Planning
Anna B Stockstad: All right. Hi! Everyone. I'm Anna Stockstad with University of Minnesota Extension.
Dave Nolle - MN Logger Ed Program: and i'm diagnosed with a Minnesota longer education program.
Anna B Stockstad: We're back today with another podcast episode, and today we'll be talking about harvest planning, joining us today a Soyer share who is a forest ecologist with upm Bland and Grand rapids. Minnesota.
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): Thank you so much for joining us today, Sawyer.
Anna B Stockstad: So can you tell us a little bit more about how you approach the harvest planning process, and how that might be different for someone working in industry compared to, for example, a State agency or for a county.
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): Yeah, the you know, the
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): meat and bones of the harvest planning process is really going to be similar for for most folks, whether you're industry or State Agency County private consultant.
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): But of course there's going to be differences in sort of the specifics of policies and procedures, and you know the exact details. But the big picture is, you know it's an opportunity to gather as much information as you
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): have available about a particular site or project that you're working on. to really understand all the different complexities of the site potential problems that might arise, maybe even opportunities that there might be to take advantage of.
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): And so it's really this opportunity to compile information that you might have maybe things in the office maps, digital resources.
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): topographic map, soils, maps it. Various inventories
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): come up with a good plan to mitigate any issues that might arise in a timber harvest operation. You know, we want to avoid impacts to water and soils. We want to have good
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): aesthetics hopefully following the harvest, and we also need to make it work with our silver cultural prescription. So, taking some time to take a step back and think about those things at the onset, and really have a thoughtful, well laid out Plan is kind of essential.
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): And
so for for us, you know, at Bland, and I think this is pretty typical, for most
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): large agencies or organizations is, this is going to be kind of a multi step process, and it might involve starting with
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): those kind of in the office planning actions, looking at maps, looking at inventory. and then the next step hopefully is to get out in the woods, and actually kind of verify those things on the ground and really start to develop
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): detailed needs and identify whether there's resources on site that maybe you didn't see on the aerial photography, or or what have you?
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): And and this kind of field portion might very well happen in conjunction with other parts of the timber harvest planning and set up. You know the the Forrester might be
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): doing this sort of reconnaissance while they're marking the property lines, or while they're cruising the stand to to appraise it for timber value. and that's that's pretty common.
but often that's going to come back to the office again, and there'll be some sort of
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): development of this overall plan where you're compiling that
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): on the ground information that you've gathered with the maps and inventories from the office inventory, and then looking at maybe your goals for the site silver Culturally.
maybe you have certain policies or procedures
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): that your agency, your organization, you know, needs to fulfill for other reasons. And then, of course, we have the force management guidelines. And so we have to integrate all those into
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): into the plan, and you know, depending on the scale of the operation. At this stage there might be several rounds of sort of checks and balances. you know. For example, at the Dnr. You know you might have
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): other divisions potentially reviewing these plans to make sure they meet organizational requirements, or, you know, in in the case of planned, and you know i'm trying to
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): to look at aspects of the guidelines and wildlife and and those things
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): A. As a as a Forster presents a a potential harvest to me. So, oftentimes a a larger organization is going to have some sort of multi person planning process to have multiple eyes kind of looking at these things before they're approved, and and on their way.
Dave Nolle - MN Logger Ed Program: So
Dave Nolle - MN Logger Ed Program: wow! There's a there's a lot that goes into it from a from a forestry standpoint, and I suspect you know, in my work with the with the logging community. They're on the ground with you to it at some point long before there's ever any equipment, at least for a walkthrough of the site in getting them up to speed on what? The what the plan is for that particular harvest. What about what about John Cue public? You know They they
Dave Nolle - MN Logger Ed Program: they maybe only see that. Oh, hey, there's some equipment. Oh, hey, there's something going on over there. I wonder what that's all about?
Dave Nolle - MN Logger Ed Program: How do they? How do they know that there's a plan how they they know that there's there's actually a a method to this man is.
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): Yeah, yeah, and it can be a little bit difficult. And in fact, I think you know
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): members of the public, or or even other natural research professionals that are maybe not working in forestry. Don't. Fully
Don't have a full understanding of how much planning really goes into these timber harvest, you know.
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): and this is this is beyond the extensive planning that might have happened before we even decided to harvest that stand. And then, once we get to that level. We're in this kind of service site, level
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): planning process. And you know, I think I think there is a a lack of understanding there. And and you know that
probably is something that we could all be communicating a little bit better as we're interacting with the public to explain that we do have these plans and procedures in place and and guidelines to help ensure that this is done in a thoughtful process. So I think communication is.
is really key for for demonstrating that. And then and also, you know.
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): the loggers foresters, everybody taking it seriously to really do their best job to implement these plans as they're laid out.
Anna B Stockstad: Yeah, I really like your point about how communication is so important, not only with the public, but also with the loggers and foresters that are involved with the project.
Anna B Stockstad: So what's your personal? Take like? How do you go about communication, for example, with the loggers? Are you involving them in the entire process from when you first on the ground doing those surveys, or when do you first bring them in to the planning process?
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): Yeah, this is, you know, like pretty much every field in these days. It is just like a key aspect of getting things done properly and and having folks feel comfortable with the process. And so.
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): whether it's, you know, foresters communicating with the public or with their peers, or with, you know. Maybe you know, like within the Dnr. Communicating with the other divisions, you know.
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): being able to clearly communicate these things is critical, and it definitely is the case with with loggers in in our case, and I think in most
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): agencies or organization's case, the the loggers start to get really communicated with. Once we've decided to implement that action the the Forster
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): has chosen a logger to operate with. Or maybe
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): you know that logger has bought that timber sale, and then you can start to really communicate those things, and and a big part of it is clear communication in the plan itself.
but also just having clear lines of personal communication
Sawyer Scherer (he/him): on site, you know. Folks have to cell phones now, and there's no reason we can't be texting and calling and interacting throughout the duration of a planning and implementation phase.
Dave Nolle - MN Logger Ed Program: Thanks. So here this gives all of our listeners a really good foundation, as we head into our next podcast episode, and the future fmg trainings appreciate the time today.
Anna B Stockstad: Yeah, thanks so much for joining us and for our listeners. Keep listening to the next podcast episode, or through which we focused on roads, landings, and skid trails, and, as always, stay tuned about future trainings. Thanks so much for listening.
