Wild Logging: A Guide to Environmentally and Economically Sustainable Forestry

In the Intermountain West, private, nonindustrial forests--typically woodlots of 15 to 150 acres--comprise as much as one-third of the forestland. Yet the owners of these forests commonly do not have forest management plans or the assistance they need to create such plans. Wild Logging slices through the airy idealism of environmentalists and the steel-toe practicality of loggers to teach methods of sustainable forest stewardship tailored to the West. Wild Logging covers the rudiments of forest management: inventorying your forest and establishing management goals; developing appropriate timber-harvesting methods and hiring a logger to implement them; and managing your forest estate for the future. In engaging interviews, owners of western forestland share their practical experiences. Technical sections cover such basics as how to develop a management plan, protect your property from wildfire, and write a timber harvest contract.