As a small woodland owner, you likely already know about the benefits of developing a management plan. These include:
- Helping you and your heirs guide activities for your woodland.
- Increasing your knowledge and connection to your property.
- Helping you strategically develop actions to address your goals and objectives and avoid costly errors.
- A management plant is also required to receive some grants and funding for management activities.
There are several approaches to starting your management planning journey. Some woodland owners might choose to hire a consulting forester to do all or parts of their plan for them. There may be cost share funding available if you choose that route (see below for funding resources). Or you may want to start developing a plan on your own. Like any big project, it will seem more approachable if you break it up into segments. Start with the easy sections first; you might be surprised with how easy it is to find property information using online tools. This method will help you build momentum and feel a sense of accomplishment. Here are some tips for getting started (links to the plan template and resources are at the end of this article):
- Download the management plan template and guidance document.
- Familiarize yourself with the parts of the plan.
- Read through the guidance document. This might seem like a lot of information to absorb. Use your skimming skills and get a general idea of what’s in the guidance document. You will be returning to these sections often.
There is a color-coded checklist at the beginning of the management plan template. This checklist breaks down the information that you need to gather for your plan into general categories starting with sections on Woodland Discovery, Current Stand & Forest Health Conditions, and Resources & Management Tools. The Woodland Discovery section asks for basic information describing your property along with maps and photos, followed by a list of your Goals & Actions. It’s a good idea to start the planning process by considering your goals. Why do you own your property? What are your values and ownership goals? This can be a great way to get your family involved with the process. The My Stewardship Values questions (Figure 1) have been used in extension workshops for many years to help folks get started on this question of values. Your values provide the foundation for your goals and objectives. It’s not surprising that each landowner will have their own unique values, goals and objectives. Many landowners in Oregon have multiple reasons why they own their property. These might include the need for economic return as well as the enjoyment of amenity-based aspects of their property, like aesthetics and recreation or an interest in wildlife and conservation.
Let’s get started on the plan itself. After scanning the Woodland Discovery section you will notice that a number of maps are needed in the plan. Fortunately, recent developments in online mapping programs designed specifically for landowners have made map making surprisingly easy. Landmapper, a free mapping tool (link below), is an online tool that creates a number of maps automatically based on your selected tax lots. First zoom into the general area of your property, you can enter an address or manually zoom in. Select the taxlots that you would like to include in your management plan. Then press Next and a series of maps will be automatically generated. The first is a general map showing the property boundaries and aerial imagery. Basic property data is generated with this map, including acres, elevation range, and other details that will help you fill out the first section of your management plan. You will find additional maps including a vicinity map showing nearby roads, a topographic map, a hydrologic map showing streams along with their classifications, a soil type map, a forest community map, a tree diameter class map, a forest canopy cover map, and a forest density map.
All of these maps can help you describe your property. If you have explored this site in the past, you will find that the canopy cover map, the forest community map, the tree diameter class map and the forest canopy cover map are all recent additions which are based on classifications through remote sensing via satellite or aircraft. Go ahead and take these maps out with you on the property and see how they line up with what you see on the ground. I will cover how to tackle additional sections of the forest management template in upcoming articles.
Links to Management Planning Resources
Download Forest Management Plan Template and Guidelines here:
Land Mapper. Automated and easy, produces many of the plan maps. https://landmapper.ecotrust.org/
Funding Resources:
Oregon Department of Forestry: https://www.oregon.gov/odf/aboutodf/pages/grantsincentives.aspx
Natural Resource Conservation Service: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/conservation-basics/natural-resource-concerns/land/forests
