Such industry assistance programs have ranged from a few 
services to almost total management of land and timber un- 
der more or less formal “‘Tree Farm Family’’ arrangements. 
Land enrolled in industrial management assistance programs 
in the South in 1984 totaled some 4.2 million acres. 
Consulting Foresters 
In addition to public and industry programs, technical for- 
estry assistance has also been offered by many private 
consultants. Consulting forestry services available to private 
landowners have increased greatly in the last 20 years, and 
it is estimated that there are over 1,900 consulting foresters 
in the United States. In Georgia alone, more than 100 
consultants are reported to be providing such technical 
assistance. 
Forestry consultants provide services for a fee, including 
assistance in timber estimating and marking, land survey- 
ing, timber and land sales negotiations, and many other for- 
estry practices considered inappropriate for public support. 
Although good estimates of the total area serviced by con- 
sulting foresters do not exist, it is substantial. For example, 
according to a recent study in Georgia in 1983, 3,900 
landowners received management plan assistance from con- 
sultants, for properties with a total area of 779,000 acres 
(Cubbage and Hodges 1986). Consultants also marked 
279,000 board feet of timber and 485,600 cords of pulp- 
wood and helped in the artificial or natural regeneration of 
61,400 acres of land in other private ownerships. 
Cubbage and Hodges also estimated the total levels of assis- 
tance in Georgia in 1983. The total level of accomplish- 
ments and average tract size varied significantly among 
industry, consulting, and State forestry programs. Consul- 
tants marked more timber than industry and State foresters 
and generally provided more services and more-detailed 
management plans. Industry programs assisted considerably 
fewer owners, but these ownerships were relatively large, 
averaging 636 acres. The average tract size serviced by State 
foresters was 131 acres; for consultants it was 376 acres. 
Georgia State foresters assisted the most landowners, but 
most of the assistance consisted of brief plans that did not 
require intensive site examinations. Georgia’s State service 
foresters marked less than | percent of the timber harvested 
in the State, compared with about 8 or 9 percent marked by 
consultants. 
Effectiveness of Assistance Programs 
These public and private programs of technical forestry 
assistance, along with other educational and cost-sharing 
programs, have undoubtedly stimulated efforts to increase 
timber resources, although data are not available to show the 
full extent of such effects. Some recent estimates, though 
of uncertain accuracy, show significant acreages of timber- 
land receiving intermediate stand treatments, such as release 
and weeding of stands, precommercial thinning, pruning, 
fertilizing, and prescribed burning for control of understory 
vegetation. In the 1970’s, areas so treated varied between 
roughly 400,000 and 700,000 acres per year (app. tables 
2.19-2.21). In the period 1982-84, such treatments had in- 
creased to more than a million acres per year. About two- 
thirds of this stand improvement work in recent years has 
been on forest industry and certain corporate ownerships, 
such as railroad and utility companies. A significant part of 
the total, however, was on lands of other private owners, 
who received technical and/or financial assistance from pub- 
lic programs. 
A number of investigations have been conducted to evalu- 
ate the efficiency and effectiveness of technical assistance 
and cost-sharing programs. In general, these studies have 
shown that the programs are efficient—the benefits exceed 
the costs—and that they are effective in improving forest 
management and/or increasing the income of timberland 
owners. A study in the Georgia Piedmont evaluated the 
effects of technical forestry assistance by comparing the 
experiences of assisted and nonassisted landowners who 
made timber harvests (Cubbage and others 1985). This study 
showed that harvests differed significantly between the 
assisted and nonassisted landowners. Timberland owners 
assisted by State foresters generally had less pine timber 
removed (1,135 vs. 1,485 cubic feet per acre), had more 
softwood volume left after harvest (810 vs. 226 cubic feet 
per acre), and had more pine seedlings (1,602 vs. 803 per 
acre) after natural-stand harvests. 
Harvest returns also. differed significantly. Owners assisted 
by State service foresters received an average price of $108 
per thousand board feet of timber; those making their own 
sales averaged only $66 per thousand board feet. A small 
amount of this difference could be explained by differing 
product distributions; but even in the most conservative case, 
assisted landowners received stumpage prices 58 percent 
greater than landowners making their sales without assis- 
tance. Greater returns from sales and greater residual vol- 
umes also led to a greater total net present value per acre 
on lands whose owners received assistance ($1,563), com- 
pared to the nonassisted group ($940), at a real discount rate 
of 4 percent. 
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