The Role of the Private or Consulting Forester 
in the South's Fourth Forest 
William F. Milliken (1) 
It is my job to make this audience aware of the 
role the private or consulting forester has played, is 
playing, and will play in the potential increase in 
forest productivity for our Southern States. 
A quick overview of this field is appropriate at 
this point. The Association of Consulting Foresters 
(ACF) has well over 400 members or candidate 
members in the United States, about 210 of whom 
practice in the region covered by this study. Geor- 
gia, with 48 members, has the most consulting 
foresters; several States have only 7 to 20 members. 
These are professionally dedicated private practi- 
tioners who believe that the diversified services they 
render are well worth their cost. They are continu- 
ously upgrading their education to meet the ever- 
growing demand for their services. 
ACF members employ about an equal number 
of foresters as those who are ACF members, virtual- 
ly doubling the 210 ACF members in the South who 
are actively engaged in productive forest manage- 
ment activities at no public cost. 
We further estimate that ACF members in the 
South represent about two-thirds of the practicing 
private or consulting foresters who are available to 
the public in the Southern States for intensive or 
extensive forestry needs. 
Thus, it would be a reasonable estimate that 
there are perhaps 450 to 500 foresters presently in 
the private or consulting field available to assist pri- 
vate landowners in these Southern States on a fee 
or other businesslike basis. 
The growth of consulting forestry has occurred 
mainly during the past 15 years with the past 10 
years being the most significant. Like any profes- 
sion, some consultants are not as qualified as oth- 
ers. The ACF has set rigid standards, which are 
gradually upgrading the quality of performance. 
(1) William F. Milliken is a consulting forester, Milliken 
Forestry Company, Inc., Columbia, SC. 
With every passing year each of these private 
practitioners has been able to bring a few hundred 
to several thousand acres under intensive manage- 
ment. This happens because it is good business for 
both the client or landowner and the consulting 
forester. 
We are passing through a period of readjust- 
ment in the forest ownership, forest investment, and 
forest management fields. Basically, only those who 
can afford to practice forest management, for what- 
ever reason they own their timberland, will do it. 
Those who cannot have not done so in the past and 
will not in the future. Commercial forestry has be- 
come more businesslike due to changes in owner- 
ship patterns. Forest farming must be run like a 
business. Good consulting foresters are first and 
foremost business people. 
Advice and education will not be enough to 
maintain and even build up the forest resource in 
private and nonindustrial ownership. 
There is a place for public agencies to educate, 
screen needs, and provide information and guid- 
ance. There is a place, yes, even a need, for forest 
industry to do all it can to assist in maintaining or 
building up supplies safeguarding its own future. 
The private or consulting forester is now and will 
remain the catalyst who will get the job done in the 
field. They are now in place, growing in quality, ex- 
perience and quantity. Acceptance of and coopera- 
tion with consulting foresters by public agencies 
and forest industry throughout the South will be a 
major step toward achieving the goals of this confer- 
ence and the resulting report. 
Consulting foresters will do the job well because 
their livelihood and their dreams depend on getting 
the job done in a competent and financially respon- 
sible manner. You may count heavily on their influ- 
ence in the future forest resources of the Southern 
United States. 
73 
