Gibbons Forestry Services, Inc.
Serving all of Southern Illinois & Western Kentucky
(618) 201-6905
Forest Managmenet Plans
Timber Stand Improvement
Timber Sales & Appraisals
Timber Sale Preparation
Tree Plantation Thinning
Forest Management Plans in Southern Illinois
Forest Management Plans
A forest management plan (FMP) is basically a plan for the future of your forest. A properly managed forest not only provides the best timber sale returns, but also adds to the aesthetics, recreation, and wildlife sustained on your property. Having a management plan for your forest demonstrates your caring and concern for your valuable renewable resource. It may also qualify you for certain tax and cost sharing incentives for your property. We will determine your personal goals and objectives you would like to achieve while giving you some professional recommendations based on your particular forest. Below are some of the things that can go into a forest management plan:
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Property objectives (wildlife, timber, recreation, income, etc.)
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Forest inventory
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Timber appraisal
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Stand delineation by species composition and size classes
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Property description map
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Management map
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Projects schedule
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Short and long term cutting goals
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Timber Volume
Timber Sales
Gibbons Forestry, Inc. offers a variety of timber sale services. We will discuss the landowner’s objectives in order to meet the landowner’s timber sale goals. Trees are painted with an orange dot at chest height on two sides of the tree and another paint mark will be placed on the stump near ground level. Estimated board feet is calculated for each species including any prime or veneer log values. The prospectus is then mailed to at least 50 different sawmills and timber buyers in the form of an "Invitation to Bid on Standing Timber". This bid form is made up of listing trees marked for sale and their board feet (volume), rules and regulations for the job, and also a map of the timber sale area. Bid opening is conducted and then a timber sale contract between the landowner and the buyer is provided detailing all of the requirements of the sale.
The payment is made to the landowner prior to any trees being harvested. We then oversee the logging on the property to ensure the rules of the timber sale contract are followed, only marked trees are cut, and cleanup is completed properly. A performance bond is held to ensure compliance of the contract. If you have any questions about the timber sale services we offer, contact Gibbons Forestry today!
Timber Sale Services in Southern Illinois
Timber Stand improvents in Southern Illinois
Timber Stand Improvement
Essentially, the purpose of a timber stand improvement, or TSI, is to make available the proper growing space for the best trees in the forest by favoring them and limiting competition. Poor formed trees (shown to the left) have no value and should not be allowed to compete for sunlight and nutrients with desired oaks or other crop trees in your woodland. TSI will put faster growth on your crop trees by eliminating the unwanted competition from poor formed or less desirable tree species. Thus, putting faster growth on your crop trees and getting you to a timber harvest much faster than without TSI in your woods.
Timber Stand Improvement (TSI) consists of practices designed to produce more and better quality wood products by improving the quality and species of the stand and by increasing the rate of growth of the residual or crop trees in the stand. This is usually done through a process of cutting or deadening undesirable vegetation which is competing for sunlight or other elements necessary for growth with the desired or crop trees in the stand, or which has a degrading effect on the stand. Timber stand improvement is most often a non-commercial activity in which there is no harvest of salable timber.
Timber Appraisals
Timber Appraisals in Southern Illinois
A timberland appraisal is an accurate valuation of a property’s saleable and pre-sales timber. The most common reason you’ll need an appraisal is to obtain the value of timberland that you’re either planning to purchase or sell. In some cases, though, you may need an appraisal done for insurance, tax, financing, or litigation purposes.
An appraiser needs to know precisely what he or she is looking at to come up with an accurate value of your timberland. The appraiser will need to identify exactly where the property begins and ends, what’s on the property, and the effective date of the appraisal. Once they’ve identified the characteristics of the property—including the quantity, type, and age of timber—as well as access, acreage, and prior uses of the land, they’ll move on to the valuation of the property. Once the appraiser has evaluated all the factors mentioned above, they will prepare a final appraisal.
There’s no substitute for knowing the true value of a piece of timberland. Whether you’re buying or selling, having a figure in mind will make you a far more effective negotiator.
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Tree Plantation Thinning in Southern Illinois
Tree Plantation Thinnings
Thinning is the term foresters apply to removal of some trees from a stand to give others more room (and resources) to grow. It is a tool for improving timber value, making sites more productive, and – perhaps most commonly — for keeping trees healthy. A plantation of oak trees that was hand planted will likely be overtopped by voulnteer tree species that have naturally sprouted in the plantation. Oak trees are some of the slowest growing trees, and as a result, the much faster growing volunteer trees will overtop, shade them out, outcompete for nutrients and sunlight, and eventually kill them. Occasionally a tree plantation needs to be thinned to eliminate the surrounding competition and give the future crop trees more room to grow .
Invasive Species Control
A Non-Native Invasive Species (NNIS) is a species that is able to move aggressively into a habitat monopolizing resources such as light, nutrients, water and space to the detriment of other species. They crowd out and can kill important tree species that provide shade, food, and habitat for native wildlife. Invasive species can impede the regeneration of oak seedlings and saplings by shading out the much needed sunlight they need to grow into the forest canopy. In the Southern Illinois Region the most problamatic invasive species would include autumn olive, bush honeysuckle, Japanese chaff flower, and Japanese stilt grass. As a landowner you should be concerned if you find these taking over your property.
