Forestry Consulting Services

TÜV SÜD provides a wide range of forestry consulting services from some of the most highly trained professionals in the field. They include the following.

TIMBERLAND MANAGEMENT

TÜV SÜD provides the full suite of professional forest land management services to timberland owners ranging from small family ownerships to NGOs to large corporate ownerships. Our clients’ goals range from recreational use to restoration to sustained yield harvesting, and we have the capacity and experience to plan and manage projects from start to finish. TÜV SÜD especially excels in regulatory compliance, providing clients with peace of mind and building the trust of stakeholders. Our timberland management services include:

• Timber appraisal

• Forest Management Plans

• Timber harvest and fuels reduction planning and permitting pursuant to the CA Forest Practice Rules and other applicable regulations (THPs, NTMPs, Emergencies and Exemptions)
• Timber sale preparation and administration
• Fuels reduction planning and permitting, including Smoke Management Plan and Burn Permit preparation for prescribed burning
• Cost-share program application and administration
• Water quality monitoring and reporting
• Archaeological surveys for CAL FIRE projects

GIS SERVICES

TÜV SÜD employs a suite of ESRI software for its mobile data collection, database management, online services, spatial analysis, and cartography.  Maps and data can be shared in real-time with clients via ESRI’s cloud infrastructure.  Our GIS services include:

• Field data collection with up to < 1 cm accuracy
• Spatial analysis such as risk assessment, land cover stratification, and other land use planning
• Web-based map applications
• Custom mobile inventory and data collection solutions
• GIS database management
• Professional cartography

FOREST INVENTORY & ANALYSIS

We believe in data-driven decision-making when it comes to the manipulation of forest ecosystems. Forest inventory is among our niche expertise, having designed, implemented, or verified dozens of inventories on properties ranging from a handful of acres to hundreds of thousands of acres. From design to measurement to analysis, TÜV SÜD delivers inventory data with the appropriate intensity and statistical confidence for your project. TÜV SÜD provides a broad range of forest and vegetation inventories:

• Timber
• Forest vegetation
• Growth and yield modeling with the Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) and FORSEE
• Fuels including fire effects modeling with FVS and the Fire and Fuels Extension (FFE)
• Forest carbon
• Utility right-of-way (ROW) 

TIMBERLAND CONVERSION

Development of private and public timberland requires environmental analysis of project impacts per CEQA and/or NEPA, as well as additional permitting that must be completed by a Registered Professional Forester on private lands. TÜV SÜD has proven experience in providing Timberland Conversion services.

• NEPA/CEQA Analysis
• Mitigation development
• Timberland Conversion Permits and exemptions

UAV SURVEY AND ASSESSMENT

TÜV SÜD staff maintains UAV drone credentials to fly commercially under FAA's Small UAS Rule (Part 107).  We design a flight plan for our DJI Mavic 2 Pro to capture images to suit our client’s project goals. Capabilities include:

• Landscape image capture (20 MP)
• 4K video capture
• Photo stitching for high-resolution mapping with georeferencing
• Stereo-pair analysis for 3D mapping and elevation profiles
• Visible Atmospherically Resistant Index (VARI): “greenness” as a proxy for plant health
• Examples of output spatial data include geotiff, LAS, and kml; outputs can be customized and transformed for clients’ desired use