LONG TERM MANAGEMENT PLANS
Regardless of ownership type, project size, or project complexity, F4 uses a variety of proven and appopriate management techniques to help sustain ecosystem composition, structure, and function.
35
345,500
3,927,900
5,693,150
States Impacted
Inventory Plots Collected with SilvAssist
Total Acres represented by plots
Acres mapped since 1998
20,000
15,000,000
6,675,090
Ecological Restoration acres since 2014
Longleaf seedlings planted since 2014
Current acreage leveraging SilvAssist
Forest Inventory
Forest/vegetation inventory has been a core company service for more than two decades. Utilizing the SilvAssist Suite, and a large network of experienced contractors, we can consistently produce accurate quantitative estimates in shorter time frames than ever before. This includes detailed estimates of overstory, midstory, understory, and groundcover or non-woody vegetation that support clients interested in commercial timber production through endangered species management.
Timber Sales
F4 designs, implements, and manages various types of timber sales for our clients. Using our client’s desired future state, we develop corresponding silvicultural prescriptions and plans that can address both planted and naturally-regenerated stands. Common stand management actions include various types of objective-based thinnings and regeneration harvests (clearcut, seed tree, shelterwood, biomass, etc.). We act as a fiduciary in the actual administration of a timber sale and security is paramount as it concerns merchandising of wood products and the tracking of in-the-woods production, load and scale ticket management, payments, and timber theft. Our foresters have decades of experience in managing timber sales for private and public landowners.
Site Preparation
F4 assists our clients with their site-prep needs by scoping and implementing activities prior to reforestation. Our foresters manage projects that include root-raking, harrowing, mowing, mulching, pile burning, and wind-row removal. We work with numerous experienced contractors which allows us to easily execute projects across the southeast. Other site-prep activities that we oversee are herbicide applications both pre-and post-emergent, and fertilizer and soil amendment applications.
Reforestation
F4 oversees reforestation efforts for our clients every fall and winter. Our foresters work with landowners to choose the proper species and planting densities to achieve their management objectives. We utilize both hand planting crews and mechanical planting methods. We also work with landowners to promote wildlife habitat and have reforested areas using larger sapling-size trees such as live oaks to produce food for wildlife.
Reforestation is truly a team effort, and our foresters monitor planting crew progress in the field every day until projects are completed. Monitoring involves random planting quality checks, and seedling-count plots to ensure that the planting density is within specifications. Seedling plots are monumented in-the-field and are revisited several months after planting to determine survival and reforestation success.
Silviculture
Our team of foresters have many years of silvicultural experience and apply that experience to the management of our clients’ lands. F4 observes in-field conditions and collects the necessary information (soil and foliar samples, competing vegetation samples, etc.) to better inform stand improvement decisions. Silvicultural activities may include mid-rotation thinnings (see also timber sales), herbicide release, or fertilizer and soil amendment applications.
Ecological Restoration
Ecological restoration is a multi-step process that requires a long-term commitment. In upland habitats, many of the tools used in forestry, e.g., inventory, site preparation, timber harvests, are central to restoration projects. F4 has worked on dozens of projects that have helped jump-start the ecological restoration process across thousands of acres of longleaf pine-wiregrass communities in the southeast. We work closely with conservation organizations such as The Longleaf Alliance, The Nature Conservancy, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on many projects. Most of the projects we’ve supported utilize proven direct seeding techniques as the primary method for establishing native ground cover vegetation. A Grasslander seeder is typically used to disseminate native ground cover seed prior to planting containerized longleaf pine seedlings. Sometimes, containerized native grasses are planted after longleaf seedlings have been established (often within the same planting season). F4 supports our clients with the monitoring and management of restored sites to continue fostering the restoration process. We are also exploring alternative direct seeding methods to facilitate successful restoration actions across more acres at a lower cost.
Invasive/Exotic Species Control
One of the largest obstacles any landowner faces is the eradication and control of nonnative invasive/exotic plant species. Due in part to a favorable and generally warm climate, many invasive/exotic species flourish in the southeast and can quickly outcompete native vegetation. We work with our clients to identify and treat invasive/exotic plants in support of their overall management goals. Our field staff are versed in the identification of such species and can develop treatment plans without causing harm to existing native plants. We work with numerous contractors across the southeast, which allows us to complete large-scale projects. We have developed and provided project management for projects ranging from hack-and-squirt to road-side spraying, and large-swath and targeted aerial herbicide applications.
Prescribed Burning
F4 has nearly 100 years of combined prescribed burning experience across the southeast. Our field staff have assisted and conducted highly technical and complicated burns for our clients, having to work around public access and neighboring communities in the Florida wildland urban interface (WUI).