 Welcome back everybody. Now we've come to the final series, final video of our series where we're going to put everything together. You've learned a lot about what habitat feature birds queue into in the forest, why they're important, which birds use what part of the forest. And now we're going to talk to Amanda about how do you take that information and put it together into a management plan. So Amanda can you tell us a little bit about how that would happen? I'd be happy to do that Sally. So a really good place to start is with the Forestry for Main Birds guidebook. This nice thick book here is a guidebook for foresters managing woodlots with birds in mind. But if you're a really active landowner you also might want to get your hands on a copy of it because there's some really great information here about all the things that we've talked about today. The first thing I'd like to bring your attention to in terms of management plans is this handy trail map. I would do air quotes but I can't right now. Handy trail map which is on page 76 and 77 on managing forest with birds in mind. So how do you get from a handy habitat assessment to a forest management plan? I'll read you the basic steps and we'll talk through it a little bit. First we want to know for you as a landowner what are your goals and objectives. So that's where it starts. What do you care about on your land? Next we want to assess the current habitat conditions and again your handy habitat assessment is a good place to start. Next we want to think about what are the goals and objectives you have in light of what you actually have going on in the woods. And then we would talk about civil cultural systems that can help and you achieve your goals on your land. Civil culture is the art and science of forest management. There's a little bit of art and a little bit of science and when you put it together you can have forest bird habitat that is enhanced by timber harvesting and special treatments that happen on the ground. So civil cultural systems and that goes hand in hand with the forest management plans. So again we start with landowner goals and objectives and then we have to understand what's going on on the ground. What does it mean for forest bird habitat? Then we can make some goals and decisions and decide what civil cultural systems will help us achieve those goals. And that goes hand in hand with forest management planning. So to give you a little more detail on how we get from our handy habitat assessment to a forest management plan all these things that we were talking about earlier with overstory, mid-story, understory, live features, not live features those are similar to what a forester would be would be assessing in a timber inventory. And in fact all those handy assessments are paired with science. So in in the forestry for main birds foresters guidebook and also online at the main autobahn website you can find a copy of the data form that pairs this. So just as a quick example in terms of overstory instead of just thinking hmm is there a lot some or not much then we'd give you we'd give you a little bit more detail about what are the tree species that are there? Or is it more of a hardwood or softwood mix? Where's the canopy height? And then take notes about the canopy gaps and other features. There's some really good habitat assessment tools and a way to capture the data on this form. And once you run your handy habitat assessment or your detailed data assessment a number of times it goes really quickly. So it's something as a forester that you can add on to pretty easily to what you're already doing the the information you're already collecting in each stand. Thanks again to Amanda for setting the stage for what's involved in putting together a management plan and now we're going to hear from two experts on the topic who are familiar with working with landowners on developing those management plans. First we're going to hear from Andy Schultz with the main forest service who is a land landowner outreach forester and he also works closely with district foresters from the main forest service. So Andy can you please tell us what do you do and what do district foresters do and how do you help landowners develop management plans for their woods? Okay well Sally as you mentioned I'm my name's Andy Schultz I'm the land owner the landowner outreach forester for the main forest service and that's a statewide position. I mostly talk to folks on the phone or by email about their wood lots and try to get them on the path to help them take their next step which very often may be getting that forest management plan done. In that case we usually refer to a group of consulting foresters and more about that in a second but I do want to mention one more tool here and that's this book which is the forest trees of Maine essentially if you want to know your species your tree species and more about where to find them and of course that is key to determining habitat as well. That book is available from the main forest service or by calling your local district forester. So we have 10 district foresters here in the state of Maine covering the entire state. You can look up your district forester by going to MaineForestService.gov. There's a find your district forester page or you can email to forestinfo at Maine.gov and just let people know where you are or where your woodlot is and people like me will respond and tell you who your district forester district foresters can come out they can walk with you answer questions make broad suggestions and recommendations they will not perform the function of writing a forest management plan or overseeing a timber harvest again as I mentioned for that they're going to refer you to a private consulting forester. We do keep a list of those on our website we refer to them as stewardship foresters and they're there to provide those services to private landowners including getting your woodlot in shape for different wildlife habitat and different species. We now have a former district forester and currently a private consulting forester with us to talk a little bit about the role that private consulting foresters can play and how they can help you manage your woodlot for the values that you care about. Thank you. Thanks for Paul Aravie. Thank you Paul Aravie, consulting forester. My main job is to meet with landowners and really try to get to understand their objectives for their land. That often involves walks in the woods, long conversations usually with coffee or tea usually about what their main goals are for their land and that varies but the one uniform theme is recreation wildlife aesthetics and timber management and also the next generation what's going to happen to the land for the next generation. So after we discuss all of these topics and usually it's in great detail I've worked to develop a long-term plan for that land to meet all of those objectives and that includes doing inventories whether it be wildlife, you know understanding what types of wildlife are using the lot at that time, what type of recreation activities are happening on the lot, an inventory of the timber, an inventory of the shrubs, all of that inventory is conducted and then presented to the landowner with some options. Now ultimately the landowner guides those decisions based on their objectives. What a forester does is provide the information and provide guidance for that landowner and so usually that that all gets compiled into a forest management plan and that management plan is adaptive once it's written doesn't mean that it's written in stone the landowner can modify that management plan based on market conditions, weather conditions, insect conditions. I try to encourage my landowners to reference that management plan often and make notes take notes in the management plan and if things need to be modified in that management plan don't be afraid to reach out to your consultant forester. When I was a district forester I would meet with landowners and refer them to consulting foresters and I remember the last thing I'd always tell a landowner was make sure you like your forester. Makes sense right? Because it's supposed to be a long-term relationship. It's not when a landowner works with a forester that forester may work for multiple generations on that same land and really you need to have a good working relationship and you need to get along. So meet with multiple consultants and work with somebody that you like and that you want to work with well into the future. Thanks Paul. So if I'm a landowner sounds like the best thing to do is first contact the main forest service and talk to Andy and then he can refer me to a district my local district forester who can come out on my land walk it with me maybe do a quick habitat assessment talk about what my goals are for managing that land maybe I don't really know what my goals are so the forester can help me think through that and help prioritize whether it's wildlife or timber or aesthetics or recreation or all of the above and then after I meet with that district forester if I decide that I want to put together a management plan then I can go to the list of stewardship foresters bring a couple out have them come walk the land with me so I can decide which one I click with and then then what happens then if I want to move forward with creating that management plan how do I do that. Okay good questions and very often the next step involves signing up for a program of some sort at main forest service we have a an assistance program that we call the woodswise incentives program and that can provide some financial assistance for getting a certain kind of forest management plan more than a bare bones plan this would be a plan that comprehensively looks at wildlife habitat forest health timber value water quality and the water features on the land and a host of other things and as again I mentioned there'd be some reimbursement for that so it's what we used to call cost share program there is also another organization called the natural resources conservation service which is a federal branch of the USDA it's a federal agency they have offices around the state and they can provide an array of financial and technical assistance as well through a program called the environmental quality incentives program which can also help defray the cost of forest management plans and beyond that it can help with the cost of certain practices that have been recommended in the plan so when you talk about what happens next Sally typically the plan is not the end of the story by any means whether you get it through a program or simply you know pay your forestry to write one for you implementing the recommendations is really key and if your your desires have to do with wildlife habitat creating those gaps making sure that your large woody material remains that you don't get too involved in cleaning up the forest all of these things are part of what hopefully follows the plan and the recommendations and then furthermore you want to consider that this is not a one-time deal it's kind of like get a plan follow the plan review the plan amend the plan update the plan continue on and on and typically you would update that plan at least every 10 years or so 10 years is a good interval most of the programs that i mentioned woods wise and and the environmental environmental quality plans get written for 10 year periods that also coincides with a few other programs such as the tree growth tax law the point about plans is they really should be living documents and there could be many things that happen within that 10 years that really makes it makes sense to revisit you could have a weather event insect outbreak something in your own personal life or your family's life that causes you to need to change course so never really think of it as something that's just set in stone and done and then as paul mentioned don't be afraid to call back either your consoling forester or sometimes this is another good place to call the district forester just for a check-in so yeah it's a continuing process what we really at Maine Forest Service are one of our goals is to get woodland owners really engaged with their woods so this involves working professionals it involves the planning but as much as anything it just involves getting out there walking around enjoying it learning from it and hopefully passing it on to your family members in the future yes so there's a real legacy element here not only for your family but also for the forest as we know trees take a long time to grow right now we're in a much older forest than we were in earlier today and if you look around you can see there are many more big trees taller trees there's more vegetation at all layers of the forest there's some really nice down woody material here and and the hammock and hollow floor which is typical of a forest that hasn't been disturbed for a long time and those are all features that take a long time to develop so we're in this for the long haul and that's why paul said it's so important to find somebody you like to work with i hope you've enjoyed our little mini series of videos talking about our forestry for main birds program we've tried to give you a brief introduction to the program it's way more fun though if you can actually come out into the woods with us and so once we're able to offer workshops again we encourage you to join us in person and we also encourage you to go to the main autobahn website under forestry for main birds you can find all kinds of additional resources there and of course remember to check in with the main forest service for help in contacting a district forester or a consulting forester or the main tree found made tree farm to enter your wood lot into their certification program if you have any questions you can give me a call or email my name again is sally stockwell and that at main autobahn that email is s stockwell at mainautobahn.org and our website is just mainautobahn.org so please come join us thank you and remember messy is good bigger is better more is better and you have an important role to play in helping keep this baby bird factory going strong long into the future thanks for all you do