DNRC Service Foresters

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:

• Best Management Practices (BMPs)
• Streamside Management Zones (SMZs)
• Slash treatment and fire-hazard reduction
• Hazard Reduction Agreements (HRAs)
• SMZ Alternative Practice Application

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

Forestry education and outreach:

• 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