lpo1981,
One of the big problems I've run into with established foresters is their total focus on timber as a long-term income source. All of their thoughts and practices are focused on creating the most short and long-term income from timber. Even though many will say they understand land-management for wildlife, they really don't. They see management of habitat for wildlife as a side-benefit to timber management, but the ultimate goal of good forestry practices is still long-term financial benefit.
Although we all want to be good stewards of the natural resources, and good forestry practices are part of that, if wildlife benefit is your primary goal in managing a property, some more "radical" forestry practices need to be considered--and some of these practices will make an old-school forester cringe! Honestly, that's been my biggest problem with using consulting foresters. They simply can't fathom the idea of doing things to the habitat specifically for wildlife, with long-term economics being a far-distant secondary consideration.
Another consideration is life-span of use. And by that I mean who will benefit from these practices and for how long? In essence, are the management practices you plan on implementing to benefit just you (or the current generation of hunters), or do you have children that show interest in continuing your management plan? If I'm designing a plan for the current generation of hunters, I'll look towards a system that produces results fast, and produces maximum benefit over the next 20-30 years. But if I'm looking at a multi-generational family system, with new hunters being recruited from each generation, then I'm looking a designing a perpetual system that will last forever. Perpetual systems are nowhere near as intense, and are design to maintain specific levels of critical habitat over the long term, unlike current generation hunter systems that are design to produce a two to three decade "burst" of highly favorable conditions.
