| A unit of Lasting Forests
evolving since March 30, 1999 |
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A Total Forest Management Plan
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If owners already do this and are satisfied that they are caring for the land perfectly, making the most money that they can over the long run, not making mistakes for which their children and grandchildren will have to pay, avoiding future litigation, and having confidence that the land they love will be managed well after they are gone, then there is little that The Trevey or Rural System has to offer. They need to go and enjoy their land!
The Trevey is only one part of Rural System and it is serviced by The Forest Group (also with alternative description). Recall that there are physical forests temporarily called Pivotal Tracts. Rural Systemis the name of a complex enterprise as well as a paradigm or major concept for doing business within the wildlands. If you do not own land (but might) or simply want to understand a new modern concept of forest land management, then you may find that within this web site and by conversations with the staff.
There are several observations about Virginia forests and these suggest some issues of magnitude in the state and in nearby states.
The Forest Group believes it has developed a win-win-win strategy for certain people. These include:
The winning concept is that all three - the landowner, the public, and Rural System - benefit from working together.
Being one of the Pivotal Tracts is not a simple idea. In the past, trying to make forestry simple has done awful things to the land, to people, and to agencies. The new idea for the people and lands of Rural System has eight major parts:
Membership
First you join (whether you have land or not). It costs $87. For that you get: 1. A newsletter 2. Outdoor clothing discounts 3. Outdoor equipment discounts 4. Outdoor and nature book lists with discounts 5. A $20 contribution to forest systems research 6. Discounts on 2 tours a year 7. Free registration at an annual meeting 8. Priority access to land management consulting and management service 9. Access (with discounts) to the other components of .
Publications and Tours
Forests are wonderfully exciting, varied places and people love to learn about them. We provide a regular newsletter (or website access) with information about the Rural System and about forests and their management.
Not satisfied with readable publications, some information being on the Internet, we provide two educational, entertaining tours a year to show the principles and concepts employed in The Forests. An annual meeting provides additional insight into the management program, forest knowledge, and opportunities for land owners.
There may emerge a great need to increase communications with the public if agencies find that providing information only stimulates more protests.
Consulting
Not just a "forestry consultant operation", Rural System puts your land under its wing, so to speak. Less than 20% of timber harvesting and forest work in the area is now done with the advice of foresters. This situation results in low profits and land abuse with taxpayers paying millions of dollars in erosion, water cleanup, and fish and wildlife costs. Rural Systems pivotal tracts are lands that are being brought under management. At cost, the staff provides a superior computer-produced analysis of your forest (The Trevey report) complete with satellite maps and dozens of other maps showing all aspects of the ecology and economics of your area. The Trevey is the system used, one becoming internationally known.
This consulting work is achieved under a contract with Rural System and the Forest Group. In certain cases where gifts or memorials are considered, members will be assisted in contacts with select foundations. Once an analysis and plan is made, the landowner may then decide to do the work or to have the Rural System staff do it for them at minimal costs.
The plan is a comprehensive description, needs analysis, diagnosis and prescription for an owner's land. Based on years of study, a computer system develops a means to achieve the owner's stated objectives, given the resources of the land and their potential enhancement. It may tell that the objectives cannot be achieved but it will show what is possible. The advantages of the new system, computer maps, expert system and knowledge base, and of our capitalizing on millions of dollars of federal research, are almost unbelievable.
Active Management
Confusion has seemed to arise at this point in our past discussions with some people about role of the Forest Group. The options are:
After signing a contract, a Lasting Forest sign goes up and the land is placed under sophisticated management. Study after study of land owners has shown their interests are high in forest recreation, forests for beauty, pride of ownership, a "family place", and an inheritance. Profits from wood sales are usually not listed or they are placed low on a list. Taxes on forested lands are a problem. Along with that problem come those of limited periodic cash flows, high costs of small tract management, fluctuating markets for wood, fluctuating (and relatively low) prices and interest rates, inheritance taxes, income taxes, and, as always, a variable demand for some income at times. There is always the threat of litigation over impacts. These problems, this large set of them, have all added up in the past to be prohibitive of time, production, and top quality forest management on most private lands with trees.
The Rural System provides a solution for those who voluntarily join. This is a strictly private, voluntary organization and activity. The staff of Rural System carries out the plan which is designed to provide funds, use, and a reasonable basis for management into the far future. This includes (but there is more):
1. placing signs
2. clarifying the boundary
3. cleaning-up
4. performing critical area work (e.g., gullies)
5. building or maintaining trails
6. developing a road-trail system as needed
7. improving the timber and pulpwood stands
8. developing watershed work (and a fishery where appropriate)
9. protecting the land from fire, insect, and disease
10. enhancing the wildlife resource
11. doing botanical work
12. managing vertebrate pests
13. assuring safety and security
We believe a forest is a volume that has trees in it. It includes air over it and the soil and geology under it. Managing that entire volume, holistically, for the long run, is our quest. Sensitive, adaptive ecosystem work is what we do, but we are always working with four other E's (other than the ecosystem or the environment). These are energetics (mindful of likely future fossil energy shortages); esthetics (the full range of social, cultural, and historic aspects of the land that give it both the physical or scenic beauty, as well as other dimensions of value and "place"; economics (value, of course, for these 5 E's are related, but we give a strong emphasis to financial analyses coupled with risks, demand, and substitutability); and enforcement (the laws, regulations, and policies and the means for them to be carried out).
We believe in "sustained development" and" sustainable agriculture" but have the philosophy that a flow of money, not just products, is the intention of laws and conference discussion about sustainability. "Sustained yield" can bankrupt a land owner if the prices are falling! Depending on owner objectives, we seek to at least prevent the act of holding land from being a drain on an estate, foundation, or investment portfolio. We know that individuals have responsibilities to others but we believe that by superior management landowners can make personal financial gains that are in the community's interest, can assure sufficient wealth that reduces the chances of corners being cut in land management; and reduces waste and "externalities" by active collection, use, and recycling.
We develop sound, vital, functioning lands. We restore lands that have had their systems destroyed, literally" mined" of their wood, fertility, and genetic power. Mostly working for the new forest, we select trees, carefully remove them, and plant and grow new ones of high quality. We create wildlife areas, gardens, grassy pathways, enhanced wetlands, ponds, springs, viewpoints, and in some cases, entire designed autumn-color landscapes.
Each forest is separate, but together they are managed by a single Lastsing Forests staff which, because of superior training, equipment, and team work, can achieve great economies of scale and efficiency.
We produce an annual report for an owner's property. It describes our work there, but more importantly, it describes the owner's new system -- its status, growth, production, enhanced value, and projections.
We do more than manage trees on the land. Each tract is unique, an individual. We treat it that way. We develop (as appropriate) recreational trails, fee fishing, tours, hunting opportunities, bee hives, recreational events, and find other "production" that, in total, can be sustained year after year over the long run without detracting from the area or its value to the owners. We typically can improve the health of a forest, increase wildlife, enhance natural beauty, increase recreational opportunities (some with financial gains), reduce soil erosion, protect your property, increase land sale value, increase income from a variety of sources, and reduce taxes. It makes sense to become engaged in superior management; letting Nature have its way is a sure way to lose money, increase risks, and not achieve some major persosnal or family objectives.
We use a tried-and-true, very old concept of "financial share cropping." It has wonderful incentives built within it. Our "deal" with land owners is as low-cost and risk-free as we can imagine and develop. We manage land and we share in the profits. We take risks along with owners. We do not recommend excessive investments because they may reduce profits (for both of us). We work for the long run to improve our profits with time. The higher the quality of the area, the higher the production of profits. A major component of the work is that annual income is made from many different uses and users of each area. Income is annual, not the typical "cut-out-and-get-out" and single lump-sum slug of income that is a part of traditional local forest operations.
Having worked on a pivotal tract for years and having brought it from a high-graded mess to a beautiful, productive place loved by the public that pays to use it is a wonderful experience. We grow attached to these forests, but yet, some lands must be sold. It is expected. The contract for the Rural System work includes a 5% of sale-value contract severance fee. We bring forested land to a highly valued state over many years - often doubling its original value - then our incentive, along with that of the owner, is not merely annual production, but also enhanced total land value. If there had been no profit after several years of trying to enhance the value of a run-down area, and the area is sold by the owner, the Rural System would benefit a little and could sustain itself.
Allowing trees to mature to needed sizes, perhaps 100 or more years, has been a persistent problem for private owners of forest land. Only when work over many areas is united can this be done. We let some areas mature. We harvest some trees and fertilize others frequently. The question of "Fairness" (who forgoes income in the short term?) we address by shared income. We compute "gross profit" then compute 10% of this as a long-term cost. This amount is then shared among owners based on their potential-production-weighted acreage in Rural System.
Using modern technology, well-established principles of forestry, and a new concept of the total land system, The Forest System unifies the following for reasonable profits over the long run:
GPS and GIS technology
Knowledge of the land
Coherent, unified management system
High payoffs from previous research
Intensive inventory (Two Dog and related software)
Rented and owned areas
Superior growing stock and regeneration management
Computer analyses of potential production
The right species for the right site
Specialized units (e.g., walnut products and single-tree profit projects)
Named Forests (separate areas with different objectives and management)
Optimum tree spacing
Use of alpha units (new 'stand' units)
Use of SIE 1.0 (new site evaluation criteria and local yield curves)
Protection of stems
Spot fertilization
Young stem release (alternative grazing and fire systems)
Thinning -
Associated profitable activity:
Hunting (intensive managed hunts)
Birdwatching (area permits and guided programs)
Angling (within a developed regional system)
Memberships (land related resource and nature interests for adults and children)
Other wildland recreation
As part of the active management, we implement a carefully controlled anti-crime, anti-vandalism, and anti-littering program. These are persistent threats. We seek control, along with prevention. Experienced officer with a unique, carefully researched secret strategy is used. A hazard reduction component is added.
Studies
As part of our work, we are pressing the limits of wildland science. Part of our returns are devoted to applied research and practical studies, which may improve conditions and forest decisions. Tax deductions for contributors to this effort with Virginia Tech are available. Entire research programs with named scholarships and international prominence are available in connection with the College of Natural Resources at Virginia Tech and the Virginia Tech Foundation. Carefully supervised Virginia Tech students may gain experience and money to support their education within the Forests.
Feedback
Every progressive system has feedback, which is monitoring that is then combined with corrective action. There are many feedback components throughout the Rural System ranging from personal safety of staff to assurances that the objectives of owners are achieved.
We are not selling or offering a pig-in-a-poke. We simply invite people to join the Forests. They can "get out" at any time. When "in", we join in a great adventure to get past some of the problems of public forest management, achieve unique benefits, avoid the defunct rules and policies of public agencies, avoid the "this tract is too small" problem of the past, and continue productive forest resource development in the environment of reduced state and federal staffs, funding, direction, and morale. We have an opportunity to gain superior private, productive, profitable forests, a new reality among thousands of acres in the region in very small to very large forests, all jewels in the region.
We live in a world of computers, data, and statistical analyses, but because so many numbers are debated and there are so many very different conclusions based on the same data, a person or company has to decide - and take the risks of being sub-optimum or inefficient, rarely being clearly wrong. The following is the primary basis for action in the Rural System.
The situation in our region is perceived to include now and for the next rotation:
The management of the Rural System addresses the parts of this situation.
We have concepts and means of operation. Many of these are described in our publications and within this website. A sample of the ideas that have concerned people in the past are:
Wildfire - We put in place a community-wide wildfire prevention system. We are developing a superior fire fighting strike force.
Prescribed Fire - We can use fire under carefully studied conditions to achieve natural events (just as from lightning) that produce desired plants and animals.
Biodiversity Surveys - We make surveys and combine them with an elaborate database of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and our own data bases. We do comprehensive analyses of plants and animals and avoid "biodiversity" conflicts (which is a political and almost meaningless word). We compute 18 indices of biological variety (and do studies to find the practical, functional relationships).
Cut-and-Leave - We cut some trees, lay them on the contour and begin to rebuild soil and stop erosion. We create barriers on select streams to improve the streams, the groundwater, and site quality.
Foot Trails - We believe well-designed foot trails are fundamental to total forest management-fire breaks, recreation, "learning the area", inventories, security, hunting, etc. Special jogging trails are developed.
Health - Land health is of national importance. We have a strong program in integrated pest and disease damage management.
Ecosystem Management - A new policy of the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies, "ecosystem management" is desirable, but inadequate. Emphasis, at least in the name, is only on one of the 5 E's (lised above) used in the Rural System. Our approach is more comprehensive than the "ecosystem".
Watershed Management - Advocated for over 40 years, gaining acceptance in agencies, watershed management is now passé, surpassed by the computer mapping and modeling in The Trevey and in our very site-specific management.
Value Added - We try to add value to forest products and yields in the region, not ship away wood to other areas where high gains in value will be made. We work with local companies to do so and attempt to improve local conditions, partially through providing employment opportunities.
There is much, much more that we can (and need to) tell about the Rural System. They are lands and waters and the surroundings, but they are also a concept, a way of doing business, a respect for the land and people, all of which needs to be sustained.
Links (Tree-Related)
Links to other largely-tree-related aspects of the forestry component of The Trevey are as follows (but we continue to emphasize that almost all units of this web site and the components of the forest are strongly related and that the forester is the comprehensive system manager, not just a tree-stand expert):
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This Web site is maintained by R. H.
Giles, Jr.
Last revision February 29, 2000.