You don’t have to be selling timber to need a forester.
I’m Erik Snow, consulting forester based in Missoula. Most forest landowners in western Montana never plan to cut a log. They want their land to be healthy and thriving long into the future, they’d like a property that can be ready for wildfire, and they’d like to better understand how they can steward their forests.
Where are you starting from?
I want to hand this place on intact
Start with a plan. It's also what the cost-share money wants to see.
Where to begin →I'm worried about wildfire near my home
Start with the first hundred feet around the house.
Where to begin →My trees are turning brown
Start with what's killing them and whether it spreads.
Where to begin →I just bought it and haven't walked it
Start with a count of what's actually out there.
Where to begin →I represent an HOA, fire district, or conservation district
Scoping, procurement, and running the grant.
Where to begin →I'm with a land trust or nonprofit
Baseline documentation for conservation easements.
Where to begin →
Why hire anyone at all
No dog in the fight
An independent forester is free from obligation to a mill or operator. I can be straightforward and offer advice based solely on what I see on the ground.
I've run the grant side
Often forest treatments are completed with grant assistance. I have experience navigating grant cycles as well as applying for and administering grants.
No management is management
Not all forests or landscapes require immediate stewardship. I will be honest with any landowner if their property is in this state. It's cost me a job but it's the right thing to do.
What I do
All services →Forest health
Why Are My Trees Dying?
Red needles, boring dust, pitch tubes at the base of the trunk. I can tell you what's doing it and whether it's coming for the rest of them.
Wildfire
Wildfire Protection & Defensible Space
The house first, then the stand. You get a written plan you can hand a contractor, and a list of the cost-share money you qualify for.
Planning
Forest Management & Stewardship Plans
What you've got, what it needs, and in what order. It's also what most cost-share programs want to see before they'll fund anything.
Stand improvement
Forest Thinning
Most stands here carry more trees than the ground can water. Thinning picks which ones get it. Sometimes the work pays for itself.
Valuation
What Is My Timber Worth?
A count of what's actually standing out there, before anybody makes you an offer. The mill will do this free. The mill is also the one bidding.
Timber sales
Selling Timber Without Getting Taken
Marking, contracts, picking a logger, somebody on site while the work happens. Most of what goes wrong gets decided before anyone starts a saw.
Restoration
Replanting After Fire, Beetles, or Harvest
Sometimes ground comes back on its own and planting it is wasted money. Sometimes it won't, and every year you wait makes the job harder.
For land trusts
Baseline Documentation Reports for Land Trusts
Forest condition inventory, photo points and mapping for conservation easement baselines. Built to hold up to IRS substantiation and Land Trust Alliance practice.
What’s behind the title
I hold a B.S. in Forestry and Natural Resources and have over 12 years of experience as a forester across the Mountain West and Pacific Northwest. I have worked with many landowners to achieve their stewardship goals, and believe I can bring that same experience and professional touch to your property.
I’m also a Registered Professional Forester, license #3101, which took a degree, documented experience and a state exam. Montana licenses nobody, so mine came from a state that does and it carries no authority here. What it means is that somebody besides me has checked the work.
More about Erik →Common questions
A consulting forester works for the landowner instead of for a mill or a logging company. The work covers measuring and valuing standing timber, writing management plans, laying out and running timber sales, assessing wildfire risk and prescribing fuels work, figuring out what's killing your trees, and planning what gets replanted. You hire one for about the same reason you hire an inspector before buying a house. You want a read from somebody whose only interest is your interest.
No, and you've got company. Nationally, only about 11% of family forest owners have a written management plan, and only about 18% have ever had professional forestry advice of any kind. Most forest land in this country is owned by people who love it and have never had a forester walk it. The reason to call is usually that something has changed. Trees dying, a fire season that got close, a transfer coming, or a decision you don't want to make blind.
Because the mill forester works for the mill. They're good at their job and they aren't trying to cheat you, but they're paid to secure logs at a price that works for their employer, and they won't tell you to wait two years or to sell to their competitor. I've got no stake in who buys your wood or whether you cut at all. My consultation is free too, so you can hear what I'd want to look at before you spend anything. What you're paying for after that is a straight answer from someone who gets paid the same whatever you decide.
No. Montana doesn't license or register foresters, so anyone here can use the title. That's why it's worth asking what somebody actually holds: a forestry degree, a state exam, documented experience, and references you can call. Mine are on the about page.
There's no minimum size. A one-acre parcel of forest may need treatment as much as any parcel. Commercially viable timber projects often require a minimum number of acres to pencil out. A free consultation can reveal what your options as a landowner are.
Western Montana. Missoula, Ravalli, Flathead, Lake, Mineral, Sanders and the counties around them, out of Missoula. I'll travel further for bigger projects.
Where this comes from
- Family forest (10+ acres) ownership characteristics: United States, 2018 (opens in a new tab)USDA Forest Service · Research Note NRS-254, 2021
- Family Forest Ownerships Trends in the United States, 2013 to 2023 (opens in a new tab)Journal of Forestry · Butler, 2026
Worth reading first
How to Hire a Consulting Forester in Montana
Who does what, who's free, who works for whom, and the questions worth asking before you sign anything.
What Forest Work Costs in Montana, and What Moves the Number
Nobody publishes this. Here's what moves the number, and the state and federal money that'll cover a good chunk of the work.
Carbon Credits for Montana Forest Land
Usually the answer is no. Worth knowing why before you sign anything that runs twenty years.
Not sure what you need yet?
That's the normal place to start. Tell me what you own and what's worrying you, and you'll get a straight read on what I'd look at first and what it would take.