MyLandPlan: An Online Stewardship Tool for Woodland Owners
By Steve Wilent, Society of American Foresters
(Editor’s Note: Excerpts of an article published in the August 2012 edition of The Forestry Source, the monthly newspaper of the Society of American Foresters. Reprinted by permission. Copyright 2012, the Society of American Foresters).
One of the nation’s greatest forestry challenges is convincing family forestland owners to develop management plans for their properties. According to the American Forest Foundation (AFF), 56 percent of U.S. forestland is privately owned, and 62 percent of that land—251 million acres—is owned by families and individuals. However, although 46 percent of the 11 million family forest owners in the U.S. have harvested or removed timber, only about 4 percent of them have a forest management plan.
“This leaves millions of acres without strategies to ensure healthy and productive woodlands,” said AFF in its recent “Stem the Loss” report. “Forest owners need more and better access to information that will set them on the track toward better stewardship.”
Helping to meet that need is the main purpose of MyLandPlan.org, an interactive website “for woodland own- ers, by woodland owners,” launched by AFF in June. The site helps landowners answer a central question: What do you want to do with your land?
“Do you want to just kick back and enjoy your woods? Maybe you’ve been wondering about ways to keep your trees healthier? Create better wildlife habitat? Maybe you’ve even thought about ways to profit from the timber on your land, but you just don’t know what are the next right steps. You may also have wondered about how to ensure your woods will be passed on to future generations,” reads the introduction. “While woodland owners share a lot in common, what you want to do on your land is an individual decision, and there’s a lot to consider as a woodland owner. MyLandPlan is here to help you think about, and plan for, what you want to do on your land.”
The site guides landowners through the planning pro- cess by letting them select from a range of goals and actions in five categories:
Clicking on the categories reveals a list of subcatego- ries for which users can select “To Do” or “Done.” These selections not only help landowners organize and track their actions, but also lead to more information about how to carry them out. For example, when I selected “Protect against pests and diseases” as one of my goals, two items appeared in my Recommended Articles list: Prevention Steps You Can Take and What To Do if You Suspect an Outbreak. Clicking on these links led me to informative tips and links to additional resources, such as local foresters and extension services.
Users also can enter information about and photos of their lands and activities on it in a My Forest Journal section. An Ask a Forester section lets users ask detailed questions; answers provided by AFF staff and foresters who have registered with MyLandPlan are posted on the site for everyone to see.
Maps are a central feature of MyLandPlan—maps that landowners themselves create via a Google Maps interface. Users enter a street address to position the on-screen map on or near their parcel. They then draw property boundaries and can add point, line, and area features, along with basic information about the features.
Finding a Forester
For landowners who want or need assistance with writing and/or executing a plan, MyLandPlan provides contact information for local foresters and other experts. A Who Can Help section has tips on seeking experts, ex- plains the types of professionals available, and lists links to state forestry agencies.
Users can a specify distance within which to search for foresters, such as 30, 100, or 150 miles or more; or can look for foresters within a ZIP code. Only foresters who have registered with MyLandPlan are shown; see http://mylandplan.org/forester-signup. This is not only a useful service to landowners, but for foresters may be an effec- tive means of connecting with potential clients and helping them with planning.
Steven Smith, a consulting forester with Cross Creek Timber LLC, in Greenville, South Carolina, is one of the foresters who have registered with MyLandPlan. Smith said he has found MyLandPlan useful for two of his clients, each of which involve properties owned by multiple family members scattered around the nation. The property owners are preparing to pass their forestland holdings to their children, but instead of splitting the properties amongst the siblings, the siblings plan to keep the properties intact and jointly manage them, primarily for timber.
“We were e-mailing back and forth to share information and files, but I thought to myself that MyLandPlan would be a great way to have one place where all of the family members could go and look at what's going on. They could enter information as they see fit, I can enter the information I need to provide, and all of that is available to everyone involved,” Smith said.
For any landowner, MyLandPlan provides a central repository for information about a property. “I often deal with landowners who have no idea when the last time their timber was cut, what they did, what the game plan was,” said Smith. “They'll say, ‘Well, I've got all that information in a file here somewhere, but it's been at least 20 years since I've seen it.’ But with all of this information on MyLand- Plan, we avoid having somebody have to be responsible for hanging onto all that information, and we have it all there on the site, in one location, for everybody to access when they want it.”
Access to that information is controlled by the landowner; a family, for example, can use a common user name (an e-mail address) and password to share access to the property in which they have an interest.
Strengths and Weaknesses
In using MyLandPlan over the course of several weeks, I found the site to be generally well thought out and attractive. As with most web sites, some users will find it too complex or confusing, while others may find it limiting. For example, landowners who are computer and Google Maps-savvy will have no trouble with MyLandPlan’s bare-bones mapping facility. For others, identifying property boundaries on a map or satellite photo may be a challenge. (Note that in some areas of the nation, such as my area of Oregon, parcel lines are visible on Google Maps, but they are not available in many states.) Properties can be located only with a street address—there is no way to navigate to a point’s latitude and longitude or UTM coordinates, and no means of uploading GPS waypoints or features, KML files, or shapefiles.
Several “How-To Videos” will be especially useful to landowners new to the planning and mapping processes. These informative presentations ought to be considered required reading.
AFF had to walk a fine line in designing MyLandPlan to serve the greatest number of users, and in my view they made the right choices in most cases. After all, the goal is to attract landowners new to the planning process. What’s more, AFF encourages feedback and has committed to enhancing the site’s functionality.
In the My Forest Journal section, for example, users can upload photographs of their properties, which Smith said would be helpful to landowners who want to keep a record of their properties and the results of management activities they conduct. But Smith suggests that the MyLandPlan needs a facility for property owners, family members, foresters, and others to share other types of files, such as management plans, timber inventories, maps, invoices, cost-share agreements, and other documents. To its credit, AFF is investigating the addition of such a “My Documents” feature to the site. Several AFF staffers told me that they appreciate constructive criticism about MyLandPlan.
It is possible to use MyLandPlan via a smartphone, but the small screens on typical phones make manipulating buttons and links difficult, and drawing and editing maps is a chore. The site will be much easier to use via iPads and other tablets with larger screens. AFF ought to consider developing apps for these devices to smooth the user ex- perience. It will have to do so in the future as woodland owners, along with the rest of the general public, migrate from desktop PCs to mobile handheld devices.
Despite a few rough spots, MyLandPlan takes an im- portant step toward convincing the 96 percent family forest owners who do not have a plan to create one. What’s more, the opportunity to connect with those landowners via the site will be a boon to consulting foresters. I salute AFF for creating MyLandPlan—in doing so it has done a great service to the nation’s family forest landowners.
Resources for Forest Stewardship Planning in Oregon
OSU Extension Service
• Find publications related for stewardship planning and the uniform forest management plan template and guidelines at extension.oregonstate.edu/columbia/forest-stewardship-planning.
Amy Grotta, OSU Extension Forestry Advisor ([email protected])
• Teaches the Mentored Management Planning Shortcourse. This four-session course is ideal if you would like to get a start on writing a management plan for your property, or revise an existing plan. You will be provided with maps and materials for your property, and will be paired with a mentor who can provide you with one-on-one assistance.
Oregon Dept. of Forestry
• Find planning resources at www.oregon.gov/odf/privateforests/pages/incentivesfsp.aspx
(This story appeared in the Oct. 2012 Ridge Runner)
(Editor’s Note: Excerpts of an article published in the August 2012 edition of The Forestry Source, the monthly newspaper of the Society of American Foresters. Reprinted by permission. Copyright 2012, the Society of American Foresters).
One of the nation’s greatest forestry challenges is convincing family forestland owners to develop management plans for their properties. According to the American Forest Foundation (AFF), 56 percent of U.S. forestland is privately owned, and 62 percent of that land—251 million acres—is owned by families and individuals. However, although 46 percent of the 11 million family forest owners in the U.S. have harvested or removed timber, only about 4 percent of them have a forest management plan.
“This leaves millions of acres without strategies to ensure healthy and productive woodlands,” said AFF in its recent “Stem the Loss” report. “Forest owners need more and better access to information that will set them on the track toward better stewardship.”
Helping to meet that need is the main purpose of MyLandPlan.org, an interactive website “for woodland own- ers, by woodland owners,” launched by AFF in June. The site helps landowners answer a central question: What do you want to do with your land?
“Do you want to just kick back and enjoy your woods? Maybe you’ve been wondering about ways to keep your trees healthier? Create better wildlife habitat? Maybe you’ve even thought about ways to profit from the timber on your land, but you just don’t know what are the next right steps. You may also have wondered about how to ensure your woods will be passed on to future generations,” reads the introduction. “While woodland owners share a lot in common, what you want to do on your land is an individual decision, and there’s a lot to consider as a woodland owner. MyLandPlan is here to help you think about, and plan for, what you want to do on your land.”
The site guides landowners through the planning pro- cess by letting them select from a range of goals and actions in five categories:
- Enjoy It (with choices such as Improve deer hunting and Make it a great place to hike and camp)
- Protect It (Protect against pests and diseases, Reduce fire hazards, etc.)
- Make it Healthy (Increase biodiversity, Restore damaged woodlands, etc.)
- Profit From It (Earn income from timber, Reduce my taxes, etc.)
- Pass it On (Keep my land in my family, Use my woods to strengthen family ties, etc.)
Clicking on the categories reveals a list of subcatego- ries for which users can select “To Do” or “Done.” These selections not only help landowners organize and track their actions, but also lead to more information about how to carry them out. For example, when I selected “Protect against pests and diseases” as one of my goals, two items appeared in my Recommended Articles list: Prevention Steps You Can Take and What To Do if You Suspect an Outbreak. Clicking on these links led me to informative tips and links to additional resources, such as local foresters and extension services.
Users also can enter information about and photos of their lands and activities on it in a My Forest Journal section. An Ask a Forester section lets users ask detailed questions; answers provided by AFF staff and foresters who have registered with MyLandPlan are posted on the site for everyone to see.
Maps are a central feature of MyLandPlan—maps that landowners themselves create via a Google Maps interface. Users enter a street address to position the on-screen map on or near their parcel. They then draw property boundaries and can add point, line, and area features, along with basic information about the features.
Finding a Forester
For landowners who want or need assistance with writing and/or executing a plan, MyLandPlan provides contact information for local foresters and other experts. A Who Can Help section has tips on seeking experts, ex- plains the types of professionals available, and lists links to state forestry agencies.
Users can a specify distance within which to search for foresters, such as 30, 100, or 150 miles or more; or can look for foresters within a ZIP code. Only foresters who have registered with MyLandPlan are shown; see http://mylandplan.org/forester-signup. This is not only a useful service to landowners, but for foresters may be an effec- tive means of connecting with potential clients and helping them with planning.
Steven Smith, a consulting forester with Cross Creek Timber LLC, in Greenville, South Carolina, is one of the foresters who have registered with MyLandPlan. Smith said he has found MyLandPlan useful for two of his clients, each of which involve properties owned by multiple family members scattered around the nation. The property owners are preparing to pass their forestland holdings to their children, but instead of splitting the properties amongst the siblings, the siblings plan to keep the properties intact and jointly manage them, primarily for timber.
“We were e-mailing back and forth to share information and files, but I thought to myself that MyLandPlan would be a great way to have one place where all of the family members could go and look at what's going on. They could enter information as they see fit, I can enter the information I need to provide, and all of that is available to everyone involved,” Smith said.
For any landowner, MyLandPlan provides a central repository for information about a property. “I often deal with landowners who have no idea when the last time their timber was cut, what they did, what the game plan was,” said Smith. “They'll say, ‘Well, I've got all that information in a file here somewhere, but it's been at least 20 years since I've seen it.’ But with all of this information on MyLand- Plan, we avoid having somebody have to be responsible for hanging onto all that information, and we have it all there on the site, in one location, for everybody to access when they want it.”
Access to that information is controlled by the landowner; a family, for example, can use a common user name (an e-mail address) and password to share access to the property in which they have an interest.
Strengths and Weaknesses
In using MyLandPlan over the course of several weeks, I found the site to be generally well thought out and attractive. As with most web sites, some users will find it too complex or confusing, while others may find it limiting. For example, landowners who are computer and Google Maps-savvy will have no trouble with MyLandPlan’s bare-bones mapping facility. For others, identifying property boundaries on a map or satellite photo may be a challenge. (Note that in some areas of the nation, such as my area of Oregon, parcel lines are visible on Google Maps, but they are not available in many states.) Properties can be located only with a street address—there is no way to navigate to a point’s latitude and longitude or UTM coordinates, and no means of uploading GPS waypoints or features, KML files, or shapefiles.
Several “How-To Videos” will be especially useful to landowners new to the planning and mapping processes. These informative presentations ought to be considered required reading.
AFF had to walk a fine line in designing MyLandPlan to serve the greatest number of users, and in my view they made the right choices in most cases. After all, the goal is to attract landowners new to the planning process. What’s more, AFF encourages feedback and has committed to enhancing the site’s functionality.
In the My Forest Journal section, for example, users can upload photographs of their properties, which Smith said would be helpful to landowners who want to keep a record of their properties and the results of management activities they conduct. But Smith suggests that the MyLandPlan needs a facility for property owners, family members, foresters, and others to share other types of files, such as management plans, timber inventories, maps, invoices, cost-share agreements, and other documents. To its credit, AFF is investigating the addition of such a “My Documents” feature to the site. Several AFF staffers told me that they appreciate constructive criticism about MyLandPlan.
It is possible to use MyLandPlan via a smartphone, but the small screens on typical phones make manipulating buttons and links difficult, and drawing and editing maps is a chore. The site will be much easier to use via iPads and other tablets with larger screens. AFF ought to consider developing apps for these devices to smooth the user ex- perience. It will have to do so in the future as woodland owners, along with the rest of the general public, migrate from desktop PCs to mobile handheld devices.
Despite a few rough spots, MyLandPlan takes an im- portant step toward convincing the 96 percent family forest owners who do not have a plan to create one. What’s more, the opportunity to connect with those landowners via the site will be a boon to consulting foresters. I salute AFF for creating MyLandPlan—in doing so it has done a great service to the nation’s family forest landowners.
Resources for Forest Stewardship Planning in Oregon
OSU Extension Service
• Find publications related for stewardship planning and the uniform forest management plan template and guidelines at extension.oregonstate.edu/columbia/forest-stewardship-planning.
Amy Grotta, OSU Extension Forestry Advisor ([email protected])
• Teaches the Mentored Management Planning Shortcourse. This four-session course is ideal if you would like to get a start on writing a management plan for your property, or revise an existing plan. You will be provided with maps and materials for your property, and will be paired with a mentor who can provide you with one-on-one assistance.
Oregon Dept. of Forestry
• Find planning resources at www.oregon.gov/odf/privateforests/pages/incentivesfsp.aspx
(This story appeared in the Oct. 2012 Ridge Runner)
|
|