What Your Woodland’s Next Manager Needs to Know by Rich Merk

Maine Woodland Owners is committed to helping small woodland owners develop succession plans so they can know their life’s work will be passed on to someone who will continue their stewardship efforts. Here’s another topic to stimulate landowner efforts to develop and improve their plans.

Once you know who you want to be the next manager or managers of your woodlands, you can’t start the training too soon. The time needed to transfer all you know about the land and the efforts you have expended is huge if you have done a lot during your stewardship time. Listed below are some reasons to start the training program as soon as possible. It can take a long time – particularly if you don’t normally spend a lot of time with your intended successor.

1.  The more time you spend with the person, the more comfortable they will become.

2.  The more the person learns and experiences, the easier it will be for him or her to make decisions when needed.

3.  You never know how much time you have, or don’t have, to teach the next steward. You may have a particular timeline in mind, but your health may change and eliminate your opportunity to train the next steward, or reduce the amount of time you have available.

4.  You will not remember everything you want the steward-in-training to know in a short period of time, or a single focused training period.

5.  The more time the next steward has to prepare, the more time he or she will have to gain technical information or training from others.

6.  The more time you all have together, the more you can do and talk about as the life of your woodlands evolves.