All the timber industry PR today is totally worthless concerning private forests if these issues are dealt with first.  Here are some changes that need to be made:
  1.  Pay the forest owner prices that will make a profit for their years of owning land, paying taxes, building roads, managing timber....
  2.  Make all offers for timber based on full market value - not maximizing the personal profit of the timber buyer.  Give the forest owner the benefit of any doubt.
  3.  Pay full fair prices for logs delivered to the mill that compensate logging costs and trucking costs above the stumpage price paid to the forest owners.
  4.  Save your money from big PR campaigns and put those dollars into stumpage where it will do some good to encourage forest owners to grow timber for your future.
  5.  Cooperate with sustainable forestry efforts with low damage, high utilization logging that treats the future forest, the land, and the forest owner with respect.
  6.  Realize that timber buyers and loggers are the direct contacts with forest owners and they should represent the industry in a professional manner every time.

The two problems I face every day on private forests is that 99% of the forests have been high graded several times - leaving just the poor quality trees to grow for the future, and the forest owner's knowledge that timber buyers will probably not pay a fair price if and when timber is sold and loggers will probably leave a big mess in their woods and fields.

High graded forests are not a lot of fun to try and renovate, and there is not much profit for doing this important work.  Landowners who are turned off to logging are hard to convince that forest management can be a profitable business. 

The entire forest products industry needs to face these issues now.  This is the bottom line in forest management. 

We must STOP HIGH GRADING and PAY FOREST OWNERS A FAIR PRICE!

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