# Caring for a small woodlot: a plan, a forester and the first jobs

> What goes into a woodland management plan, who drafts one and what a consultant costs, the federal help with the bill, and how to handle deer, snags and gaps.

Published 2026-11-06. Tags: Forests & habitat. By Blue Whale Trees, a native tree nursery in the United States. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/caring-for-a-small-woodlot/

Caring for a small woodlot starts with a written plan: what you want from the woods, a map of what is there and a schedule of the work by year. A forester writes it with you, either the state forestry agency's forester or a consulting forester you hire, and federal cost-share can pay part of the cost of the plan and of the work. The first jobs are the [invasive plants](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/glossary/index.html.md#invasive-plant) and the deer, which decide whether young native trees grow up at all. Then come the dead trees, most of them worth keeping, and the gaps, which take seedlings matched to their light.

![Tall white oaks and other hardwoods in gold and orange fall color, seen from the forest floor against a pale sky](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/articles/caring-for-a-small-woodlot-1-1000.jpg?v=b50e34f8 "White oaks and other hardwoods in fall color on November 5, 2026. Some 11 million private owners hold more than half the forest land in the United States.")
*Photo: Blue Whale Trees*

## Start with what you want from the woods

An easement or a public owner can keep a woods standing, as [protecting forestland for good](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-forestland-for-good/index.html.md) sets out, but a protected woods still needs a steward. Care starts with the owner's goals, the big picture of how the land should look years from now. Wildlife, firewood, timber income, clean water, a trail and land to pass on are common ones. Write them down with your family before a forester comes.

Then walk the land with the forester, who helps you judge which goals are realistic, since the land's location, size, soils, slope and past use decide what it can do. The goals then become objectives, each a task with a date: a loop trail through the back five acres in the second year, or nest boxes by the house.

## What a written plan holds

A forest management plan is a set of written guidelines for the work that will meet the owner's objectives. For a few acres it can be little more than a map and a dated list of jobs. A fuller plan, the kind a Tree Farm certificate requires and some cost-share programs rank higher, holds four parts:

- **Goals and objectives**, the owner's own, with dates.
- **Maps** of the boundary, the access, the streams and wetlands, the soils and each stand, a patch of woods alike enough in kind or age to be managed as one.
- **A description of each stand** from an inventory on the ground: which trees grow there, how big and how crowded, which invasive plants, and whether young trees are coming up.
- **A schedule of the work** by year, from checking the boundary corners to planting and thinning.

![Two big oaks with ridged gray bark rising side by side in a mature summer woods, the floor open under leaf litter](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/articles/caring-for-a-small-woodlot-2-1000.jpg?v=7b5627b3 "Two big northern red oaks in a mature woods on June 1, 2024. A plan's inventory of each stand records which trees grow there, how big they are and how crowded.")
*Photo: Blue Whale Trees*

The map can be drawn on online aerial photos, and soil maps come from the federal online soil survey. Treat the plan as a living document. Review it every few years, and update it when the goals or the woods change.

## Who writes it: a state forester or a consultant

Start with the state forestry agency. The federal Forest Stewardship Program works through the state forestry agencies, cooperative extension and the conservation districts to help private owners manage their woods. More than 25 million acres are managed under its plans, and a Forest Stewardship Plan can be written by the state's forester or by a consulting forester.

A consulting forester is an independent professional who works for a fee under a contract, legally bound to represent the owner. A full-service consultant also sells the timber, oversees the logging and replants:

> "Choosing a consultant is similar to choosing a lawyer or an accountant because you are entrusting them with a portion of your assets." (Mississippi State University Extension Service, *Choosing a Consulting Forester*)

Talk to four or five consultants, call their references and put the agreement in writing. Some foresters also buy timber, so ask about any conflict of interest, and where the state registers foresters, hire a registered one. Fees run by the job, the hour, the day or the acre, or as a share of a timber sale.

Many owners of small properties find that the timber does not pay for a consultant. A consultant is worth considering past about 40 acres, or on 20 to 40 acres of valuable timber. On a smaller woods, the state forester and the extension agent are the usual help. The Association of Consulting Foresters keeps a Find a Forester directory of consulting foresters.

## Programs that share the cost

Cost-share pays a fixed rate or a share of the cost of a forestry practice. The Natural Resources Conservation Service's flagship program, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, serves forest owners as well as farmers. Its technical help costs nothing, and the first step is the local office, whose conservation planner walks the land with you and writes a conservation plan.

The program can pay toward a forest management plan written by a forester certified as one of its technical service providers. It can also help pay for the practices such a plan calls for, among them tree planting, forest stand improvement, fencing and the control of invasive plants. Which practices a state offers varies, and applications are ranked at set dates each year. Many conservation easements require a written plan as well.

![A tall mesh deer fence running beside a mown trail through summer woods, logs lying along its foot](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/articles/caring-for-a-small-woodlot-3-1000.jpg?v=58a0af92 "A tall deer fence beside a woodland trail on May 26, 2025. Cost-share can help pay for the practices a plan calls for, fencing and tree planting among them.")
*Photo: Blue Whale Trees*

## Invasive plants and deer come first

Two jobs cannot wait for the plan, because each gets harder every year. The first is the invasive plants: the vines on the canopy trees, then the shrubs, then the seedlings every year, in the order [invasive vines and shrubs](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/invasive-vines-and-shrubs/index.html.md) sets out. A walk in late fall finds bush honeysuckle, which holds its leaves after the native shrubs have dropped theirs.

The second is the deer. They browse the seedlings and saplings of the most valued trees first. The signs are a browse line, few young trees of the kinds you want and a floor of the plants deer refuse, such as ferns. The damage hides in plain sight:

> "To an untrained eye, a heavily browsed woods may appear, open, park-like and picturesque rather than degraded and impoverished." (Cornell Small Farms Program, *Low-Cost Fence Designs to Limit Deer Impacts in Woodlands and Sugarbushes*)

![Slender hardwood trunks rising from a dense carpet of hay-scented ferns, with few young trees in the understory](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/articles/caring-for-a-small-woodlot-4-1000.jpg?v=0d2a6b5d "Northern hardwoods over a carpet of hay-scented ferns in Pinchot State Forest, Pennsylvania, on August 4, 2013. Deer pass over ferns and browse the seedlings of the most valued trees.")
*Photo: Nicholas A. Tonelli, [CC BY 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ([source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AGallery_Forest_%289456673634%29.jpg))*

Penn State Extension calls hunting the most effective and economical way to cut deer damage, while Cornell finds recreational hunting alone too little in most cases. Either way, planted seedlings need protection. At 400 trees an acre, shelters cost less than a fence on five acres or fewer, and past five acres a fence costs less. Keep the protection on until the trees are past the deer's reach, which in a woods can take 5 to 10 years, with the guards in [protecting trees from animals](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md).

## Dead trees: keep most of them

Keep most of the dead trees. A snag, a standing dead tree, and a live tree with a hollow give woodpeckers, owls, bats and flying squirrels their homes. In New Hampshire's forests 25 kinds of birds and 18 mammals use tree cavities.

Where trees are cut a few at a time, that state's guide asks owners to keep at least six snags or cavity trees an acre. One should be more than 18 inches across and three more than 12. Cavity trees past 24 inches are scarce, so keep the big ones.

![Northern flicker perched beside a weathered, broken-topped dead trunk, with pines behind it](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/articles/caring-for-a-small-woodlot-5-1000.jpg?v=7443f2a5 "A northern flicker on a standing dead tree on May 23, 2022. Flickers dig their own nest holes, in trees at least 12 inches across.")
*Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Midwest Region, [Public domain](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ANorthern_flicker_%2852119693583%29.jpg) ([source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ANorthern_flicker_%2852119693583%29.jpg))*

Leave the logs on the ground as well. Big hollow logs are worth the most, and fallen wood shelters seedlings from browsing. What a dead tree could hit decides the rest, as with [a big tree that may fall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/signs-a-big-tree-may-fall/index.html.md). Take down one that could land on a house, a road or a trail, and leave one with nothing beneath it.

## Filling the gaps with native seedlings

A gap opens when a tree falls or invasive shrubs come out, and it fills with whatever gets there first. Look first at what comes up on its own, since native seedlings already there need only protection from deer. Plant where nothing native comes up, and match the species to the light. Black cherry seldom reaches the canopy through a gap left by one tree, while shade-tolerant trees grow up through it. The table sorts nine trees we grow from the most shade-tolerant to the least:

| Plant | Shade tolerance | In the woods | Zones | Height, feet |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Flowering dogwood](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/flowering-dogwood/index.html.md) | Very tolerant | An understory tree | 5–9 | 15–30 |
| [Hop hornbeam](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/hop-hornbeam/index.html.md) | Tolerant | Reproduces well in full shade | 3–9 | 25–40 |
| [American basswood](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-basswood/index.html.md) | Tolerant | Starts in shade, grows best in an opening | 2–8 | 60–90 |
| [Black gum](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/black-gum/index.html.md) | Tolerant | Grows slowly under a full canopy | 4–9 | 40–70 |
| [Shagbark hickory](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/shagbark-hickory/index.html.md) | Intermediate | Waits for years in shade, grows fast once released | 4–9 | 60–90 |
| [White oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/white-oak/index.html.md) | Intermediate | Can wait under a canopy for over 90 years | 3–9 | 50–80 |
| [Northern red oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/northern-red-oak/index.html.md) | Intermediate | Less tolerant than white oak | 3–8 | 50–75 |
| [Black cherry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/black-cherry/index.html.md) | Intolerant | Needs a moderate to heavy opening | 2–9 | 50–80 |
| [Black walnut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/black-walnut/index.html.md) | Intolerant | Must reach the top of the canopy to survive | 4–9 | 70–100 |

![A crowd of young potted oak seedlings of several kinds, their leaves lobed and toothed, ready for planting](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/articles/caring-for-a-small-woodlot-6-1000.jpg?v=4fe10b1a "Oak seedlings in pots, ready to plant, on October 21, 2026. White oak and northern red oak are intermediate in shade tolerance, and a white oak can wait under a canopy for over 90 years.")
*Photo: Blue Whale Trees*

Blue Whale Trees grows every tree it sells from seed, not grafted, so each seedling in a gap is genetically distinct, as the young trees of a wild stand are. Choose the kinds that grow wild on that ground, from [a seed source near you](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/seed-source-and-provenance/index.html.md). For your own gap, the [tree finder](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/tree-finder/index.html.md?size=large-tree&sun=part&want=wildlife) lists the large trees we grow for wildlife that take part shade, and [planting bare-root trees on arrival](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/planting-bare-root-trees-on-arrival/index.html.md) covers the day they come.

## Common questions

### Can I write my own forest management plan?

Yes: for a few acres a plan can be a map and a dated list of jobs, and extension services publish worksheets for drafting one. A plan written by a forester is the kind that qualifies for cost-share and for a Tree Farm certificate.

### How much does a consulting forester charge?

Fees run by the job, the hour, the day or the acre, and a full-service forester who runs a timber sale is often paid 10 to 15 percent of it. On a small property the timber seldom covers a consultant, so the state forester is the usual first call.

### Is there help paying for a forest management plan?

Yes: cost-share from the Natural Resources Conservation Service can pay toward a plan written by a forester certified as one of its technical service providers, and toward practices such as tree planting. Its technical help costs nothing, so the local office is the place to ask.

### Should I cut down dead trees in my woods?

Keep most of them, since snags and hollow trees house woodpeckers, owls, bats and flying squirrels, and one state's guide asks for at least six an acre. Take down only the ones that could fall on a house, a road or a trail.

## Sources

- [Management Planning for Small Woodlots](https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/management-planning-for-small-woodlots): NC State Extension, with its glossary Understanding Forestry Terms for private landowners: goals and objectives with target dates, the map of boundaries and access, online aerial photos and the soil survey's maps, the inventory, the sample schedule with the back five acres' trail and the nest boxes, the worksheets for drafting a plan, the Association of Consulting Foresters, and the definitions of a forest management plan, a stand, a consulting forester and cost-share assistance.
- [Got woods? You need a forest management plan.](https://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/articles/2026/get-a-woodland-forest-management-plan.html): Virginia Cooperative Extension (Jennifer Gagnon, Virginia Forest Landowner Education Program, 2026): goals as the big picture written with the family, the forester's walk and what decides whether a goal is realistic, objectives with timelines, a small property's plan as maps and objectives, the plan required for a Tree Farm and an easement and ranked higher for cost-share, the review every few years, and plans written by state and consulting foresters and by technical service providers.
- [Choosing a Consulting Forester](https://extension.msstate.edu/publications/choosing-consulting-forester): Mississippi State University Extension Service (A. Brady Self): the quotation, the consultant's legal duty to the landowner, full-service consultants' timber sales, logging supervision and planting, four or five candidates, references and a written contract, timber buyers and conflicts of interest, registered foresters, the ways fees are paid and the 10 to 15 percent share, and the acreages at which a consultant pays.
- [Find a Forester](https://www.acf-foresters.org/find-a-forester): Association of Consulting Foresters: the directory of its member consulting foresters, named under who writes the plan.
- [Forest Stewardship Program](https://www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/private-land/forest-stewardship): USDA Forest Service, with its page on how the program works: the program's work through state forestry agencies, cooperative extension and conservation districts, the Forest Stewardship Plan, more than 25 million acres under such plans, and some 11 million private owners holding more than half the nation's forest land.
- [Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)](https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs-initiatives/environmental-quality-incentives-program): USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, with its pages on conservation planning activities and the CPA 106 Forest Management Plan criteria of October 2024: the flagship program for farmers and forest landowners, technical help at no cost, the planner's visit, financial help for practices that vary by state, ranking dates, the plan written by a certified technical service provider, its stand inventory with invasive plants and regeneration, and the planting, stand improvement, fence and invasive plant practices.
- [Forest Finance 2: Fencing for Forest Regeneration: Does It Pay?](https://extension.psu.edu/forest-finance-2-fencing-for-forest-regeneration-does-it-pay): Penn State Extension: deer taking the most valuable timber species and leaving ferns, the three signs of deer damage, hunting as the most effective and economical control, shelters cheaper than a fence on five acres or fewer at 400 trees an acre, and 5 to 10 years of protection.
- [Low-Cost Fence Designs to Limit Deer Impacts in Woodlands and Sugarbushes](https://smallfarms.cornell.edu/2018/01/low-cost-fence-designs-2/): Cornell Small Farms Program (Peter Smallidge and others, Cornell Cooperative Extension, 2018): the quotation on a heavily browsed woods, recreational hunting too little in most cases, and seedlings that may need 5 to 10 years of protection.
- [6.2 Cavity Trees, Dens and Snags](https://extension.unh.edu/goodforestry/html/6-2.htm): University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, Good Forestry in the Granite State, with section 6.3 on dead and down woody material: the birds and mammals that use cavities, six cavity or snag trees an acre with one over 18 inches and three over 12, cavity trees over 24 inches uncommon, the northern flicker among the cavity diggers of 12-inch trees, and large hollow logs as the most valuable and a shelter for seedlings.
- [White Oak](https://research.fs.usda.gov/silvics/white-oak): USDA Forest Service, Silvics of North America, the pages for white oak, northern red oak, black cherry, black walnut, American basswood, black tupelo, eastern hophornbeam, flowering dogwood and shagbark hickory: the shade tolerance of each, white oak persisting under a canopy for more than 90 years, black cherry seldom reaching the canopy through a one-tree gap, black walnut needing a dominant or codominant crown, basswood and black tupelo seedlings under a canopy, and shagbark responding to release.

## Related

- Next step: [Open the tree finder](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/tree-finder/index.html.md?size=large-tree&sun=part&want=wildlife)
- [Invasive vines and shrubs are what is killing your woods](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/invasive-vines-and-shrubs/index.html.md)
- [The habitat around a tree is part of the tree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/habitat-around-a-tree/index.html.md)
- [What grows back when a field is left alone](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/old-field-succession/index.html.md)
- [Protecting forestland for good: conservation easements and the other tools](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-forestland-for-good/index.html.md)