Forest management plans: what NC requires and your options

For PUV, forestland must comply with a written sound forest management plan for the commercial production of timber, filed with the AV-5 application. For EQIP, NRCS requires a forest management plan before it funds forest conservation practices, prepared by a professional forester. One plan can serve both: make it for cost-share with timber production among its goals, and have a professional forester prepare it with you.

NC's guidance expects a plan to identify the property and owner, state the management objectives, and then describe each forest stand: acreage, species, age, size (diameter, basal area, heights), condition, topography, soils, and site index or productivity. It prescribes treatments with a timetable, covers regeneration and harvest, protection from fire, insects, and disease, and water-quality practices, and it carries a map that locates the property and delineates every stand the plan describes.

Per the NC Department of Revenue, plans can be prepared by an independent consulting forester, by a forester with the North Carolina Forest Service, or by the property owner, with the caveat that a self-preparing owner needs skills adequate to produce a plan comparable to a qualified forester's. The law does not require a forester's signature. Many county tax offices expect one anyway, and practice varies, so call your county tax office before deciding to self-certify. NRCS cost-share is the exception: a plan for it must be prepared by a professional forester, such as your NC Forest Service county office or a consulting forester, and approved by NRCS, and a plan EQIP pays for under practice code 106 must be written by a certified Technical Service Provider.

• Your county NC Forest Service office. Your county ranger works one-on-one with landowners. NCFS charges a per-acre fee for plans it writes itself ($5 per acre at the time of writing). Expect a wait in busy seasons.
• A private consulting forester. Paid, usually faster, and they can also handle a timber cruise or a sale. Directory at the Association of Consulting Foresters (acf-foresters.org).
• Yourself. Permitted for PUV on the comparability standard above. Several stand figures (basal area, diameter, height, site index) genuinely need a timber cruise and the tools to do one.
• Generate ours, then have it reviewed or finish it yourself. We draft the plan from your parcel's public records: satellite-mapped stands you confirm and correct in a guided interview, soils from the USDA survey, and a review and amendments page where a reviewer finishes it in place. A forester reviewing it starts from that assembled draft and decides what field checks, measurements, or revisions it needs before signing.

The generated plan is part of the Tax-savings package. See how it works, or start with the free eligibility check.

• NC Department of Revenue: Present-Use Value Program Guide
• G.S. 105-277.4: application, appraisal at use value, and deferred taxes
• NC Forest Service: woodland plan fees
• NRCS North Carolina: Environmental Quality Incentives Program