Guides
The questions I get asked first
Three questions come up on nearly every first call. How do you tell a good forester from a bad one? What does this work cost? Is there money in carbon? Here are the answers.
How to Hire a Consulting Forester in Montana
Who does what, who's free, who works for whom, and the questions worth asking before you sign anything.
Montana doesn't license or register foresters, so anyone can use the title and there's no board to check. That makes hiring harder here than in states with a licensing regime, and it makes a handful of specific questions worth asking before you engage anybody, including me.
Read it →What Forest Work Costs in Montana, and What Moves the Number
Nobody publishes this. Here's what moves the number, and the state and federal money that'll cover a good chunk of the work.
Nobody publishes forestry prices in Montana, and there's a reason beyond secrecy. The same nominal job varies several-fold depending on terrain, access, stand condition and what the deliverable has to satisfy. More useful than a number is knowing which factors move it, because several are within your control and some public programs will pay for a good share of the work.
Read it →Carbon Credits for Montana Forest Land
Usually the answer is no. Worth knowing why before you sign anything that runs twenty years.
For most Montana landowners the honest answer is no. Not because carbon markets are a scam, but because the programs that make forest carbon work for small ownerships don't currently operate in this state, and the ones that do have acreage thresholds well above what most people here own. Worth understanding why before you sign something that runs twenty years.
Read it →Why give this away
Because most of it isn’t worth charging for. And a landowner who understands what they’re buying is easier to work with.
Montana already gives you a free state service forester who’ll come out and walk the property. Use them. These guides pick up where that visit stops. How the money works, what to ask somebody before you hire them, and which popular ideas turn out not to pencil in this state.
Question the guides don't answer?
Every property is its own situation, and a general answer only gets you so far. Tell me what you own and what's worrying you, and you'll get an answer about your ground, not about ground in general.