Andy Tuttle in his typical “office” environment. Photo Credit: Andy Tuttle
Andy Tuttle figures he has seen just about everything in decades of work as a forester.
“That’s the cool thing about what we do,” said Tuttle, a consulting forester for Groeschl Forestry Consulting. “Everything is an adventure and there are new projects every day.”
Tuttle’s list of specialties includes forest management planning, timber sale and inventory administration, appraisal and contracting, wildlife habitat improvement, environmental impact studies, recreational planning, GIS/GPS mapping and expert litigation testimony.
That’s a full deck of varied skills, to be sure. But Tuttle says “the bread and butter of what I do” is consulting with landowners involved – or considering involvement – in the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) Managed Forest Law (MFL) program.
As such, Tuttle stands as a shining example of the 200 or so certified MFL plan writers in the state.
“Because there’s so much to do with MFL, probably 70% of what I do, if not more, is related to MFL in some way,” Tuttle said, adding that his MFL work often focuses heavily on when the time for a timber sale arrives.
“There are always plans out there to work on and mandatory practices that landowners need to know how to manage correctly. So, they call and ask for assistance,” said Tuttle, who earned a degree in forest management from Purdue University in 1994.
“Landowners call when they have the MFL law in hand and they’ve gotten a letter from the DNR that it’s time to do this or that,” Tuttle said. “We read the plan, look at what was done five, 10, 20 years ago, and apply it to what is going on out there today. We ask, ‘Did we look correctly into the crystal ball back then?’
“We try to take all those pieces and parts and look at what would help most now, both in terms of meeting the (MFL) requirements and providing the greatest advantage to the landowner.”
Some of his clients are new to the MFL program or are in the early stages of investigating it. Others, such as Camp Wipigaki, a 1,000-acre camp located in Vilas County, have been working with Tuttle for 30 years.
“When MFL came along and it became apparent to us that it would be a good deal to join it, one thing we needed was to develop a more sophisticated management plan,” said Sam Greeley of Camp Wipigaki. “We broke the plan down into smaller units (and) Andy helped us develop a more granular plan.
“Andy has been invaluable to us. … He has a detailed knowledge of our land – he’s been on every acre we have,” added Greeley, who is also a professional forester. “I go over his plans and look at the older plans, and I find that the things Andy predicted would happen if we did (or didn’t) do things as he prescribed came to be true 99% of the time.”
Tuttle said the rush of landowners to join the MFL program has slowed from the time when increasing property taxes pushed them to consider the program because of the tax benefit. And that’s a good thing, he said.
“It felt like there were a lot of people going into MFL that didn’t have a clue what it took, and they were surprised,” Tuttle said. “You’d get anything from ‘that’s what I figured; I know the forest needs management’ to ‘what? You say I have to clearcut?’
“But now, the people that go in know what is involved. There’s going to be management, but they want to do that anyway. You don’t get the deer-in-the-headlights look (from landowners) anymore. We just do some teaching and some tweaking to help them meet their goals while still having the required forest management fit in with their plans.”
Tuttle says he has noticed that people decide to investigate MFL for a myriad of reasons.
Andy Tuttle, a consulting forester based in Hayward, gives advice to a landowner as they walk through a site visit. Photo Credit: Andy Tuttle
“Everything we do is forestry-based and everyone in MFL has a forest,” Tuttle said. “But maybe they want to do wildlife management, estate management, tax management. I do tons of mapping – you do an MFL plan for someone, and they say, ‘Can you put where our trails are, where our tree stands are? All the different uses.”
If he hears from a landowner who’s interested in joining the MFL program for the first time, he follows a procedure that helps the landowner reach the best possible decision.
“The first thing is a conversation about why they’re interested,” Tuttle said. “You see what drives them, so your recommendations fit into their goals and needs.
“The second thing is whether it makes sense from a tax point of view. … The next thing is to visit and take a look at the property and what’s growing there. How is the soil? Then we give them a report and make our recommendations, and we listen to their wants and needs and make tweaks to it. … The best thing I can do as a forester is explain the science behind it.”
“Andy is really practical, and he has extensive experience in the forest types we’re managing. He’s been an ideal fit,” said Greeley, of Camp Wipigaki. “He’s able to communicate well with our members – even some of the ones that have not been on board with our proposals for timber management.
“He’ll take them into the woods and remind them what he asked us to do 15 years ago, and they’ll say, ‘oh, yeah, now I see what you were saying,’” Greeley said. “MFL has been really good about getting us to keep our focus in terms of sales … They work with us even as the market conditions fluctuate so much.”
Seeing a plan turn into a thriving forest over a decade or more is often as satisfying to Tuttle as it is to the landowner.
“You go to forestry school because you think you’re going to be out in the woods all day, but there’s a huge people component,” Tuttle said. “People own the trees, whether they’re private or professionals or the government.
“So you have to understand what people want and manage what they are hoping for, and use science to show them what’s best for their forest – not always what you can see right now, but what’s going to be there 15 or 20 years down the road.”