Smith County is in south central Mississippi. Most of it is rolling pine ground with creek bottoms cut through it. Those bottoms hold water after the ridges have dried out.
Southeast Forestlands works only for the landowner. We do not buy timber and we are not paid by mills.
Pine Ground With Wet Streaks
The rolling ground works well in normal weather. The flats and bottoms do not.
Knowing which is which on your place is the first step in planning any job.
Work the Tract in Pieces
It helps to think of a place as two or three work areas instead of one.
The dry part can be cut in a wet season. The soft part waits. Splitting the job that way protects the ground and keeps the trucks rolling.
Thinning on Time
Planted pine left too thick quits growing well. Crowded trees are also the ones that get in trouble with beetles.
Whether a stand is at that point depends on its age and spacing. A look at the stand answers it.
Mark the Lines Before a Harvest
Find the corners and mark the line before a crew comes in. Paint fades, and old fences move.
It costs little to do it right and a great deal to fix it later.
Rain Terms Belong in the Agreement
Write down when work stops in wet weather and who fixes the road afterward.
Name the rut depth that triggers a shutdown, so nobody has to argue about it in February.
After the Cut
Settle the next stand before the current one is sold, including species, spacing, and the acres left out. Pine goes back on the rolling ground.
The wet streaks are normally kept in hardwood, once a walk shows what is coming on there.
What a Cruise Has to Settle
Volume, tree size, and the way trucks get in. All three come off the tract, not off a map.
Nearby Counties
We also work with landowners in nearby counties, including Scott, Newton, Jasper, Covington, Simpson, Rankin, and Jones.
General Guidance
How the work itself is done is explained once, site-wide, rather than repeated county by county:
- What a timber cruise measures
- How a sealed-bid timber sale works
- How we sell timber
- Wet-weather logging and BMPs
- Thinning decisions
- Regeneration and replanting
- All forestry services
Talk It Over First
Walk the place with a forester before deciding anything. Contact us to set up a visit.