3394 Willoughby Rd, Holt, Michigan 48842
Woodsy's Forestry Mainpage
When people ask me what I do for a living I tell them I am a consulting
forester. The comment that usually follows is: "Fine, but what do you do?"
Other's say 'what is a consulting forester' or 'what does a forester do'. This
page is the result of the number of times I have been asked these questions.
Hopefully I can answer these questions and others that people often have about
forest management. This page is not meant to instruct anyone on how to manage
their own woods.
I need to mention also that I deal primarily with hardwoods therefore these
pages relate to uneven-aged management. That is to say that most of the
forests in Indiana have all ages of trees from seedlings to mature timber. A
graph of the structure of the normal woodlot in Indiana would show a "J"-shaped
curve when the number of trees by diameter is plotted on a graph, (a large
number of small trees, medium number of medium sized trees, and a small number
of large trees). Even-aged stands have all the trees being approximately the
same age. In coniferous forests you will find even-aged management used since
coniferous species usually need full sunlight to regenerate and grow. That is
why clearcutting is used in conifers. It should also be noted that Indiana
forests can contain a large number of species in each age class in the same
woods. My timber sales have an average of 16 species per woods.
I cannot teach everything a person needs to know to manage their woods on a
webpage. Anyone wanting to manage their trees would be well advised to hire a
professional forester. Trying to manage one's own woods is a bit like
defending yourself in court without an attorney. I spent over four years at
Purdue University getting a Bachelor of Science degree and three years at
Michigan State University doing post graduate studies and research to learn the
skills needed to be a forester. The most important instruction came when I was
working for the Indiana Division of Forestry reinspecting classified forest and
writing management plans. The District Foresters shared their knowledge with
me and the many hours that I spent cruising woodlots gave me the best education
I could hope to have. Forest management is as much an art as it is a science
and I have been told by foresters with a lot more years in the field than
myself that I have a good eye for the forest. Too many people "can't see the
forest for the trees".
Use the links at the left to go to a particular area of forest management.
My wife is standing at the base of this yellow poplar, sometimes called tulip
poplar or tuliptree. It is not a true poplar but rather, Liriodendron
tulipifera L. is the only member of it's genus in North America and it is in
the Magnolia family.
