ForesTech’s technical team brings a wealth of knowledge to the forest industry and has built a reputation as the most knowledgeable and leading innovators in the business.  Our team is made up of a diverse group of professionals to provide expertise in all aspects of forestry, including inventory design and data collection, growth and yield projections, geospatial database design and analysis and complex harvest scheduling problems. 

Our experts have been sought out by many large investment organizations and private landowners to provide unbiased evaluations and assessments of their current management practices and internal procedures.  Our panel of experts provides professional opinions that are backed by both theory and empirical data analysis.

Inventory and Forestland Management Systems/Database Review

ForesTech provides systems review services including, but not limited to, how data is collected, input and processed into organizational databases, and how this information is implemented in growth and yield models for inventory updates, growth projections, and harvest scheduling solutions.  Our review and reports improve methodologies, effectiveness and accuracy, and result in better management solutions.  

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Inventory Procedures, Design and Audits

ForesTech’s inventory team consists of some of the most innovative and knowledgeable experts in the forest management industry.  ForesTech founding partners Barry Shiver and Bruce Borders co-authored the textbook Sampling Techniques for Forest Resource Inventory, used extensively in colleges and universities, and are widely considered two of the leading and innovative inventory experts. 

Our inventory innovation applies the appropriate methodology, design and technologies in the most cost-effective manner to fully address the critical information needs of our clients.  We strive to provide our clients cost-saving solutions by utilizing our sampling design and strategies to derive the most information out of each inventory dollar while ensuring the client’s expectations are fully met.

Aside from design issues, our professional field staff ensures that inventory data is collected in a consistent and accurate manner by measuring diameters and heights, rather than estimating from plot center.  ForesTech’s regular, timely audits of plot data collected by our technicians assures data integrity and quality processes.  We provide audit results and summarized inventory audit reports in order that investors have certainty that the reported volume and product mixes are accurate as well as serve as an overall rating of the inventory information.

ForesTech has conducted numerous field audits of stand-level inventories and has compared inventories for entire properties (typically ranging from 10,000 to 25,000 acres).  Our assessments compare the data in the organization’s database on stand with the data resulting from the audit, allowing inventory deficiencies to be identified and a means of correcting inaccuracies to ensure that accurate data is used in inventory updating methodology and annual updates.

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GIS Process Design

The advancement of Geographic Information System (GIS) technology continues to improve the ability to intensively manage assets and to improve management decisions and capabilities.  Quality information is the foundation for future planning strategies in the management of any asset, particularly in the timberland inventory and forest planning arenas.  ForesTech’s geospatial team employs the latest advancements in GIS technology and software to assist our clients in creating and maintaining accurate spatial data with their spatial information.  Our accurate spatial analysis and timely delivery provides our clients with streamlined workflows and the automation of routine activities. 

We offer a variety of GIS services, including stand mapping, map creation, inventory design and implementation, database design and implementation.  We also offer advanced spatial analysis including image analysis, LiDAR and digital elevation modeling (DEM) processes.

ForesTech’s spatial databases fully integrate with our proprietary growth modeling and harvest scheduling systems allowing our clients to maximize the information at hand and quickly make informed decisions to increase the value of their property and achieve goals through an optimized plan.

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Acquisition & Divestiture Analysis

ForesTech has extensive experience in conducting third party acquisition and divestiture analyses for investment organizations buying and selling large timberland properties.   Our skilled, ready field staff who conduct our on the ground work, and our team of highly skilled forest analysts who perform data and mapping services, allow us to evaluate projects in a short time period, even those with very large acreage.  Clients also receive the additional benefit of ForesTech’s advanced proprietary growth and yield and discounted cash flow analyses for their acquisition and divestiture analyses.

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Custom Forestry Solutions

For over a decade, the knowledge of ForesTech’s professional staff has been sought to provide solutions on issues for which no known solution existed.   Our expertise in topics ranging from silviculture and regeneration to modeling the taper of trees, has allowed us to assist most large timberland owners in the South by  developing custom forestry solutions for issues they face including:

• Development of equations to predict tons of fuelwood for truckloads of pulpwood and chip-n-saw loaded with topped trees as well as trees with branches and tops attached.
• Development of complete yield systems (height prediction and projection, basal area per acre prediction and projection, mortality, and diameter distribution systems) for clonal seedlings.
• Development of custom taper functions for timber species on an organization’s land base to provide more accurate merchandising into products and allowing for changing product specifications.
• Development of customized growth and yield models for international organizations that account for responses to fertilization, thinning, pruning, and weed control.
• Development of field methodology and estimators to inventory row segments rather than traditional prism points or fixed radius plots.
• Development of methodologies for evaluating how alternative management strategies impact habitat guidelines for red cockaded woodpeckers over time.

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