Mudd and Holland Consulting Foresters

12/24/2025

JLJ Logging, James Sprayberry and Justin Sprayberry are one of the logging crews we use in out timber harvesting operations.

James Sprayberry operates the loader/delimber. Justin Sprayberry drives one of the trucks. Mark Sprayberry runs the sawhead and Wesley Adcock operates the skidder.

We are conducting a first thinning operation on a tract northeast of Vivian, LA. The stand is 18 years old and running 145 square feet of basal area per acre. We are thinning it back to an average of 65 square feet of basal area per acre. We are taking out approximately 38 tons of wood per acre.

The thinning will allow the residual trees room to grow and develop into high quality sawlog trees. The thinning will also promote excellent wildlife habitat by creating more browse. We will come back to this stand in 10 years and conduct another select thinning operation.

12/11/2025

One of our management signs on the property belonging to Janet Johnson Creech near Keachi, LA. We have worked for this family for over 60 years!

12/11/2025

Timber management involves many aspects, including ecosystem management for various wildlife. We had this tract of timber southeast of Kilgore which was planted about 20 years ago with some lower quality seedlings (although that was not known at the time). We marked the stand for a select thinning. Below we have some pictures after the stand was thinned. We looked to remove the forked trees, twisted trees and all trees with some defect. I thought it turned out rather well.

We opened up the canopy which will allow more sunlight to reach the forest floor. This aspect will promote growth of herbaceous material snd grasses. We will run a prescibed fire through the stand in the spring of 2027 which will burn up the debris on the ground and help promote the growth of deer browse and grass.

We appreciate Morris Timber Holdings and John Lightfoot working with us on this project. Before thinning and after thinning pictures.

12/04/2025

We recently marked a stand of timber over southeast of Kilgore, TX. The plantation is about 22-24 years old. The first thinning operation only took out the “down rows” and really did not thin the tract.
We are trying to clean up the stand for the next cut which will occur in 10 years.

The problem is, the genetics of these trees which were planted in the drier areas of East Texas, mostly west of Marshall, TX in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s and were referred to as “drought hearty” trees.

They were supposed to be a good tree, able to survive harsh, drier conditions. The trees tended to have a tremendous amount of forks and splits with a lot of twists, plus they tended to hold a lot of their limbs causing many knots in the bole. All defects in the trees.

The issue is the landowners planted these trees with the idea and hope that the trees would help fund future activities, such as school for the kids. The stands would be managed with systematic thinnings and would grow into high value saw logs. That did not happen. Now the landowners are hung with these inferior trees.

In this case, we are trying to take out the worst trees and leave some to continue growing while allowing for grass to develop under the trees and create a silvi-pasture setting. Cattle will be able to graze under the trees.

You can see the knotty trees, the forks and the twists in the pictures. We walk through the stand and mark the trees we want to harvest with blue tree marking paint.

I will share some pictures of the post harvest operation.

09/09/2025

RSVP by Friday, September 12th to attend this free workshop!

05/09/2025

05/07/2025

We love seeing future foresters in the making - especially when they’re family!!
Thank you Louisiana Tech for putting on SUCH a great program! Congrats on another successful year!

04/01/2025

GREAT news for our over supplied market!!

North Bossier's Plain Dealing Teal Jones sawmill adds a major Japanese partner, and looks to add a new shift and more employees.

02/06/2025

12/26/2024

JLJ Logging, James and Justin Sprayberry, helping us with this pine sawlog, marked, select thinning operation northeast of Marshall, TX. The stand is 40+ years old. We are thinning back to an average basal area of 70 square feet per acre.

JLJ Logging has a “dangle-head” processor they use to merchandise the timber. The processor de-limbs the trees, measures the diameter of the big end of the log, measures the length of the log and measures the small end of the log.

We will come back in the stand and do another thinning operation in 10 years.

12/26/2024

We have Turnipseed Logging helping us with a second thinning operation down south of Mansfield, LA. We marked this 28 year old stand for a select thinning. Our foresters walk through the stand and mark the trees to be harvested with blue tree marking paint. We want to bring the stand back to an average basal area of 70 square feet per acre.

The logging crew sorts and merchandises the logs to go to several different mills in order to get the best prices for the landowner. Some are small sawlogs, some are chip-n-saw, some are pulpwood.

Thinning the stand keeps the trees in a healthy growing condition so the residual trees can grow into high quality sawlog trees. The thinning operation also enhances the wildlife habitat by increasing the amount of deer browse on the forest floor.

We will initiate an understory burn program which will reduce the fuel on the forest floor. The ash from the burn returns to the soil and fertilizes the trees. The fire improves the habitat for all wildlife. The threat of wildfire is greatly reduced because the fuel on the forest floor is burned under prescribed conditions.

Good timber management goes hand in hand with good wildlife management. Mudd and Holland Consulting Foresters, LLC works very hard for their clients to insure the timberland investment is fulfilling all the goals of the landowner.

12/13/2024

Jason travelled to Washington D.C. last week to attend the Society of American Foresters board of directors’ meeting. After the meeting, several members of the board walked over to the U.S. Capitol to see “The People’s Tree.”

This year, SAF () became the new national partner for the - facilitating its journey across the country and the conservation education campaigns that went with it!

Jason is proud of the work SAF does to promote the industry and is grateful that the members in his district gave him the opportunity to represent them.