Sometimes it can be hard to know what to do with a plot of land, especially when it’s on the smaller side for commercial use, but it can be on the bigger side for recreational use. Meanwhile others are in a position where they have a plot of land but don’t live nearby.
The Tallapoosa County Extension Office recently hosted a seminar to help landowners uncover their diamond in the rough. The Forestry and Wildlife Land Management Seminar and small and absentee landowners class was held last Tuesday evening.
Alabama Cooperative Extension System agent Kyle Marable gave an overview of some opportunities landowners have depending on the size of their plot. Some of the priorities of landowners might be wildlife, aesthetics, recreation and income through timber sales.
Generally speaking, if someone has the national average lot size of 0.32 acres then they are limited to wildlife management with bird feeds, bat boxes, cultivating native plant landscapes and attracting pollinators. On a small tract of land, which is less than 10 acres, owners can start making habitat modifications, incorporating food plots and getting into recreational use with hiking trails.
At 10-50 acres, owners can start to manage habitats for hunting purposes and the possibility of getting into timber sales is more likely, but they need to stay focused on one’s priorities. These plots are generally not big enough for too much multiuse.
At 50-200 acres, owners have more flexibility with wildlife and timber management opportunities. It will be easier to manage habitats to promote hunting and wildlife recreation compared to the smaller plots. This plot size range also allows for more diversity with your priorities; you can have multiple wildlife interests.
For plots with 200 acres or more, multiple uses are available. Landowners can provide year-around habitats for larger ranged animals and can likely bring in paid help with management whether it be for timber or wildlife management.
Additionally, for absentee landowners — those who don’t live or actively manage the property — there are some special considerations. Namely, how might their goals relate to the ease of management, the impact neighbors may have and management location within the property.
One of the goals for many landowners is timber. The seminar also had multiple forestry experts come in and give an overview of the forestry industry. Sizemore & Sizemore vice president Michael Heatherly discussed some of the general guidelines for forest management. Once again, it heavily depends on objectives — whether it be forest production, aesthetics or forest health.
Some of the main forest management practices are thinning, prescribed burning, herbicide treatments and clear cutting. There also are some guidelines for when to do any thinning or prescribed burning, which relate to the tree’s age, height, diameter and crown ratio.
When it comes to timber sales, Heatherly said it can be difficult for smaller plots because most loggers are going to want 30-50 loads a week. A 10-acre plot might have the timber volume that makes it worth a logging company’s wild to come out to the property, but plenty don’t. Something that could help is networking with neighbors who have timber so loggers can go down one road and come away with their preferred load amount. Heatherly said it’s important to remember landowners don’t need to do all of this alone.
“As a consultant, I would like to say, work with a forester that you can trust to help make decisions when it comes to whether something needs to be thinned or clear cut,” he said. “And it doesn't have to be a consulting forester. It can be any other forester. It could be somebody that you trust, or somebody that's been recommended by somebody else to help you make the best decisions for your property.”
Another hurdle for forest management is pests. Forest health coordinator Drew Metzler with Alabama Forestry Commission said the Southern Pine Beetle in 2023 and 2024 greatly impacted tree mortality across Central Alabama.
“[Heatherly] talked about some of our goods and cultural practices, the prescribed burning, regular thinning, those types of things are going to go a long way to reduce the stress and staining and the competition on the crop trees,” Metzler said. “We do have predatory beetles around the landscape, and this is something that we study. We do a population survey every year.”
Metzler said from the survey they want to see an even balance between the Southern Pine Beetle and its natural predatory beetles. Generally, a Southern Pine Beetle outbreak happens once every seven to 10 years. Its preferred host trees are the Loblolly and Virginia pines. The Southern Pine Beetle relies on pheromones to signal to other beetles the trees to target.
The forestry commission will conduct aerial surveys too to see if it can spot infected trees based on the damage to the pine canopy. When landowners have signs of the Southern Pine Beetle, the cut-and-leave method can be a good one to stop the initial spread.
“There might be hundreds of thousands of beetles packing on each tree and they carry the blue stained fungi, overwhelming the tree's natural defense system,” Metzler said. “It can happen pretty quick. That's why I tell landowners, visit your property as much as you can, have good perimeter fire breaks, interior trails, just ways to get in there and be able to visualize your property.”
When it comes to the actual timber market, Forestry and Wildlife Sciences associate professor and extension specialist Dr. Adam Marggard gave a breakdown of industry trends. The timber industry got a big start in the 1980s with Conservation Reserve programs. By the time those trees matured to harvest the 2008 housing bubble occurred. Now, there’s an oversupply of trees in Alabama. That means while historically the pacific northwest and Canada are known for their timber industry, the southeast’s timber industry is starting to grow.
There’s a couple of big picture factors that affect timber sales: the housing market, mills, policy and trade. There are quite a few mills around or in Tallapoosa County, which is beneficial for timber sales, and as a small landowner you likely want to appeal to local mills.
“You don't want to produce pulp wood if you don't have a pulp wood mill; you don't want to produce saw timber if you don't have a saw timber mill, if you're in the timber business,” Marggard said. “A lot of smaller landowners have multiple objectives. But it comes back to wildlife timber objectives altogether.”