The Monongahela National Forest continues to achieve restoration goals in the Land and Resource Management Plan (also known as the Forest Plan) using timber sales. Awarded volume has increased from 11.1 million board feet (MMBF) in 2017 to 27.4 MMBF in 2023. The Forest is on track to advertise more than 28 MMBF in 2024, a volume that will result in over 2,800 acres of restored forested areas as harvests occur, providing for wildlife habitat, as well as healthy and resilient trees for many generations.
The Forest specifies both conventional harvest and helicopter harvest for timber sales. Helicopter sales facilitate operations on slopes too steep for conventional, ground-based equipment. Over the last four years, from 2020 to present in 2024, conventional harvests have made up the vast majority of 38 awarded advertisements. To date in Fiscal Year* 2024, we have awarded three timber sales totaling about 8.3 MMBF, one of which was helicopter harvest. Of the nine sales involved in the 2023 program, eight were conventional harvests and one was a helicopter harvest.
Since 2020, the Monongahela has averaged about nine timber sale awards per year with a range of seven sales in 2020 and 2021 to 12 in 2023. That same four-year span produced an average sale volume of 2 MMBF and an average sale area of 206 acres. As sale volume has advanced from 16.4 MMBF to 27.4 MMBF, so has timber sale revenue, increasing from $556,166 in 2020 to approximately $2,260,000 in 2023. So far in 2024 receipts from timber sales totaled $438,536.
Receipts from timber sales are used to support essential reforestation, such as post-harvest site preparation for natural regeneration, seedling planting, tree release, and stocking surveys. Some of the funding is used to support future vegetation salvage operations resulting from insect infestations, disease, and storm events. Stewardship contract timber sales provide the opportunity to perform services that achieve land management goals meeting local and rural community needs, such as invasive species treatments, mineland restoration, and stream improvements. Other potential improvements include developing wildlife openings, planting resilient American chestnut seedlings, and restoring recreation trails to improve water quality.
The Forest is also leveraging stewardship timber sales through partnerships with The Nature Conservancy and Ruffed Grouse Society, with receipts being reinvested in Monongahela National Forest vegetation management projects that directly benefit ecosystem resources, such as restoring historic red spruce stands and creating ruffed grouse habitat. The Forest Service coordinates directly with partners of stewardship agreements, assisting with timber harvesting activities, providing financial accounting services, posting sale information in our annual program announcements, tracking accomplishment activities, and collaborating on agreement projects, such as non-commercial spruce release and non-native invasive species treatments. Stewardship project partners also have access to Forest Service staff to support on site pre-bid sale showings.
For Fiscal Year 2024 the Monongahela National Forest is planning to advertise over 28 MMBF with most of the sale activity occurring in the second half of the fiscal year. As was the case in 2023 most of the sale activity is identified for conventional harvest, including nine of the planned 10 sales. More information regarding the 2024 program is included in the two timber program announcements available on the Forest Service public website referenced here:
https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/mnf/landmanagement/resourcemanagement/?cid=fseprd542047.
For more information about the Timber Program on the Monongahela National Forest contact Kirk Piehler at kirk.piehler@usda.gov.
Timber Sale Schedules for October 1, 2023 to March 30, 2024 and for April 1, 2024 to September 30, 2024 are available from this site (both documents are subject to change):
https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/mnf/landmanagement/resourcemanagement/?cid=fseprd542047.
*Fiscal Year begins on October 1 and ends September 30.
