Nrcs

[MaineWoodlot]

wondering if any of you have any thoughts about the NRCS. I just purchased
a 100 acre wood lot and I'm leaning towards getting a management plan drawn up by a forester and working with the nrcs. It would be nice to know if any of you have any advice on the subject.

 

[hammerlogging]

I don't know what kind of help you'd get from them except its always nice to know the person doesn't have any other motives, like a deal on selling your logs or something--

BUT the NRCS puts out the county soil surveys and you can get a #### ton of info from those, use the maps to identify your soil types verified through soil id and if the description matches your setting, etc., The info you can get from that, whether site productivity or road engineering, species preferences, all sorts of info, a GREAT source of info for getting an idea of your site potential. Some counties have their soil surveys online. they are about 900 pages long, but easy to navigate.

 

[MaineWoodlot]

The way I understand it is the the nrcs will reemburse me for the management plan and pay me per acre to have the selected forester manage the property. I'm sure the payment will cover the foresters work, but I'm not sure how the logs cut factors in and is negotiated? I wasn't sure if any of you had worked with the nrcs, or if I'm better off selecting a forester and having the lot managed without getting into a contract with the nrcs?

 

[hammerlogging]

Just get a free walk-through on your land with anyone with some credentials and get an idea of what any of them might have to offer and what the value of that info could be. state, nrcs, private, whoever.

 

[forestryworks]

Sounds like you're wanting to do a cost share with them.

As hammerlogging said, they are excellent to use when it comes to soil stuff. I've never worked with them on forestry stuff though, but it can't hurt to sit down with them and get all the details from NRCS and then sit down with a professional forester and see what he/she will do and then go from there.

 

[redprospector]

Good luck with any kind of funding in forestry right now. Even "cost share".
I don't know about everywhere else, but here in New Mexico there is no funding available...for anything.
The one government funded project that was an efficient expendature of our tax dollars was funding forest health, and fire prevention.
Now I guess they're saving the thinning money for fighting wildfire.
Oh well, good luck with your search for funding.

Andy

 

[2dogs]

I've worked with the NRCS a few times on errosion control and flood control projects. They were enthusiastic and good to work with though not as professional as some other agencies. I worked with some ery young people.

 

[Double_Diamond]

I am doing something similar right now. I have 20 acres and am working with the NRCS to finish up the last of the brush clearing and tree thinning. The way it worked for me was the NRCS would pay you a set rate depending on the total acreage of your property to have a timber management plan drawn up. The way they figured it was the reimbursement would cover about 50% of the total cost. In addition, since I am classified as a first time timber land owner they kick up the rate to what they figure 75% of the cost would be. I then found a forester to draw up a timber management plan which I paid for out of pocket and then submitted to the NRCS. Once they approved it, they gave me the set reimbursement rate. For my situation the plan cost about $2800 and I was paid $3200. I did some of the work for the plan myself and already had a good working relationship with the forester so I actually came out ahead on the whole deal. After the plan was approved we moved into implementation. It was the same deal. Since I am in California the major focus of the plan was fuel reduction and thinning for fire hazard and stand health. I cleared the brush and thinned the trees per the approved plan and once it was done the NRCS paid me a set rate regardless of the actual cost. They were only concerned about the end result, not how you got there. In my case I did the majority of the work myself but most people hired it out. The folks at NRCS were easy to work with and used a common sense approach to thing. I would work with them again.

 

[MaineWoodlot]

Yeah that's the way I understood the process to go as well. Im just a little hesitant about the contract and what would happen if the goals weren't reached and what penalty there is to get out of the contract. I would like to do the work myself but I'm not sure if I want to commit to that much work considering I have a full time job elsewhere. My other question concerns the logs and what happens to them if I hire a forester to do the work? Is that part of the negotiation with the forester?

 

[Double_Diamond]

I don't think there is any penelty if you don't meet the contract goals. You just won't get paid for the work you didn't do. They don't have anything other than a bit of time invested in your project since you get paid only for work completed. I think it is up to you to put together any deals regarding sale of the wood and contracts with mills/foresters/loggers. The NRCS can probably give you names of reputable people. A portion of my property was pretty nasty with brush and small trees so they recommended a local guy with a brush grinder who could clear it a lot quicker and easir than I could. I made a deal with him directly and paid him. I was then paid by the NRCS once they verified the work had been completed per the management plan. I will say if you have a full time job then dealing with 100 acres yourself is a big undertaking. I was lucky and have friends with equipment who could give me a hand. I don't know what your experience level is but you may want to try dealing with one acre and see how that goes. Good luck.

 

[MaineWoodlot]

Thanks for your help. I'm not very experienced with management or forestry. I'm cutting my own firewood but that's it. I called a local forester today and he is going to meet me at my house to talk about it next week. He has dealt with the nrcs and said I will have a better idea as to what to do with my lot after talking with him. He seems very professional, at least after talking with him and looking at his website.

 

[forestryworks]

He seems very professional, at least after talking with him and looking at his website.

Ask him for some references, call them up and see what they have to say.

 

[QwikDraw]

you are talkinf about the NRCS EQIP program. To get the cost share for the forestry plan, the forester needs to be a certified TSP through NRCS. Around here (CT) I only know of one and I have completed quite a few acres for him. It's a good program. I also have done many acres through the NRCS WHIP progams too.

 

[MaineWoodlot]

The forester I met with last night is certified to write plans for the NRCS that will be cost shared. Everything sounded really good except for the price that he was talking about to write the extensive plan. For my 100 acre lot he said that it would cost between 3-4,000. I thought that sounded a bit high but have no idea. He said that the majority if not all would be cost shared. I looked it up and it appears only around 1300 is cost shared for that acreage. Does the price I was given seem high or in check?

 

[Double_Diamond]

For a 100 acres that seems like a pretty good deal if he does anything near as much as the forester did for me. When I had my plan prepared the forester cruised the property and surveyed the trees to determine how much timeber I have. He walked the property in a grid pattern and would stop a certain intervals to preform the survey so there was quite a bit of time wrapped up just in that. He also had to prepare several maps too. Who ever you are dealing with at the NRCS should be able to give you a rate sheet. I just dug my old one out from 3 years ago. For the EQIP program they were reimbursing $3,375 for the forest management plan. I do not know if that varies regionaly or if they have reviesed the rates at all. If you go forward with this get a rate sheet for the different methods of forest stand improvement. For instance there was a portion of my property that needed to be thinned by hand and this paid $712/acre where as the areas that could be thinned with machinery paid $921/acre. The price diffence can help you in deciding how much of the work you want to do yourself and how you want to preform the work. You can rent a 20,000# excacator with a thumb for $1500/week and that can thin a lot more propterty than you and a chainsaw.