management for landowners. Landowners may also 
contract directly with private vendors. 
Charges for consultant services vary with the 
type and size of the project, the location of the tract, 
and the time required to complete the task. Most 
consultants charge on a daily or per acre basis for 
services not involving monetary transactions or val- 
uations, such as preparation of management plans. 
Projects involving sales are generally provided for a 
percentage basis. 
Regional and national surveys have found a 
steadily increasing number of private forestry con- 
sultants through the 1970's and 1980's (Field and 
Holt 1984 unpubl.; Harou and others 1981; Hodges 
and Cubbage 1986; Kronrad and Albers 1984a, 
1984b; Martin 1977; Myers and Goforth 1980; Plea- 
sonton 1968, 1969). Good estimates of the total 
area in the United States receiving consulting 
forestry assistance do not exist. Expanded totals 
from the survey by Field and Holt (1984 unpubl.) 
indicate that consultants helped manage at least 
3.7 million acres of land in the South, as well as 
helping in marking over 1/2 million acres for timber 
sales. Hodges and Cubbage (1986a, 1986b) found 
that, for Georgia in 1983, 3,900 landowners re- 
ceived management-plan assistance from consult- 
ants for forest land covering a total of 779,400 acres. 
In 1983, consultants in the State also marked 
279,400 board feet of timber and 485,600 cords of 
pulpwood and helped in the artificial or natural re- 
generation of 61,400 acres of nonindustrial private 
forest land. This would indicate that the Field and 
Holt figures probably underestimate total assis- 
tance levels. 
No direct evaluations of consulting services 
have been completed to date. However, Cubbage 
and Hodges (1985) reported that harvests made 
with the assistance of consultants in Georgia ap- 
peared similar to those made by State service 
foresters. Prices based on Timber Mart-South data 
were also very similar. Thus one might expect simi- 
larly good returns for landowners receiving consult- 
ing assistance. Some public programs have also 
helped establish consulting foresters in targeted ar- 
eas of the South, which have generally proved suc- 
cessful. 
Program Overlap--if private forestry assistance is 
now available at reasonable costs, is public techni- 
cal assistance necessary? Cubbage and Hodges 
(1985, 1986) estimated the total levels of assistance 
in Georgia in 1983 in order to examine this issue. 
They found that the total level of accomplishments 
and average tract size varied significantly among 
the management assistance, consulting, and State 
forestry programs. Consultants marked more timber 
than industry and State programs and generally 
provided more services and detailed management 
plans compared to State foresters. Industry pro- 
grams assisted considerably fewer owners but had 
very large average tract sizes associated with each 
ownership managed (636 acres). Average tract size 
managed by State foresters was 131 acres; for con- 
sultants it was 376 acres. Georgia State foresters 
assisted the most landowners, but the brunt of the 
assists consisted of brief plans that did not require 
intensive site examinations. Service foresters 
helped in marking less than 1 percent of the timber 
harvested in the State, compared with about 8 or 9 
percent marked by consultants. 
Overall, it seems that each type of technical 
assistance fulfilled separate needs. Industry pro- 
grams concentrated on owners of large forests, 
consultants focused on medium-size ownerships, 
and State foresters on the smaller ownerships. 
Georgia, which is probably similar to other States, 
has a yearly limit of 5 person-days of assistance per 
owner per year. Most requests from owners of large 
tracts were probably referred to private programs. 
However, States do seem to be fulfilling a necessary 
goal of providing assistance to smaller owners who 
might not be able to afford consultants or qualify for 
industrial programs. 
State and Private Forestry 
The State and Private Forestry branch of the 
Forest Service serves as the national coordinator for 
technology transfer and information management 
at the Federal level. It helps administer Federal 
funds given to the States for cooperative forestry 
programs. Additionally, it provides technical expert- 
ise to the States in fire, pest-management, and 
forest-management programs. In particular, State 
and Private personnel assist in and coordinate State 
forest resource planning and provide much-needed 
advice in managing forest land for nontimber uses. 
Programs administered by State and Private 
Forestry include the broad categories of forest pest 
management, cooperative fire protection, and co- 
operative forestry. Pest management technical as- 
sistance ranges from pest data collection and im- 
pact assessments to aerial spray technology and 
management of pests in nurseries and seed or- 
chards. Cooperative fire assistance includes man- 
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