Service Foresters are here to help!
The DNRC has 16 Service Foresters located in various offices across Montana; they are available for free one-on-one consultations with private landowners. A Service Forester is often the first contact a private landowner has with the DNRC, and acts as a liaison to individual programs and specialists within the DNRC's Forestry Assistance Bureau.
Service Foresters can provide assistance and expertise on a variety of topics, including:
Compliance with Montana’s forest practice laws and rules:Meeting landowners’ objectives:
- Develop forest stewardship or management plans
- Identify appropriate cost-share grants and programs
- Provide recommendations on sources of cost-share assistance
- Identify forest insect and diseases and make management recommendations
Forest harvest and management:
- Timber sales: Planning and carrying through to completion
- Silvicultural systems: Select a system suitable for the site, forest type, and objectives
- Marketing: Identifying markets for timber and non-timber forest products
- Biomass utilization
- Reforestation: Site preparation, choosing appropriate species, ordering seedlings, and proper planting techniques
- Silvicultural treatments: Pruning and thinning (pre-commercial and commercial
- Classroom and field presentations to organizations, students, and the general public.
- Information and (or) specialist contacts for resource issues such as invasive weeds, range management, wildlife management, water, soils, etc.
Wildfire:
- Fire prevention and hazard reduction
- Creation of a defensible space around homes and outbuildings
Urban forestry:
- Urban forest assessments
- Education and outreach
- Arbor Day activities
- Program Development