Forestry Services
Forest Stewardship Plans
Forest Stewardship Plans allow landowners to reduce property taxes through PA Act 319 Clean and Green, apply for NRCS cost-share funding, assess the health of their woods, and plan for the future.
NRCS CAP 106 Forest Management Plans
While still allowing landowners to reduce taxes, apply for NRCS cost-share funding, and plan for the future of their woods, CAP 106 Plans have the added benefit of being funded by the NRCS.
Timber Sales
While the sale of timber is a great way to profit from owning woodlands and cover ownership costs, it must be done carefully in order to protect you financially and your forest ecologically. We will mark and inventory the trees to be removed, obtain all necessary permits, bid the sale to obtain the highest price, and oversee the harvest operations to ensure contract compliance. Remember we work for you, not a logger, sawmill, or any other company. The result is the highest sale price possible while protecting the health of your forest.
Invasive Plant Control
Invasive plants are a growing problem that threaten to damage our forests and alter wildlife habitat. We are the only forestry company in the area to offer these important services that are often neglected by other companies. We offer a variety of treatment options to suit you needs including hand, backpack, and ATV herbicide applications along with mechanical control methods.
Forest Mowing
In cases where invasive brush is too tall or dense to be effectively controlled with herbicide alone forest mowing many be the answer. Old agricultural fields, hedgerows, forest understories, and abandoned land are often taken over by invasive brush that needs to be removed prior to additional management such as tree planting. A forestry mower reduces this brush into course wood chips.
Timber Inventory and Appraisal
Are you buying or selling a property? Land value assessment needed? Have trees been illegally cut? In all of these cases a professional timber inventory and appraisal can help determine timber value.
Tree Planting
Whether for afforestation, reforestation, enrichment plantings, or riparian buffer projects, planting trees can be a great way to establish or improve forest growth. Our crew can handle projects of various sizes from just a few dozen to several thousand trees. We work with local native plant nurseries to source trees typically ranging in size from bare-root up to 7 gallon pots. If you would like to plant the trees yourself we can provide planting site design services to meet your needs.
Crop Tree Release
Crop Tree Release is a method of removing lower value trees around trees of higher financial and/or wildlife value. We can achieve this by either using herbicide treatments or cutting the stems with chainsaws depending on the project specifications.
Timber Stand Improvement and Firewood Cutting
Timber Stand Improvement (TSI) is a method of removing lower value trees throughout the forest to favor trees of higher financial and/or wildlife value. We can achieve this by either cutting the stems and leaving them to decompose back into the soil or remove them using a forestry tractor for the landowner to use for firewood. (Please note that we do not split or sell firewood.)
Wildflower and Food Plot Planting
Habitat management also extends to openings where sunlight is available establish food and cover in the form of grasses and forbs. Food plots can provide nutrition and cover for a wide variety of mammals and bird both game species and otherwise. Wildflower or pollinator plots have the add attractive color to an area while providing nectar to important pollinator species such as butterflies and humming birds.
© 2023 by Shultz Forest Management and Consulting LLC
P.O. Box 347 Bethel, PA 19507 717-883-8124 jshultz.sfmc@gmail.com