Forest Legacy, LLC

07/28/2026

We are excited to be part of this field day coming up in early September! Becky's family farm is full of great & unique examples of active forest, prairie, and wetland stewardship. If you are local to the area, we hope to see you there!

07/16/2026

You know there's a timber sale about to become open to buyers when this is your stack of outgoing mail for the day! 🌳

If you have any questions about timber sales and/or appraisals, please reach out to us!

07/15/2026

Another day, another spray!

The crew has been getting it done in the heat this week! Summer invasive species work is probably the most grueling work of the year. The heat, the ticks & mosquitos, the thorns, the herbicide exposure..... all add up to some very hot and tired men. And ironically, for being the most difficult work, we also usually see the smallest profit margins during summer invasive season. So, why do we do it anyway? Because it is an essential conservation practice for sound forest management. Invasive species can prevent tree regeneration (esp. oaks), severely degrade wildlife & pollinator habitat quality, reduce diversity, lower aesthetics, and reduce recreational opportunities. So while the guys usually get home tired, bug bitten, scratched up from thorns, and ready to stay in the AC until doing it all over again the next day....there is always the satisfaction of a job well done. They're making a difference out there, one acre at a time!

07/14/2026

New service unlocked! 🔓

I (Cassidy) am now certified to write forest management plans for the NRCS (Natrual Resource Conservation Service) through their TSP (Technical Service Provider) program. This means I can work directly with landowners who want to seek funding to manage their forests for wildlife habitat, timber production, forest health, etc. It's a fun, full circle moment for me because I spent 3.5 years as a district forester with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources doing just that! The photo below was taken in my office as district forester during my first year on the job. I was so excited to show my mom and dad where I worked. I loved my job, especially meeting and working with landowners, building relationships with them and learning from them as I helped teach them about forest management. I really thought I would spend my career there but once I got pregnant with our son, I knew that stepping away from the workforce to be with our children all day every day was what was best for our family. I haven't regretted that decision for a single second (and it's been almost 2 years now!), but it is exciting to be able to offer this service to landowners that we work with through Forest Legacy LLC.

Next step will be getting Cody certified so that he can do the field & office work for management plans while I will be home with a newborn in a couple of months!

07/13/2026

The timber sale that Cody and Jack marked in early June has closed and the results are in for the 199 trees (33 walnut and the rest mainly pallet) from high to low: $56,100, $54,000, $48,985, $39,000, $34,500, $17,105, $9,000.

Services we provide when facilitating a timber sale include:
🪵a site visit where we discuss your goals, questions, how the process works, etc
🪵marking the trees that will be for sale in a way that meets your objectives
🪵sending a volume summary with an estimate of what the sale should go for to you for approval prior to sending out the sale
🪵sending the notice of timber for sale to all the local timber buyers in the area via mail and email
🪵advising you once the bid closes on whether to accept any bids
🪵providing a contract between you and the logger stipulating timelines, payment plans (you will always be paid in full prior to a chainsaw starting)
🪵inspecting the site post harvest to ensure no property damage was done and that the contract was fulfilled
🪵advise on pre/post harvest management and funding opportunities if interested.
🪵providing a timber basis that you can turn into your accountant to save you money on taxes!!

If you have any questions or are interested in having your timber appraised or marked for sale, please reach out to us!

07/09/2026

This is a great article detailing one of the most commonly prescribed forest stand improvement treatments in Iowa, crop tree release!

If you are interested in learning more or in implementing this practice on your property, please reach out!

Crop tree management is a seven-step system that focuses on releasing trees that yield multiple benefits (including wildlife, water quality, and aesthetics, as well as timber) through intermediate cutting treatments around crop trees with the highest potential increase in value.
Decide whether this system is right for your woodlands, and learn how to implement each step according to your goals with our Woodland Owner Notes publication!
https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/crop-tree-management-in-north-carolina

07/08/2026

This spring the crew hand planted 1,000 seedlings in a wetland restoration site. It's funny how some areas will grow trees no matter how badly you don't want them too and then other areas like this one have the opposite problem! This site was planted once before but a wildfire and drought hit the new seedlings in the same year and wiped most of them out. This time around conditions have been favorable but as you can see from the photos taken a couple weeks ago during the tubing & inventory day, their biggest threat is the invasive reed canary grass. Hopefully some grass specific w**d control will be completed to give the seedlings the best chance for becoming established. Shoutout to Rebecca Lynn Lee of Timberside Conservation LLC for her amazing mapping & data analysis skills! She did all the legwork and computer work for the inventory and we were grateful to partner with her on this project!

06/21/2026

Happy Father's Day to all the great dad's out there! Many of the landowners that we work with have their children as a main motivation for why they are actively stewarding their land. It is awesome that we get to to play a small role in that!

And I love that our son has a dad as awesome as Cody. He is hardworking, patient, steadfast, and faithful. I know he will raise his children up to love and appreciate nature, but even more importantly I know he will raise them up to know the Creator of it. 💚Myles was about 4 weeks old in this photo and it is crazy to think that in a few months we will have another little babe to tote around!

06/19/2026

June is when we usually transition to invasive species control season and this year we are off to a great start! Myles and I got to visit the guys at the job site yesterday and it always fun to see the guys in action. Most of the season is spent foliar spraying invasive plants with a backpack or larger tank sprayer, but for larger stuff we still break out the chainsaws even in the heat!

Invasive species control is an integral part of sound forest management. Benefits include:
🌿 Increasing native plant growth and diversity
🌿 Increasing the quality of wildlife habitat by increasing browse
availabilty and quality
🌿 Supporting more abundant and diverse pollinator populations
🌿 Supporting natural tree regeneration, especially oaks
🌿 Increasing recreational opportunities
🌿 Improving aesthetics

If you have any questions about what invasive species are, why controlling them is important, or how you can get funding to control them on your own property..... please reach out to us!

06/06/2026

Meet our forestry tech intern for the summer, Jack! Jack just finished up his sophomore year at ISU Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management, currently majoring in forestry. Monday was his first day with us and by today my concern that he would only get to spray invasives all summer has been erased as he has already
🌳met with a new potential client
🌳marked a timber sale
🌳ran a chainsaw for w**d tree removal
🌳met with a returning client for planning future work
🌳 and of course gotten quite a few hours with a backpack sprayer combatting invasive species as well.

We are grateful to have his hard work helping us get things done faster this summer and we hope his experience with us will serve him well throughout the rest of his college & professional career!