The holiday season can be a hectic time of the year, but it always causes me to stop and think about forestry. It probably comes from helping to plant, shear and sell Christmas trees at a family tree farm, while growing up. Growing and caring for those trees was a rewarding experience, as we tried to produce a healthy, marketable product.

Woodland tree management can have similarities to Christmas tree production if the forest owner has a plan and actively manages the forest. For example, forest landowners with timber production goals often select a crop of trees, that at some point will be harvested. These crop trees are weeded around, removing adjacent poorly formed trees, and are often pruned, when young, to produce a tree trunk with very few defects and higher value.

For the woodland owner with wildlife management interests and goals, this crop tree management approach can also be used. The crop trees for this type of landowner are those trees with a high value or benefit to wildlife. For example, oaks and hickories produce acorns and nuts that provide numerous species of wildlife with needed carbohydrates in the winter months. Trees with hollow cavities or that have numerous dead branches might also be considered a crop tree in this scenario, because of the tree's value to cavity nesting wildlife.

A woodland owner with multiple goals, such as timber production, wildlife and recreation, can also use this basic approach to forest management, but it does require a little more thought and planning.

Approximately 90 percent of our forests in Illinois are owned privately. Therefore management plans and implementation of these plans have to also be done privately. If you are a forest landowner without a management plan, you are not alone. The majority of the privately owned forest acreage in Illinois doesn't have a written plan.

Forest management plans begin with the landowner considering what they want to get back from their resource or how they want to use their forest. Secondly, an inventory and assessment of the resources has to be done, trees and other plants, soil, water and wildlife. Next, management practices to achieve the landowner's goals are determined by a professional forester and included in the plan. The final step in the process is implementing or carrying out the prescribed management practices by the private landowner.

Landowners can get assistance from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to develop a management plan. The IDNR Division of Forest Resources has district foresters which can offer assistance. If you are interested in requesting their assistance, visit their website at http://www.dnr.state.il.us/conservation/forestry/ and follow the link to "request forestry assistance".

In Illinois there are also private consulting foresters which landowners can hire to develop a management plan. Private consulting foresters also offer serves which include developing a timber marketing plan, tree thinning and other management services. A list of these foresters can be found at the University of Illinois Extension forestry website at http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/forestry/technical_assistance.html.

Finally, all landowners with five or more adjacent acres of unimproved land may want to investigate a new Conservation Stewardship program which was recently approved. One of the requirements of the program is a management plan, which is another incentive for getting a plan developed this next year. If your land meets the requirements it will be valued at 5% of the market value for tax purposes. To learn more about this program visit the IDNR's website at http://www.dnr.state.il.us/ .

If you have questions regarding forest management, contact the University of Illinois Champaign Extension Unit office at 333-7672.