Forest Conservation

Natural bay lakes are rare. This one, located on a client's land in Bladen County, was protected. Today it belongs to the state of NC and will be conserved for future generations.

Forest conservation is proactive. Unlike forest preservation, or simply letting Mother Nature have her way, it means actively working toward protecting our forest resources and ecosystem diversity. Under constant pressure from development and fragmentation, our forestland base is shrinking. From this shrinking base, we must still meet an increasing population’s demands for forest products, while conserving biodiversity and protecting our air and water. We have the tools and technology to do this. We simply need the service providers and landowners with the vision to accomplish the task.

What can you do personally? Your options depend on the size and location of your land ownership, but wherever you are, you can commit to practicing good forest stewardship and perhaps even establishing and maintaining an area of priority ecosystem. If you own land in the Sandhills, you could plant and manage longleaf pine and wiregrass, while enjoying the profits from pine straw raking or pole production. If you own land in the Piedmont areas, you could consider establishing and managing shortleaf pine on a portion of your land, to produce quality lumber and preserve this species. If you own land in the Flatwoods of the Coastal Plain, you could even consider growing Atlantic white cedar in the swamps or bays of the coastal plain to build the population of an interesting and unique native tree species.

And what if you are producing plantation grown loblolly pine solely for profit from timber production? This is positive, as you are simultaneously cleansing our air, by removing and storing carbon at an increased rate, while producing forest products for the human population. But you can also help improve wildlife diversity and habitat quality by carefully making density and harvest scheduling decisions. Staggering the ages and dispersing the areas of your harvest to create edge effect and encourage the use of the habitat by a greater number of species is positive. Lowering your planting and thinning densities and re-introducing prescribed burning to improve the habitat for quail, deer, and turkey is also positive.

By the 1980's, the longleaf pine ecosystem, which once made up a large portion of the forested area in the Southeastern United States, had declined to just a small percentage of its natural size. With effective regeneration systems, the re-introduction of prescribed fire, and quality management, the species and ecosystem continue to make a strong comeback. In 1995, DDFSI prepared and managed the thinning of this Longleaf area in Southern Moore County, NC. This property is now protected under a conservation easement. Each year we handle the establishment of several new longleaf pine plantations and assist with the ongoing management of this ecosystem.

And in your hardwood areas? Quit high-grading. Like pine timber, hardwood or mixed pine hardwood areas can be managed to produce quality lumber. For centuries, landowners have selectively removed the largest, best quality hardwood trees from the woods and left the remaining, often inferior trees to continue growing.

Now, many of these areas benefit from a clear-cut harvest, simply to give the forest an opportunity to naturally establish a new stand of varying species composition with the potential to produce good quality timber. Once established, these areas can be pre-commercially thinned, commercially thinned, and managed on an un-even or even aged rotation to produce “grade” hardwood timber for use by our population. These hardwood areas are also important to many game and non-game wildlife species and play a very important role in filtering our water.

At Dougherty & Dougherty, we understand the relationships and the silviculture involved in managing these different ecosystems. Regardless of your land type, we can help you balance utilization and conservation, and manage your timber to meet your personal land ownership goals.