Programs

This section illustrates the basic organization between the programs that comprise the MTE Forestry department. These consist of Silviculture and Harvest Prep, Forest Development, Timber Harvest Administration, Fire Management, and Forest Inventory. Planning, timber harvests, non-commercial treatments, and prescribed burns are developed and implemented by the coordinated efforts of these programs.

Silviculture uses the harvest schedule to develop harvest prescriptions. These documents describe the manner in which a forest stand is to be prepared for harvest, how the harvest is to be conducted, and the management objective of the harvest. Silviculture also works with other resource professionals, both at Menominee as well as at the state and federal level to ensure that MTE is utilizing the best available practices for forest management.

Harvest Prep follows the guidelines of the management prescriptions to delineate the harvest units, mark the timber, and estimate the volume of timber to be removed from the unit.

Forest Development works with the other programs to develop and implement prescriptions of a pre-commercial nature (e.g. pre-commercial thinning, planting, site prep, etc).

Timber Harvest Administration works with the logging contractors to ensure the units are harvested according to the prescription, and evaluate the performance of the logging contractors to protect the soil, water, and forest resources.

Fire Management conducts fire suppression activities across the forest, and develops and implements burn and fuels reduction prescriptions and activities that complement the goals of Forest Development and Silviculture.

Forest Inventory conducts long- and near term planning and harvest scheduling based on targets, goals, and current knowledge of the forest composition.

Other Agencies (e.g. MITW Environmental Services, Historic Preservation, etc.) provide input and signature authority to prescription development and implementation.