with short-term operational priorities of no more than a decade. We bring a pragmatic, efficient discipline to data collection and monitoring, building a property’s information base over time. Maps are developed using the latest aerial imagery and our own geographic information system (GIS).
Our professional contract crews excell in careful logging and resource protection.
Harvest Layout
We spend time getting to know the land before a single tree is cut. Roads, log landings, and skid trails are minimized to protect special resources. The forester marks the trees to be cut, balancing silvicultural and ecological objectives. We ensure a successful harvest by timing the season of logging, selecting the right equipment and contractor for the job, regularly supervising operations, and “putting roads and trails to bed” by grading and seeding.
Harvest Administration
Trout Mountain Forestry serves as the landowner’s agent for a timber harvest. We negotiate contracts with qualified loggers, and specify the smallest equipment suited to the job, for a light-touch harvest. We stay in regular contact with dozens of regional mills, monitor the pulse of the market, and get top prices for the landowner’s logs. We seek local and certified markets whenever possible. Our administration services include all permitting, regular logging supervision, accounting and remittances, and timber tax reporting.
Forest Restoration
Targeted herbicide treatment to control the invasive grass False-brome
Our management approach minimizes disturbance, protects special habitats, preserves uncommon species, and prevents the spread of invasive species. Where a more proactive approach is required, we will prescribe a suite of integrated restoration practices. We have extensive experience in oak restoration, fish passage improvements, wildlife habitat enhancement, and invasive species control. For soil stabilization and erosion control seeding, we use native species whenever possible. Where weed control is necessary we use the most benign and effective herbicides possible; for landowners that prefer to avoid herbicides, we provide alternative strategies and methods. Tree planting is done using mixed species, and features natural regeneration when feasible.