Ten-year Field Plan

The Field Plan is a more fine-filtered extraction of the Operations Schedule. It includes the span of time necessary for the completion of work scheduled for the first five-year planning cycle. Work scheduled for the years 2000-2004 is described in some detail and includes more items than those scheduled in the Operations Schedule; for example, compliance, contract preparation, stand examinations, etc.

The years 2005-2009 are also included in the Field Plan, but are not developed to the level of the previous five. These later years are included for two reasons. First, it is a chance to exchange treatments between planning cycles with a finer degree of sensitivity than at the 50-year planning level. For example, a stand may have been scheduled for treatment in the 2005 planning cycle, but in actuality the window of opportunity opens during the 2000 cycle. Such a stand is simply scheduled to a suitable time and a note is made about any alteration from the 50-year plan. The years 2005-2009 must also be included to facilitate complete planning in the current planning cycle. Seedlings must be ordered two years in advance, revenue flow should be considered two-to-three years on either side of a scheduled commercial harvest, stands must be evaluated prior to plantation maintenance, etc. While the actual treatment schedule of the second five-years is subject to change, the current schedule provides a general direction to work toward. Also, it is an important reminder that the work completed in this planning cycle sets the stage for the next.

While designing the field plan there are further opportunities to adjust the scheduled treatments. It may turn out that a scheduled stand treatment slipped through during the coarse-filtered landscape-level planning process, and is not actually appropriate. Such a treatment can be entirely removed, be modified or scheduled for further evaluation before proceeding. Similarly, some stands may require an operation that was not scheduled during the 50-year planning. These should be added to the Field Plan as required. It is important that note be made of any deviations from the 50-year Treatment Schedule.

Plan adaptability remains a key consideration at the Field Plan level. Plantation maintenance should be scheduled for windows of opportunity to allow flexibility to prepare larger contracts. Timber sale dates are not scheduled in stone to allow flexibility in changing markets. Treatments can be modified or removed as needed. The plan provided the guide posts, but doesn't preclude venturing off the beaten path.

View the Field Plan

The Field Plan is available as a filterable Excel workbook (right click link and save to disk to download). The Field Plan consist of a page of introductory notes and instructions, the 2000-2009 Field Plan filterable table, the 2002 Work Plan table and a list of all the stands and their scheduled treatments for the 2000 and 2005 planning cycles. The notes page of the workbook provides more detail.

Mason McKinley, Pack Forest