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Appalachian Forest
Farmer Coalition
Forest Farming Digital Tools and Resources
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In addition to field based Forest Farming Site Assessments, there are several freely available resources that range from essential documentation to complementary resources and information for forest farmers. Collecting information from these sources can provide a digital x-ray, more or less, of a forest site and sometimes, even its history as well.
Highly recommended basic documentation for Forest Farmers/landowners
Not only are the following documents invaluable for site assessments and planning, but they also provide important documentation for record keeping, business planning and legal purposes, if needed.
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1. Basic property maps
These can come from many sources. It is recommended to keep at least one original copy, but duplicates can be with labeled with helpful information like: adjoining property owners, roads, structures, trails, forest farming areas or future areas of interest, etc. If available, zoomed maps of specific areas can be helpful for mapping current and future forest farming plans.
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2. Geographical Information System (GIS) imagery/maps
All US counties have access to geographic information systems. The disclaimer is that GIS information and mapping is not, nor should be considered a professional survey in any way.
Finding some time to explore the online GIS is very much worth it. In addition to several basemaps (road, satellite and historical), there are also measurement tools, and many other useful layers including named roads, terrain contours, creeks, waterways and more. Through not 100% accurate, this free online tool is invaluable for forest farmers that want to familiarize themselves with their parcel, make plans and print detailed maps.
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How to find a property on GIS? Computer (not mobile) search for "county, state + GIS". Click to enter the site, go to the map section and search by address or owner name. ​​​​​​​
Resources that are complementary to field-based assessments:
(from the Northeast Forest Farmers Coalition Site Assessment Worksheet)
This is a site assessment tool developed by Virginia Tech that will produce a property report based on spatial datasets resulting from broad environmental analysis efforts conducted by organizations like USGS. It is important to recognize that the information produced in these
reports can be useful but is limited to the accuracy and availability of underlying data. Therefore,
this tool should only be used to compliment field-based observations.
This website can be used to collect baseline soil information regarding the different soil classifications on your site. You will be able to draw a polygon around your area of interest and find out valuable information about the underlying soils of that area.
Google Earth is a free and user-friendly way to acquire basic topographical information about your site. This is useful when working to narrow down potential forest farming sites within a large area. For example, if you have 50 acres of land and want to find the single best acre to forest farm, you could use Google Earth to identify the ideally sloped areas (5-20% slope) that are facing either north or east on your property. This will narrow down your options so you can more accurately and efficiently target your in-field assessments.
Here is a short video showing how to make an elevation profile of a path in Google Earth, which will tell you the % slope of an area: Google Earth Elevation Path Demo
Here is a video showing how to find the aspect of a slope as well as how to see how much sunshine different parts of a landscape receive throughout the day: Google Earth Aspect and
Sunlight Demo
Aerial photos
Most states in the Northeast have programs that have been taking landscape level aerial photographs since at least the mid-1900s. This can be useful in seeing if the areas you are interested in forest farming have had large-scale disturbances like logging or major windstorms in the past. This can help you better understand if the present-day conditions you are seeing on the ground arose from underlying site conditions (like geology) or land use history (like forest management).