During the past year 21 landowners in Rappahannock County

During the past year 21 landowners in Rappahannock County 'availed themselves of the services offered by the Virginia Division of Forestry through its forest management assistance program to private landowners. Twelve landowners had foresters from the Division of Forestry examine 1,454 acres of woodland and eight of these owners, who had merchantable timber to sell, had the foresters mark . and estimate their trees for.sawtimber stuippage sales 612,362 board feet of sawtimber was markd for Harvesting under good forest practices. One landowner 'requested an examination of some diseased trees amr8 landowners had planting site examina-' tions ^preparatory to reforesting open abandoned fields and cutover woodland. 109,000 forest tree seedlings were planted in the county during the-ffast fall and spring which exceeded the county’s goal lor the last year of the Governor’s Plant More Trees Program. The Virginia Division of Forestry, through its forest manage- * ment assistance program, provides forestry assistance to the individual landowner so that his timberlands may be managed to produce the greatest volume of timber of the best species possible in the shortest period of time. At a landowner’s request, a trained forester will make a preliminary examina. tion of th owner’s timber holdings, advise him on the correct methods of managing it and submit i detailed report, togethcr-4vith recommendations, on his findings. If a landowner is planning op reforesting cutover or abandoned land, he may also obtain a planting site examination. A forester will examine the proposed area and make recommendations concerning th best species of tree to plant, the number of trees heeded, the time of year to plant them and the best method of planting. The owner will receive a report recommenda-. th forester’s planting recommndations and the forester will assist him in obtain tree from the State nurseries. This assistance is free.

In the event that the forest finds mature timber during his timberland examination, The Virginia Division of Forestry will mark and estimate the trees ready for harvesting. A charge of 60$ per thousand board feet for sawrimber marked or 20$ per standard cord of pulpwood marked is iriade for this service. On completion of the marking work, the Owneyreceives, a report showing,, the Bomber of „• trees marked Ijvspgdes and the volume of timBfr' marked for cutting on the tract. With this in formatict., he will be .in a better, position' to negotiate a satisfactory timber sale. , T