Our Process

We communicate often and clarify what we’re doing at every step, keeping you informed and involved throughout your timber harvest and beyond

What You Can Expect When We're On Your Land

A partnership that continues through every stage of your harvest. Clear communication from first cut to final cleanup. A crew that addresses your questions and concerns quickly and carefully.

You’re not just selling us your trees. You’re letting us improve your woods.

Step 1:

Notification

Your crew foreman will call or text you 24-48 hours before we plan to move onto your land. That way, you’ll have a day or two to open access gates and let neighbors know to expect sawing and heavy machinery. We do our best to reach out earlier, but we’ve learned that Ohio’s unpredictable weather makes it very difficult to give more than two days’ notice.

An unexpected rainstorm could leave the forest floor saturated and soft, making it difficult to saw and skid trees for loading onto heavy tractor-trailers without causing damage.

Step 2:

Planning

A Timber Specialist and our crew foreman will meet with you to walk through final job details–where access roads will lie, which trees come down, special considerations for hunting plots or land management. They’ll leave their phone numbers and contact information with you so you can reach them directly with questions or concerns during the harvest.

About access roads: We plan road placement deliberately to minimize impact and preserve as much of your land as possible. Visit Low Impact Footprint to learn more about the steps we take to protect your property during harvest.

About access roads: We plan road placement deliberately to minimize impact and preserve as much of your land as possible. Visit Low Impact Footprint to learn more about the steps we take to protect your property during harvest.

Step 3:

Harvest

We get to work. This is the noisiest part of the process; you’ll hear chainsaws, truck engines, the whine of hydraulic lift arms, the cracking branches and heavy thuds of felled trees, and our team members’ voices as they work together to harvest your trees quickly and carefully. If you have any concerns or questions while we work—maybe you notice a damaged tree that needs to come down or have changed your mind about selling that white oak you thought needed to stay—your crew leader will lend an ear and make things right.

Step 4:

Reclamation

Reclamation is where we help your land bounce back quickly and healthily post-harvest. Though the kind of reclamation work needed varies from one woods to the next, you can expect that we’ll grade and seed logging roads, landing areas where trees have fallen, and skid paths created during loading. If any natural embankments are disrupted, we may install water diversions on steep hillsides. While your land will look different even after reclamation–every woods needs time to recover, no matter how light the harvest–we’ll leave it prepped and positioned to thrive.

You’ll also notice we leave lopped tree tops where they fall rather than hauling them out — a deliberate choice that protects your remaining timber and speeds recovery. Here’s why.

Step 5:

Follow-through

We encourage you to take time to walk your woods during the harvest, see what we’re cutting and clearing, and make sure our work aligns with your goals. To make sure we’re doing right by you, your crew leader will reach out 24 hours before completing the harvest to go over what the team has accomplished and what work remains. To eliminate additional stress to your land, be sure to let us know about anything you’d like us to do before we finish reclamation work and move our machinery out.

Step 6:

Feedback

We welcome your input about our workmanship, communication, and on-site practices. After we’ve completed the job, we’ll send you a brief survey in the mail. This is space for you to let us know how we served you at every stage of your timber sale. Telling us about anything we did wrong and what we got right will help us to better serve you and other landowners during future harvests. As a thank-you for sharing your experience, we’ll send you a gift card for returning the survey. As a thank-you for sharing your experience, we’ll send you a gift card for returning the survey.

Questions About Our Harvesting Process?

We’re happy to walk you through what a timber harvest looks like on your land. Reach out at any stage to get answers and learn more.