Help with woodland projects

[Rick Alger]

I have logged commercially with horses for over ten years, primarily north of Berlin, NH. It has been a great experience, but I am tired of competing with machines in a shrinking market.

I would now like to share my skills with landowners in northern New England commited to sustainable forestry. I am not looking for big harvests. I am thinking more in the line of working side-by-side with landowners to build trails, harvest small volumes of timber for on-site milling or firewood, create openings for views or picnic spots, thin timber stands and sugar orchards, and generally make the woodland healthier and more accessible.

If you have a woodland project that might benefit from having a seasoned hand, please give me a call. I will gladly walk the site with you and discuss how I might help you meet your goals in a way that would be fair to you and fair to me.

Rick Alger
French Hill Horselogging
Milan, NH

603 449 2262

[dominiquer60]

Rick, Have you read any of the Biological Woodsmen’s links on some of his posts. He talks a lot about marketing local forest products and selling the idea of forest management to land owners. There may be some good reading if you have not already. Where there is a will there is a way.

Erika

[Carl Russell]

Rick, I like your idea, and from my experience it is not just tree huggers. I have spent most of my twenty some odd years working with landowners who invest themselves in their own woodland operations, cutting wood, some timber harvesting, trail building etc. They are really more interesting than the ones who want all their decisions made for them, and they tend to understand the value of your service.

I have been contacted recently by several young foresters looking to expand their skills with draft animals, or who want to develop consultancies around animal powered forestry, and as I am more and more busy at home, I am trying to figure out how to pass along the forest management torch so that we can grow a crop of forest professionals who either want to work with horses themselves, or who understand how to manage land with animal power.

I know that our territories don’t really overlap, but maybe there is a way that we can work together to enhance the network within our region.

Carl

[Rick Alger]

Thank you all for the reponses.

Joel,

we have quite a bit of state and federal forest for such a tiny state, but all the work is put out to bid, and the deepest pocket gets the prize.

I agree there isn’t a large pool of folks likely to call me, but if I earn the trust of the few who do, I expect there will be repeat business. The sustainable concept of many small cuts spaced over time instead of one big final harvest is what I’m aiming at.

Hope retirement is suiting you.

Erika,

Yes, I’ve read Jason’s material with great interest. I probably should have given him a footnote in my post.

Carl,

We are a long way apart geograhically, but not philosophically. If we can find ways to further the cause, I am all for it. I am shut down now until after break-up, but I’ll be doing a cut-and-skid contract for commercial thinning in the Grant when things dry up. If your foresters want to take a field trip up here, we can work something out.

[Gabe Ayers]

Rick and others,

I have avoided posting here because I don’t want to be in front of some intelligent landowner that would be interested in your services, whatever they may be.

I suspect that the skills of an experienced woodsman such as yourself would be very valuable to certain clientele. Actually – to any woodland owner. You are also right that the best reference is from one previous client to the next client. Also neighbors in rural parts of the country watch what other neighbors are doing and usually do similar things with their forest land and wood lots. So despite all the high powered advertising and the connectivity of the internet, people talking to people is still the best advertisement going.

We have been investigating how to get government support for timber stand improvement in overcrowded and previously high graded sites. This is just about everywhere in our area and I suspect the entire eastern U.S. We are interested in this since the Natural Resource Conservation Specialist visited the site at Crooked River and said he could have cost shared on some of the forestry work we did for that landowner, given that it actually was timber stand improvement, just at a much more advanced age that the normal efforts to repair a clear cut rapidly. I will indeed let you know if I get any more information on that development.

I know there are some guys in the west that are involved in some kind of contract tree removal around structures and municipalities that are getting a great hourly wage and keeping the wood, which they sell for firewood. I am not sure these programs apply for the east, since the fire threat is much different here. I will inquire about the program they are working through.
I think the guy heading the program from the horselogger end is an old hand named Drake.

I also want to comment that Carl’s mentioning that there are young foresters that are interested in developing their consulting around the option of animal powered extraction – is encouraging news. I would invite them to inquire with our group and see if we can link them with anyone that may help them in that approach. This is exactly what several of our HHFF trained Biological Woodsmen did, as institutionally educated foresters.

If any landowners do happen upon this thread and post, I can tell them that I have communicated with Rick Alger for years and he knows what he is doing and has a good reputation with anyone I have ever asked about him.
They and their forest would be well served to have such an experienced woodsmen doing what he knows is best for their woods, as well as assisting them to reach their objectives and goals as forest landowners.

[Rick Alger]

My offer to work with landowners on woodland projets still stands.

Under reasonably good conditions, we could harvest next year’s firewood in a week or pile up enough sawlogs for a small barn.

An added bonus would be trails you can walk on with slash lopped to hip height and the residual stand left intact.

If you can arrange rough quarters for me and my horse, I will provide a full week of professional horselogging assistance for the introductory figure of $750.

Rick Alger
603 449 2262

[lancek]

Rick Dont sell yourself short, Scott, Charl, And Jason have all comented in differant spots on this web site how they are allways turning away work! The thing you need to do is net work just like Charl sudjested and Joel had a good idea to talk to your local foresters and inform them that you are willing to help land owners with there prodgects. Most land owners will contact there local foresters frist when they have a prodgect local agraculture agents are allso a good resorce,when I moved here to mo all I had to do was contact these two differant agncys and I had a snote full of work! You can also check the american foresters assocation they are on the web and you can try looking for local foresters and land managers on the web allso! Hope this helps Lancek

[Rick Alger]

Lancek,
Thanks for your interest and the well intentioned advice.

My “service area” is Coos County New Hampshire. It has a land area about the size of the state of Rhode Island with a population of less than 40,000. There are very few wealthy out of state landowners, although this is slowly changing. Most landowners here are not wealthy, but they are well aware of the value of their wood, and the going rate for the labor to harvest it. Consequently I’ve got to stay somewhere in the pragmatic range for my pricing. We are in the Northern Forest here which translates to either spruce-fir stands or mixed hardwood of generally low value.

I’ve been doing horselogging for over ten years, and I worked with skidders before that. I know about half the consulting foresters in the area personally, and most of the USDA and state guys as well. I have my name on several greeny listings, there have been at least half-a-dozen articles about me in the local papers, and I’ve given three demonstrations at various sites with a combined audience of around 500 people.

None of this has resulted in a single job. It has always been word of mouth. (The forester I’m cutting for now is a next door neighbor.)

What I am hoping to do is transition out of industrial forestry by building connections with the next wave of landowners- such as those who visit this site. I’m trying to offer myself more as a hired hand with some expertise than a contractor.

I know what my break-even is, and $750 isn’t far from it, but it beats saying, “Welcome to Walmart.”

Take care,

Rick

[blue80]

Also check out your local FSA, most notably the EQIP programs which encourage landowners, and specifically conventional farmers, to manage their wood lots.

I had a problem getting anyone to help me in Indiana, ended up doing the work best I could myself (with the Belgians) It is I think -and hope- my first and last try at government assistance. After applying for the program, being accepted, I did all the work but didn’t request any financial reimbursement. I had been very clear that all I wanted was “free” expertise, not a handout, but the forestry engineer never was available for even a walkthrough….

Some nice studies through the FSA show the net income off a properly maintained wood lot rounds out over the long term at $100/acre per year-generally the same as rowcropping, with far less inputs.

Kevin

[Rick Alger]

For any of you land owners in Northern NH, I remain available to help you manage your woodlands sustainably by working with you side-by-side, falling, skidding, processing and marketing. I am no longer set up to buy stumpage, but I still have contacts for trucking and pulp tickets. I can also arrange custom sawing, on-site professional construction, and custom craftsmanship.

[Author]

Posts