Consulting Foresters 



663 



yet been able to provide a service to 

 the small landowners at a fee that the 

 owners are willing to pay. But because 

 three-fourths of all privately owned 

 commercial-quality forest land is in 

 holdings that average 62 acres, work 

 with the small-forest owners probably 

 offers the greatest future opportunities 

 for consulting foresters. 



Eventually, we hope, enough con- 

 sulting foresters will be available in all 

 regions to handle all private forestry 

 jobs for which consultants are likely to 

 be employed. It is the policy of public 

 agencies to encourage and assist in the 

 development of the consulting forestry 

 work. They recommend consulting for- 

 esters to prospective clients, distribute 

 lists of consultants, send them the 

 results of research, and on special prob- 

 lems act as "consultants to the con- 

 sultants." As it is, public agencies do 

 much to help the owners of small for- 

 ests by demonstrations of good forest 

 management, technical services in lo- 

 calities where there are no consultants, 

 assistance to operations in the mill and 

 the forest, and by showing that forestry 

 skills can improve woodlands. 



At a meeting of the Forest Farmers 

 Association in March 1948, in Jackson, 

 Miss., Consulting Forester John F. 

 Kellogg, who has successfully special- 

 ized in work for small-forest owners, 

 made the following remark: "In my 

 consulting work with the small land- 

 owners in northern Louisiana and 

 southern Arkansas I have done very 

 little in direct selling of forestry to 

 prospective customers. Most of the 

 landowners that have turned their tim- 

 ber over to me for management have 

 been sold on forestry by some of the 

 educational programs or agencies or 

 individual foresters prior to requesting 

 my services. I am providing them with 

 the means of putting into action the 

 forestry ideals and concepts on which 

 they have been sold." 



For anyone entering the profession 

 of consulting forester, adequate busi- 

 ness experience and good professional 

 training are recommended. A graduate 

 of a forestry school generally must 



work for someone else for a few years 

 before he hangs out his shingle as a 

 consulting forester. While getting ex- 

 perience, he probably will find that it 

 pays to specialize. 



The most promising field now for 

 specialization is in managerial service 

 to small landowners. A forestry con- 

 sultant should choose his territory care- 

 fully with respect to possible clients, 

 markets, and the timber-growing possi- 

 bilities. Many consultants are con- 

 tracting for the long-term manage- 

 ment of small forest properties for a 

 percentage of the forest yields an ar- 

 rangement that the absent owner usu- 

 ally prefers and the consultant likes 

 because it gives him a steady income. 



Another promising opportunity for 

 forestry consultants is with forest-prod- 

 ucts industries. Most of the 50,000 

 forest-products industries through the 

 United States are small. All need tech- 

 nical assistance to increase their effi- 

 ciency and profits. Some foresters run 

 a portable sawmill or a small pulpwood 

 operation and are consultants for other 

 small firms and landowners. Cost ac- 

 counting and aerial photography are 

 growing fields for consulting foresters. 



As the value of professional advice 

 proves itself financially and demon- 

 strates that the best way to manage 

 timber is to do it the "forestry" way, 

 demands for consultants will expand 

 further. With added demands will 

 come new specialization and standards. 



NORMAN MUNSTER, who was born 

 and bred on a farm in Wisconsin, was 

 educated at the University of Michi- 

 gan and Harvard University. He was 

 manager of forest properties of the 

 University of Michigan and an em- 

 ployee of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture before he joined the Bureau of the 

 Budget in 1943. 



ARTHUR SPILLERS, a graduate of the 

 New York State College of Forestry, 

 has worked with the Forest Service 

 since 1929, except for short periods 

 with the Tennessee Valley Authority, 

 the Southern Pine Association, and as 

 a lieutenant colonel in the Army. 



