Planning
Forest property serves an owner’s needs and interests best if managed according to a clear plan. Developing a management plan takes present conditions and desired future conditions into account. A forest management plan is a tool which provides direction for the management of the forest resources on the property. The plan identifies the landowner’s goals and objectives for the property, the physical characteristic and composition of resources present on the property, and management alternatives and prescriptions that will accomplish the stated goals. It is through a forest management plan that significant changes in forest health, productivity and site improvement can be accomplished. Without a plan, decisions may be made based on short term conditions but with long term, undesirable consequences. A clear forest management plan can be used over the years as a guide in protecting, enhancing and reaping the benefits from your forestland or other natural areas.
Community Wildfire Protection Planning
Northwest Management, Inc. provides countywide, community-based, and tribal Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPP) and plan updates. Our services include complete collaboration with the stakeholders group, coordination of public involvement through all phases of the process, and various forms of risk assessment and modeling. Also included in our CWPP project services are project and action item development as well as mapping, document authorship, and development of a comprehensive GIS database. NMI does not provide clients with a boiler-plate CWPP, rather we become members of the team developing a uniquely suited and feasible document that achieves the goals of the committee. At the conclusion of the planning process, completed and locally adopted documents, maps, and GIS data are delivered to the client with no copyrights held by Northwest Management, Inc.
Pre-Disaster Mitigation Planning
Northwest Management, Inc. has completed numerous countywide and tribal Pre-Disaster Mitigation Plans. Our experience has proved that a committee approach to develop hazard risk and vulnerability assessments for all types of natural or manmade hazards is the most effective way to complete comprehensive and feasible Pre-Disaster Mitigation Plan. Our services include committee leadership, public involvement and education, risk assessment and modeling, summarization of resources, mitigation project development and mapping, document authorship, and development of a complete GIS database. Northwest Management, Inc. will ensure that all committee, public, state, and FEMA reviews are completed in a timely manner and will not consider the Plan finalized until FEMA has issued a formal approval letter.
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Northwest Management, Inc. provides clients with services in all natural resource disciplines to meet the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Our staffs have the education and experience to complete all phases of NEPA documentation from initial planning to preparing the final report. We can prepare Categorical Exclusions, Environmental Assessments, and Environmental Impact Statements following the approved regulations and manuals used by each federal agency. Our goal is to complete the NEPA process for each project in a timely and effective manner that allows implementation of the project with the best alternative for the agency and interested public.
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Forest Stewardship is a nation wide program designed to assist non-industrial private forest landowners in managing their properties for a variety of resource values. Different than a Forest Management Plan, a Forest Stewardship Plan is a less specific plan that identifies and addresses all of the significant resources on the property. These plans are a prerequisite by many government cost share programs and their preparation is often funded through state and county grants. They are developed to address the goals of the landowner and provide a comprehensive resource evaluation of the land and the relationship to the surrounding landscape. It is a plan that addresses several aspects of the environment, including forestry, wetlands, soil erosion, wildlife and fisheries. The plan provides the landowner with management recommendations that will help meet their goals and objectives. Management recommendations and projects identified in the plan are eligible for funding, in part, by government cost share programs.
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Often a timber management plan is required by the state or county for tax designation of property. Northwest Management, Inc. has assisted many landowners in Idaho, Washington and Montana with tax plan applications and management plans if required by the state.
Idaho
Forest landowners that own over 5 acres and manage their timber for future harvest can enjoy lower taxes on their property by taking advantage of Idaho’s Forestland Taxation law. Idaho has two tax systems for forestland that provides woodland owners with property tax options which recognize their diverse ownership goals. If no tax system is chosen, forestland will be assessed and taxed at its full market value. Once the forest landowner chooses one of the forest tax systems, the designation must remain in effect until the end of the designation period. The current designation period ends in December 2012. Depending on the county in which your property resides, a forest management plan may be required to qualify for the tax designation. Applications must be filed with the County Assessor before December 31 to be effective for the following year. To qualify for forest tax designation, the landowner must prove active management of the property to enhance growth of timber for future harvest and form FT-101 must be singed by all the owners of the property.
Washington
Forest landowners that own over 20 acres of forestland and manage the property for future harvest can enjoy lower taxes on their property by taking advantage of Washington’s Designated Forest Tax category. This is available in every county with the landowner filling out an Application for Designation of Forestland. Some counties additionally require a timber management plan to be written for the property.
Forest landowners that own under 20 acres of forestland and manage the property for future harvest can enjoy lower taxes on their property by taking advantage of the Open Space Timber tax category. Each county is slightly different, but generally a landowner needs to have over 5 acres and they must hire a forester to write a Timber Management Plan for the property. Once the forester writes the plan and signs off on the property, the landowner turns the application and plan into the county. There is a one year delay in having the tax classification go into affect (turn your documents in by Dec 31, 2008 for your 2010 taxes to be lowered).
If no forest tax system is chosen, forestland will be assessed and taxed at “highest and best use” resulting in the highest possible taxes on that property.
Montana
Montana has more than 14,000 forest landowners that own approximately 3.9 million acres of private forest land. Land productivity is the basis for assessing forestland in Montana. Forest land is defined as 15 or more contiguous forest acres in one ownership. To receive a forest classification the property must be capable of producing timber that can be harvested in commercial quantity. The land must produce at least 25 cubic feet of wood per acre, per year and the culmination of mean annual increment. Forested land which does not produce commercial quantities of timber is generally classified as grazing land.
Features that influence productivity on a forest site include soils, climate, slope, aspect and elevation. The forest classification system used in Montana estimates potential productivity not actual productivity. Potential productivity is constant, regardless of the standing inventory growing on the land. Insect and disease, overstocking, forest fires or logging activities do not influence potential productivity. Forestry researchers apply collect field data across Montana then apply statistics and mathematical models to estimate site quality and potential volume growth for each forested acre of forestland in Montana.
Since 2009 forestland is classified into 5 productivity grades of commercial forest land. The state is also divided into 4 forest valuation zones to establish average stumpages cost for various regions in Montana. Forest tax rates established by the state legislature are applied to forest values established by the Department of Revenue to establish forest property taxes for forest landowners. In 2007 Montana’s average forestland productivity tax was $0.82 per acre.
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Northwest Management, Inc. has extensive experience in completing natural resource condition assessments (NRCA) for federal agencies. We have completed NRCA’s using various rapid assessment techniques that can be based on site collected information or on existing public information available over the internet or directly from public agencies. Our staff have over 20 years continuous experience in using geographical information systems (GIS) and global positioning systems (GPS) to collect, analyze, and report on data. NRCA require extensive use of this technology to provide the client with an up-to-date point in time assessment of the current condition of the land and resources. The NRCA includes analysis of current and potential threats and stressors to important resources, along with recommendations on how to reduce or mitigate these negative impacts.
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Northwest Management, Inc. provides countywide, community-based, and tribal Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPP) and plan updates. Our services include complete collaboration with the stakeholders group, coordination of public involvement through all phases of the process, and various forms of risk assessment and modeling. Also included in our CWPP project services are project and action item development as well as mapping, document authorship, and development of a comprehensive GIS database. 
NMI does not provide clients with a boiler-plate CWPP, rather we become members of the team developing a uniquely suited and feasible document that achieves the goals of the committee. At the conclusion of the planning process, completed and locally adopted documents, maps, and GIS data are delivered to the client with no copyrights held by Northwest Management, Inc.
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Northwest Management, Inc. prepares range resource management plans and vegetation surveys for many clients throughout the west. We has been involved in many projects over the past 20 years that required vegetation mapping, range inventory and data collection as well as the reporting, planning and execution of these range management projects.
Northwest Management, Inc. completes vegetation-mapping inventories on up to 800,000 acres annually. This includes complete species lists, sensitive plant inventories, invasive weed inventories, life form and strata inventories, plant community classification and soil and substrate classification.
NMI annually inventories 100,000 to 200,000 acres of forest and rangeland in Idaho, Washington, Oregon and Montana. This includes updated trend analysis, stand exams, CFI plots and FIA plots. Approximately 98% of all of this field data is collected on CMT electronic data recorder, Allegro or Archer field PC’s with windows mobile 5.0 operating systems.
All plot and point locations are documented using GPS units. A considerable amount of time is spent on each ownership viewing and interpreting aerial photography, determining acreage with an area planimeter, GPS locating, mapping and data entry.
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Northwest Management, Inc. has a staff with over 30 years experience in all areas of wildlife management, habitat and population management.
Northwest Management, Inc. considers wildlife needs in almost all forms of land management activities from planning to operational. Wildlife management is based on the goals of the landowner and the wildlife species of interest to them. We will evaluate wildlife habitat through a variety of qualitative and/or quantitative methods depending on the scope and extent of the project. Based on the evaluation, we will incorporate into the project specific wildlife habitat improvement actions, such as seeding and planting of desirable plant species, thinning overstocked forests, and prescribed fire to remove decadent shrubs and trees. Additional services are available to enhance the use of lands by wildlife and their enjoyment by the landowner.
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Integrated resource management plans (IRMP) are used by many tribal, state, and federal agencies to make decisions on how best to use lands under their management. Northwest Management, Inc. has the staff with the education and experience to examine the multitude of natural, cultural, and social resources required to complete an IRMP. Successful IRMP’s require a collaborative approach to working with the public represented by a specific agency. We bring together all existing and new land-based information using geographic information system (GIS) technology. GIS allows our staff to analyze multiple layers of data simultaneously and them to present the results in easy to understand maps and tables for the interested public. The IRMP process can be tailored to meet each agencies requirements along with presentation of many options being considered in the plan. We also can prepare the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documentation that often accompanies a tribal or federal agency IRMP.
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Northwest Management, Inc. (NMI) has been involved with all aspects of slash hazard reduction. Ranging from the small homeowner size lot to large scale drainage projects for large timberland owners. NMI reduces the slash hazard by chipping, broadcast burning, and under-burning. NMI complies with all state regulatory laws in order to get the desired results and meet landowner objectives.
Cost-share for Fire Hazard Reduction
Northwest Management, Inc. has contacts for various cost-share programs within the various operating states that help the private landowner with slash reduction whether it be from chipping, under-burning or broadcast burning.
Defensible Space Planning and Implementation
NMI has been involved in several fuel treatment projects.
Our staff has been involved with Fire Safe Spokane, since its inception. Fire Safe Spokane treated over 2,500 homes in northeastern Washington. Our staff participated in Fire Safe through project layout on-site inspection and costing of projects. Our staff completed over 500 home-site evaluations for Fire Safe Spokane.
Northwest Management, Inc., has been involved with the Tri-County Working Group in Helena, Montana, since 2001. Our staff written and implemented over 200 home defensible space projects as well as miles of road side treatment areas.
Northwest Management, Inc. has been involved working with Teton County DES to set up and implement projects in Teton County. Our staff works with the local coordinator to set up and implement projects.
Since 2004, Northwest Management, Inc has been involved with the West Central Highlands RC&D HFT project in the vicinity of Garden Valley, Idaho. Our staff has written and implemented over 200 home defensible space plans and implanted the projects. NMI has participated with the RC&D and homeowner associations to hold public meetings, contact individual landowners, prepare plans, bid projects, assign contractors to implement plans, and provide follow up quality control and assurance.
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Northwest Management, Inc. has extensive experience working with elected officials, city and county departments, law enforcement and emergency service organizations as well as federal and state agencies and others to compile resource and capability information in order to identify individual and organizational responsibilities during emergency situations. NMI is available to lead cities, counties, and tribes through the process of developing a basic operational plan, roles and responsibilities, standard response guides, emergency support functions, and any hazard specific annexes. Once all of the components are completed and approved by each participating entity, NMI will organize the document into a readable, user-friendly Emergency Operations Plan to be formally approved by the local governing body.
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Forest landowners invest a tremendous amount of effort growing, protecting and enjoying their forestland. Forests are long-term investments and provide for generations a tie with the land. Forest landowners who want to protect their forest investment and ensure the land will remain in forest rather than being subdivided or developed can place their land in a conservation easement. Each easement is tailored to the needs of the landowner and can focus on the traditional uses of the land such as wildlife habitat, grazing, tree growing or aesthetics.
A conservation easement is a legal agreement between a willing private landowner and a land trust or government agency. In the easement, the landowner gives up some rights for some or all of the development rights to the land. This keeps the land in one large parcel and protects the ownership from being broken up and losing the values worked so hard over several lifetimes or generations. This permanent protection runs with the land and remains in place even after the easement donor has given or sold the land to others.
Landowners now have an additional reason to donate a conservation easement
The recent Farm Bill extends a temporary tax incentive for 2009 that:
- raises the deduction a donor can take for the charitable gift from 30% of their income in any year to 50%;
- allows qualified farmers and ranchers to deduct up to 100% of their income; and
- increases the number of years over which a donor can take deductions from 6 years to 16 years.
Not only are there income tax benefits, in some cases, the conservation easement may also bring the value of the land below the estate tax limit, helping to keep the family forest in the family.
For landowners who love their land and want to protect its beauty and keep the land and resources in a forested condition, they may want to place an easement for that reason alone, but with the tax incentives, donating a conservation easement can be one of the smartest ways to conserve the land they love, while maintaining their private property rights and possibly realizing significant federal tax benefits.
Northwest Management, Inc. (NMI) can assist landowners in choosing the right land trust for your long term goals. NMI has worked with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Montana Land Reliance, Gallatin Valley Land Trust, Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks, Spokane Land Trust, The Nature Conservancy and many State Forest Legacy Programs that offer easements. NMI prepares Baseline documents that are required to assess the condition of the resources on the property at the time of the easement. NMI will prepare any forest health, management or grazing plans documents required by the land trust and are necessary to insure that the management into the future is guided by sound science with your goals and objectives clearly identified and incorporated in your easement agreement.
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Northwest Management, Inc. has completed numerous countywide and tribal Pre-Disaster Mitigation Plans. Our experience has proved that a committee approach to develop hazard risk and vulnerability assessments for all types of natural or manmade hazards is the most effective way to complete comprehensive and feasible Pre-Disaster Mitigation Plan. Our services include committee leadership, public involvement and education, risk assessment and modeling, summarization of resources, mitigation project development and mapping, document authorship, and development of a complete GIS database. NMI will ensure that all committee, public, state, and FEMA reviews are completed in a timely manner and will not consider the Plan finalized until FEMA has issued a formal approval letter.
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