Mark Havel

Equipment for family forest owners-this broad topic includes just about everything from your favorite hat and boots to your choice of chainsaws, to the most modern cut-to-length harvesting machines.

In one sense, much of the equipment may fall into categories pertaining to site prep, planting, stand improvement, harvesting and perhaps on-site sawing or processing. However, it is also equally valid to look at the equipment landowners may use based on a landowner's management objectives. Parcel size, project size, markets, the abilities and training of the owners/family members, and whether the landowner will be conducting the work, part of the work or hiring a contractor are all elements to consider.

A landowner that owns 300 acres of timberland and has managed it all of their life will certainly have different needs and perceptions than the new forest landowner or small acreage landowner. The global economy doesn't come into play when you're standing on that steep, north-facing slope with a dozen two-foot dbh trees in a clump that are just begging to become the guest house you've planned to build. Meanwhile, that half-acre blackberry patch occupying the flats down by the creek is another project or problem all its own. These special situations, along with the questions of time and money, and who is actually going to do the work, all paint the borders and sky around this big picture. Equipment and operator decisions can be the deciding factors in whether the skies are blue or full of threatening storm clouds.

As varied as the blackberry patch and prime timber stand are, so are the decisions that face every forest landowner or manager. Put on the hat and boots, and step out into your forest and think about your individual situation, your upcoming forest operations and your applicable equipment options.

For example, an established forest landowner with a bulldozer and a brush blade will have no questions as how to address the blackberry patch, while a new or small acreage landowner may not see the value in a $50,000 piece of equipment when a $400 dollar brush cutter can be purchased or rented for the weekend for $50.

Economics also need to be considered. Will the operation you are planning put you in the black or in the red? Is this an operation that has to pay for itself because it is needed, but the funds aren't there to bankroll it? Is this harvest time on an acreage that has been accumulating value for a long time, with the outcome spelling out the results of your retirement savings plan? Or is this an early-stages operation that will be the first installment of many? These economic questions can lead one to make equipment decisions from a productivity standpoint, but can also lead to totally different equipment choices from a standpoint of lowest negative impact.

Personal views regarding management styles will lead some to mechanical brush control, while others will invest in chemical application. The same differences in opinion may have identical tracts managed on a Douglas-fir rotation plan versus a multi-age, multi-species option. These differences of personal views will dictate great differences in the types, sizes and operations of equipment. In some cases, management styles will lead one landowner to invest in a certain type of equipment, such as a pruning saw, while another will not see the value of this type of equipment at all.

Regulations, neighbors, forest practices officers and scenic highway or waterway frontages will all have an impact on the operations a forest landowner may engage in, and thereby what equipment may be used. The management experience of the landowner and the operational experience of the person or crew performing these tasks will also certainly play a big role.

Many of you reading this article already have your management styles firmly in place. Others that are new to forest ownership, coming upon a new phase in their forestland, or simply interested in new styles of management may need to study up on additional equipment options. So while you are cruising the forestry equipment catalogs and industry magazines, let your management objectives, your finances and your crew be your guide.

Mark Havel is a family forest owner in Polk and Tillamook counties of Oregon; current president of the Marion-Polk Chapter of the Oregon Small Woodlands Association; and founder of Future Forestry Products Inc., Willamina, Ore.

This article appeared in the Northwest Woodlands Magazine, Fall 2000- Published quarterly by the World Forestry Center as a benefit of membership in the Oregon Small Woodlands Association, Washington Farm Forestry Association, Idaho Forest Owners Association and Montana Forest Owners Association.