OTHER SERVICES
Wildlife Habitat Management
Benchmark Forest & Land Management, LLC, can assist landowners in improving habitat for a variety of wildlife. For example, if a landowner wishes to attract more white-tailed deer to the property, we can assist in locating and establishing a suitable site for food plots, creating a harvest plan that will stimulate growth for browse and cover, identifying sites as breeding areas, and designating important masting trees for retention. Similarly, landowners might be interested in improving habitat for ruffed grouse, woodcock, or eastern cottontail. Management plans and timber harvest plans can be tailored to enhance the habitat for these species.
Recreational Development
Benchmark Forest & Land Management, LLC, can assist landowners in improving access through a property for foot traffic, cross-country skiing, ATV use, etc. In many cases, trails and roads may exist on the property, but have degraded to such an extent that they are not passable and improvement is necessary. Alternative routes or improvements can be recommended. Recreational opportunities can often be improved through a carefully-planned timber harvest, whereby the trails used by logging equipment are later utilized for recreational purposes.
Woodlot Protection Services
Absentee landowners can utilize Benchmark Forest & Land Management, LLC, to monitor their properties as needed. Woodlot reconnaissance would include inspecting for encroachments, timber theft, and unauthorized hunting; checking culverts and drainage infrastructure; inspecting power line Rights-of-Way that service structures on the property to ensure that they are not compromised by trees; and ensuring physical access to the property is not hindered by blowdown trees or washed-out roads. These services can be particularly helpful following hurricane and ice-storm events, after which trees and limbs may affect access and utilities, or culverts may become blocked.
Non-Native Invasive Plant Monitoring and Treatment
Non-Native Invasive Plants
(NNIP) are plants originating from other parts of the world that have become
naturalized and invasive, out-competing or even excluding native plants. NNIP commonly found in northeastern forests include Japanese barberry, oriental bittersweet, multiflora rose, buckthorn species, Japanese knotweed, garlic mustard, and autumn or Russian olive. Monitoring for and treating these invaders before they can proliferate is beneficial to the health of the native forest. Control measures include mechanical (cutting, uprooting, and mowing) and chemical (foliar spray, basal applications, or cut stump application) treatments, or a combination of both. We are licensed in New York State for the application of herbicides, so we can assist you with chemical treatment of NNIP.
Legal Services
Benchmark Forest & Land Management, LLC, can assist you with legal services as they pertain to forestry. Sometimes legal problems arise for which professional forestry advice is needed, such as conducting stump inventories following cases of timber trespass, reviewing timber sale contracts, evaluating timber harvests and payments, providing an expert witness, etc. We can work with you and your attorney to collect and/or analyze data pertinent to the case.