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Starting Your Woodland Management Journey in Indiana: A Step-by-Step Guide

Embarking on woodland management in Indiana involves asking essential questions about your property, priorities, and objectives. Whether you're managing a family farm or a larger tract with timber interests, understanding your land and its features is crucial. In this guide, we outline five steps to effectively collaborate with a forester, including meeting on-site, mapping your property, and developing a comprehensive Woodland Stewardship Plan. Learn how to implement management strategies that align with your goals and protect natural resources for future generations.

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Starting Your Woodland Management Journey in Indiana: A Step-by-Step Guide

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  1. Indiana Tree Farm Getting Started with Woodland Management

  2. Start by asking yourself some questions What do we have? • Family farm, sole ownership, LFP, LLC, etc. • Smaller woodlot scale limitation • Larger tract with older timber Often invites interest from timber buyers • Significant terrain features that present limitations • Surrounded by development • Use restricted by local land regulations

  3. Where do our priorities lie? • Mostly for investment • Is timber production my main objective? How important is wildlife viewing, habitat improvement, hiking, mushroom hunting, game hunting, and other forms of outdoor recreation? • Will it be inherited? Condition upon its passage • Are we looking to buy forest land? • Non-resident owner Difficult to find time? • Do we want to manage our woodland to its full potential?

  4. Do we have the time and knowledge? - We have been doing our own research - Information is coming from many directions - It seems that time comes at a premium-now more than ever - We want to be good land stewards - Due to time and knowledge constraints, we feel it may be prudent to use a forester to assist us

  5. Are we prepared to follow a forester’s recommendations? • Recommendations will be grounded on your objectives and priorities • The forester will offer different alternatives and point you toward valuable resources • You can always meet with 2 or three foresters to find one who matches your expectations

  6. You decide to use a forester Where do we go from here Here are 5 steps to follow

  7. Step 1 Meet the forester on your property • Try to have stakeholders present • Share your objectives and thoughts while viewing your land • Bring your documents (have extra copies of important items to give the forester) • Take notes • Have a list of questions in advance • Normally this initial visit can be done in less than 2 or 3 hours.

  8. Step 2 Map and define your property • Have the forester prepare up-to-date topographic and aerial maps of your property • You can help in this process • Handheld GPS units • Mark your boundaries. Confer with your neighbor if necessary

  9. Step 3 Have the forester prepare a Woodland Stewardship Plan Preferably one that includes an inventory The plan will address numerous attributes of the property. This will include: Objectives, soils & topography, maps, forest cover types, stand data, recommendations, cutting history, matters related to water resources, wildlife and its habitat, sensitive areas & species of special concern, invasive plants, and archeological sites

  10. Step 3 Continued Have the Forester Develop a Plan • Your objectives are a crucial part of the Plan • The Stewardship Plan will identify the various management units • These management units will come with suggested recommendations for practices and a suggested timeline to implement them • Normally comprehensive of landscape • The plan must be flexible; it can be easily reworded

  11. Step 4 Implement the Stewardship Plan. • Certain tasks may need your attention first • Examples could include: invasive plant specie control, pre-harvest grape vine eradication, improving access, a harvest to salvage damaged timber, tree planting, and erosion control • Do what you can Don’t get overwhelmed Can take years • Note that Certified tracts in CF and TF must follow guidelines and performance measures Examples are: local regs, BMPs, and herbicide usage • Sound investment

  12. Step 5 Keep moving forward and adapt • Modify the Plan as events arise • Continue to seek knowledge • All along the way, involve the other family members or stakeholders. Be thinking about inter-generational transfer • Visit the property in different seasons • Consider joining an organization such as Tree Farm, Indiana Forestry & Woodland Owners Assoc. (IFWOA), or enrolling in Classified Forest & Wildlands

  13. The rest of the story…. Take satisfaction in knowing that the management and stewardship you are embarking upon will benefit all of society….. The 4 pillars of the Tree Farm system: WoodWaterRecreation and Wildlife

  14. Resources Field guide…….101 Trees of Indiana On the web….. • Inwoodlands.org (a great site for past articles and links to other forestry sites) • Purdue University Forestry and Natural Resources • IDNR Division of Forestry CallB4UCUT Demonstration Forests • NRCS (Indiana) • Woodweb • DNR sites for Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, and Michigan My email: forester@custom.net

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