Natural Properties Consulting Forestry

12/13/2022

Timber I had planted for a client band thinned several times so far.

05/05/2022

George Farmer SC Registered Forester

Over 40 years forestry experience in NC, SC, Georgia, and Louisiana.

Forest Technician International Paper Co. - 10 years working as a forest technician on the North Carolina coast assisting in the management of about 160,000 acres of timberland much of which was on very tough extremely brush dense, snake and mosquito infested terrain called pine pocosins and Carolina bays. Management work included timber mapping, timber cruising and inventory, timber marking, timber sale logging supervision, logging road and drainage layout, control burning, wildfire fighting, site preparation and reforestation supervision.

Worked on the timber cruising team for the International Paper 1979 acquisition of 420,000 acres of timberland owned by Bodcaw Timber Company in Louisiana and Texas. The timberland was purchased by International Paper for 805 million which would be about 2 billion in today's dollars.

Involved in the mapping and timber cruise work for the around 150,000 acre land trade between International Paper Company & Weyerhauser on timberland in North Carolina and South Carolina.

Forest Technician Crescent Resources - 4 years in Upstate SC employed with Crescent Resources ( Duke Power) as a forest management technician in the management of estimated 100,000 acres of foothills and mountain land mainly along Lake Jocassee, Lake Keowee and Lake Russell. Did much of primary timber mapping and fieldwork for the first forest inventory on the entire timberlands as well as in charge of all forestry management operations on about 25,000 acres located on Lake Keowee, Lake Russell and Lake Hartwell in SC and Georgia. Much of the managed Lake Jocassee area land is now known as the Jocassee Gorges Wilderness.

Consulting Forester Natural Properties - Certified as a SC Registered Forester in 1988. Since 1989 owned and managed Natural Properties Consulting Forestry located in Upstate SC.
Worked with hundreds of private farm and timberland landowners as well as corporate timber companies on thousands of acres in timber management, timber sales, timber mapping, timber inventory, timber marking, management plans, site preparation and reforestation as well as land sales.

Contract marked thinnings on approximately 1000 acres of loblolly plantations for Evergreen Timberlands.
Sold timberland acreage for companies such as Boise Cascade & Westvaco as well as many privately owned tracts.

George Farmer SC Registered Forester

01/22/2022

Consulting forester in upstate South Carolina

Upstate SC Consulting forestry and timber sales. We can appraise and market your timber for the best price. Over 40 years forestry management experience. George Farmer SC Registered Forester

11/14/2021

Using an increment borer to check age and annual growth.

11/05/2019

Loblolly pines I had planted on a client's land. They grow up so fast!

08/05/2019

Wood is better and healthier.
"The scientists found that three minutes after contaminating a board that 99.9 percent of the bacteria on wooden boards had died, while none of the bacteria died on plastic."

Four Reasons Wooden Cutting Boards are Better than Plastic or Glass, plus How to Care for Your Wood Cutting Board & Basic Food Safety Rules to Avoid Illness

07/30/2019

Sometimes people ask me how do you cruise timber? There are multiple ways, but I will try to explain two of the most common in my area.

One is using fixed radius plots. The most common is probably 1/10 acre plots with a radius of 37.2 feet. On a timber sale a compass bearing is determined that is perpendicular to the drainage (if any) and a plot spacing is set to give the desired number of plots. Each plot is taken by tallying the trees within the radius by species product and diameter usually by two-inch classes and total or merchantable heights. One tally tree might be pine pulpwood 10 inches DBH (4.5 feet above the ground) merchantable height 50 feet, pine sawtimber 16 inches DBH 3.0 logs height, red oak sawtimber 18 inches DBH 2.5 logs etc. Different foresters have different preferred ways to call the timber. It not uncommon to have 8 - 10 species product combinations on a sale like pine pulpwood pine chip&saw, pine sawtimber, hardwood pulpwood, red oak sawtimber, yellow poplar sawtimber and others. The tally is totaled, divided by the number of plots to get per acre figures and volumes per tree are used to give total volumes and stumpage figures like $ per ton or cord to give total sale value. The problem with fixed plots is there can be a lot of borderline trees on the edge of the plots to check and it helps to have a two-man crew but many foresters work alone.

One other common way and my preferred way to timber cruise is called point sampling. Point sampling uses an angle gauge to determine if a tree is to be tallied. They are different instruments to use but I prefer the 10 basal area factor glass prism like in the photo below. That prism diopter offsets the image seen through it 1 inch for every 2.75 feet distance away. The two tree images must still overlap or touch to be tallied like in the photo. For example, a 10 inch tree can be 10 x 2.75 or 27.5 feet away and still be tallied but don't need to measure that, just look through the prism. A one-man cruiser can easily use the prism to call the trees within maximum range on the plot with just an occasional borderline tree to check measure. This is called variable radius points since it varies by diameter.

The prism cruise can give the important trees per acre to come up with volume per acre. That is derived by each diameter’s maximum distance, so a 10 tree x 2.75 maximum feet per inch is 27.5 feet maximum radius for that diameter. Area of a circle is π r2 so it would be 27.5 squared x 3.14 divided into 43,560 the square feet in a acre. That gives 18.34 trees per acre for a 10 inch diameter tree. All tally for each species, product & height has to be divided by the total number of points to get trees and later volume per acre. Then each result is multiplied by the total acres in the sale to get total volume per species product. Volumes times the stumpage figures gives the total estimated timber sale value. There is a lot of math going on in a timber sale but software or a spreadsheet can do it quickly. I have always been amazed how well and accurate the prism is to cruise with when in the hands of an experienced forester.

There are other factors in a timber cruise that affect how it’s done, like what it will be use for, the accuracy needed, the type of timber, the terrain, the market and others. Plus a forester while doing the cruise may have use a plat to locate and flag property lines, mark out streamside buffer zones, logging roads and deck locations, consider environmental and wildlife factors etc. I’ve done all that many times over a long forestry career and its hard work in tough conditions sometimes but I have enjoyed it and feel blessed to be out in the woods for my job.

11/16/2018

Finding old property lines.

03/02/2018

202 acres pine thinnings bid off for timberlands owner client.

08/18/2015

Sawtimber Loblolly Pine managed by Natural Properties.

04/11/2015

Thinning timber bid opening 11:00 am April 23. 80 acres thinning of Loblolly Pine ages 23-28 composed of pulpwood, chip&saw & sawtimber. Located near Honea Path SC. Operator thinning to reduce current basal area from 120-150 sf/acre to 80-100. Contact Forester George Farmer [email protected]