Forest Legacy, LLC

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 wildlife. 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!

05/27/2026

The guys wrapped up their tree planting season today, finishing up a 1,000 seedling hand planting on a wetland restoration site. That makes our total impact for this season 39 acres of trees planted with roughly 23,225 seedlings in 7 different SE Iowa counties! We had some great sites this year with a good mix of machine planting and hand planting. We hope to help these young new forests grow over the next few years with w**d control and then be back in 15 years or so to thin them.

Please reach out to us for any of your tree/shrub planting needs! 🌳💚

05/15/2026

Myles and I drove south of Ottumwa, IA yesterday check on the biggest tree planting of the season (over 20 acres!) only to discover the planting site was so far off the beaten path that John (our employee, Edwin's, 13 year old son) had to come pick us up on the UTV and take us back to the tree prepping area. I watched him and Myles sort and mix seedlings to ensure good diversity in each row. Then John loaded the mixed seedlings and drove them back to where Cody and Edwin were planting with the tractor. We did a few rounds of that and I was sweating just observing the hard work. I had fun seeing this young man and little boy enjoying hard work. Watching them and the trees grow is such a blessing!

And before you go checking child labor laws, know they are both paid well...... John likes cold hard cash while Myles is happy with a walking taco and an ice cream cone. 🍦

05/12/2026

This was a funky spring burn season, which I guess is to be expected. We had 11 good burns days and we were able to squeeze a lot of good fires in during that short amount of time! Benefits of prescribed fire include:
🔥 Supporting natural oak regeneration
🔥 Controlling invasive species
🔥 Encouraging more native growth & diversity on the forest floor
🔥 Returning a natural disturbance back to the landscape
🔥 Improving wildife habitat quality
🔥 Immediately attracting wildilfe during and post burn

If you have any interest in or questions about prescribed burns, please reach out to us!

05/08/2026

In between tree plantings, Cody has been in the turkey woods. I don't quite understand how he takes vacation just to lose more sleep and still work hard, but it is fun watching his excitement over it all! So far he's gotten two IA birds, an IN bird, a MO bird, and a MN bird. Now he is headed to WI to see if he can make it happen there too. Meanwhile, with 5 turkeys in my freezer and maybe more to come, I will be in the kitchen trying to see how many different ways I can cook these birds!

If you are interested in managing your property for the eastern wild turkey, let me assure you, Cody is your guy!

04/24/2026

One of the greatest blessings that has come from me (Cassidy) stepping away from the workforce when our son was born is the freedom to build our schedule how we want. Myles and I try to visit the guys at their jobsites as much as we can and now that Myles is a little older, it is so fun watching him watch his dad because you can tell that he thinks he is just the coolest. He watched "Dada" moving bags of trees and decided he would help!

4.1 acres of trees were planted right before the rain! 🌳💚

04/23/2026

Since 2024 this private property in SE IA has received site prep for natural regeneration (understory removal), 2/3 rounds of invasive control, and a prescribed burn (3/28/26). We went back out there last Friday (4/17) to see how things were looking. We were thrilled to find an abundance of spring ephemerals, a good batch of morels, and most excitingly brand new oak seedlings popping up everywhere! Our main goal with all of the management is to get the next generation of oaks established under the very mature oak overstory. Next steps are monitoring and maintenance to ensure these oak seedlings make it to the larger seedling and small sapling stage.

04/21/2026

It is discouraging to see so many legislation changes and budget cuts that will negatively impact our ability to steward Iowa's lands, but on the flip side it has been such an encouragement to hear from and work with so many landowners making their voices heard in the politcal arena and also being willing to get the needed conservation work done, even if the government programs and organizations keep falling short.
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/iowa-view/2026/04/19/iowa-forest-reserve-program-fees/89633889007/

Investing in forest land is prudent for Iowa and the health of its soil and water, so don't increase taxes for landowners, writes Sylvia Spalding.

04/16/2026

Next up in our tree seedling protection series are deer exclusion fences. There is no one size fits all fencing design for tree plantings, it all depends on the site and scale you are wanting to protect, the money you are willing to spend, the time you are willing to be involved, and the amount of deer that use your property. This video from Purdue extension does a great job demonstrating how to install various types of exclusion fencing. https://youtu.be/8aY1_TxCBUI?si=NnIt8d1Rk69VaRYB

This article from Iowa State University goes into more depth in some areas than the Purdue video. https://naturalresources.extension.iastate.edu/encyclopedia/white-tailed-deer-damage-management

All the landowners we've worked with so far have used tubes or cages, usually because that's what is prescribed in their plan from their district forester. We would love to help install a deer exclusion fence sometime in the near future! If you are a landowner invested in the success of your tree planting(s), a deer exclusion fence might be something worth looking into!

10 likes. "Woodland Stewardship for Landowners: Managing Deer Damage to Young trees"

04/15/2026

We’re happy to have had a part in the habitat improvements that took place at Three Mile WMA in Union County. The joint effort between The National Wild Turkey Federation and Iowa DNR made an impact on forested public lands that Iowans and others can enjoy and benefit from!

Big things are happening for wildlife and hunters in Iowa.

Through NWTF’s Super Fund, projects across the state are restoring oak woodlands, revitalizing prairies, expanding public hunting access and equipping conservation teams with the tools they need to support thriving wild turkey populations.

From prescribed fire at Red Rock to habitat restoration at Three Mile Lake and Clanton Creek, these efforts are improving thousands of acres — creating better nesting, brood habitat and more opportunities for hunters.

This is conservation in action — powered by NWTF members and partners making a lasting impact on the land.

Read more about how Iowa is leading the way: https://www.nwtf.org/content-hub/iowa-super-fund-projects-strengthen-habitat-and-hunting-opportunities-across-the-state