Why is it proving to be so difficult to create a plan and potentially harvest my land?
I have been trying (unsuccessfully) for nearly 3 years to work with Foresters to create a plan for my land and to potentially harvest it.
In September of 2013 I contacted the CT DEEP and scheduled time to spend the day walking my land to create a land plan. After several reschedules, the Service Forester was finally able to come out in January 2014. I took the day off from work and walked the woods and was very impressed with his knowledge and very excited to learn that this was a service provided at no charge to land owners. At the end of the day, he told me it would take about 3 weeks for him to put together his report. I waited nearly 2 months and did not hear back from him. After several calls, I was finally able to get a hold of him and he told me 3 more weeks and he would have it done. Fast forward to March 2015 and the same routine happened a dozen times (I called about once a month and was told each time that the plan would be delivered in 3 weeks).
Out of frustration, last Summer (2015) I called two Consulting Foresters (from listings on this site) and asked for assistance with building a plan. One stated that they were busy, but would schedule some time in the Fall to walk my woods. The other stated that they were retiring, but would send a list of trusted foresters. Neither followed up and neither returned my follow-up calls.
So here I am 3 years later and I recently just tried reaching out to several other foresters listed on this site (no calls back yet though). I'm pretty sure I'm giving up on the idea of having a real plan created for my land, and am just going to try to manage the land and do a harvest sale on my own (hopefully with the help of a good logger).
Is this normal for this industry? Is there anyone else in Connecticut having this much difficulty trying to plan and harvest their forest land?
In September of 2013 I contacted the CT DEEP and scheduled time to spend the day walking my land to create a land plan. After several reschedules, the Service Forester was finally able to come out in January 2014. I took the day off from work and walked the woods and was very impressed with his knowledge and very excited to learn that this was a service provided at no charge to land owners. At the end of the day, he told me it would take about 3 weeks for him to put together his report. I waited nearly 2 months and did not hear back from him. After several calls, I was finally able to get a hold of him and he told me 3 more weeks and he would have it done. Fast forward to March 2015 and the same routine happened a dozen times (I called about once a month and was told each time that the plan would be delivered in 3 weeks).
Out of frustration, last Summer (2015) I called two Consulting Foresters (from listings on this site) and asked for assistance with building a plan. One stated that they were busy, but would schedule some time in the Fall to walk my woods. The other stated that they were retiring, but would send a list of trusted foresters. Neither followed up and neither returned my follow-up calls.
So here I am 3 years later and I recently just tried reaching out to several other foresters listed on this site (no calls back yet though). I'm pretty sure I'm giving up on the idea of having a real plan created for my land, and am just going to try to manage the land and do a harvest sale on my own (hopefully with the help of a good logger).
Is this normal for this industry? Is there anyone else in Connecticut having this much difficulty trying to plan and harvest their forest land?
No answers yet