We own some of the best pristine native lands in Wisconsin. Many have never been privately titled and provide people with a unique place to recreate and enjoy nature in peace.
While BCPL does harvest trees, we do so in an ecologically responsible and sustainable manner. We’re permanent fund managers. Unlike private equity groups, we don’t churn our portfolio every 7 to 10 years. As long as we have land holdings, it makes sense to manage those lands in a way that protects and preserves those lands for future generations of beneficiaries. During harvests, we intentionally leave some big trees in place to provide a good genetic source of seeds to replenish the surrounding area and for the benefit of wildlife and forest diversity.. We also identify and protect areas of unique habitat quality.
For those school trust lands that have special natural area qualities (or high conservation values), we have worked hard to sell or exchange those lands to the DNR, the US Forest Service, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Parks Service, counties and local land trusts that have a conservation mandate. We are proud that our efforts have resulted in more than 19,000 acres of unique/sensitive land being conveyed to such groups. This provided us with the funds to purchase a commensurate amount of other timber lands to manage for our beneficiaries.
We have also worked hard at being good neighbors and good partners to the other stakeholders in our land holding areas.
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We have reached out to the tribes soliciting their input regarding upcoming timber sales and adjacent lands.
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We have made a greater effort at communicating our upcoming timber sales through email, snail mail, ads in newspapers and trade magazines and improving the transparency of our website.
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We have worked with our loggers to make sure that timber harvests are conducted in a responsible manner. We have in=creased accessibility to our lands through land acquisitions and road improvements.
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We have welcomed people to enjoy outdoor recreation on our lands. Our lands are not open to the public by statutory edict, they are open because of board policy.
We have worked hard to build larger blocks of productive timberland to make it easier to manage. Having 2,000 scattered parcels across the Northern Part of Wisconsin had left our small staff with an almost impossible management mission. It was hard enough to visit all those parcels, much less manage them. We are almost halfway done, but it is already evident that we have moved the needle on increased revenue production and cost containment.
Finally, we are working on developing a process for selling carbon sequestration credits. In accordance with our goals and priorities, we have taken a good long honest look at our land portfolio and determined that the highest and best use for some of the lands is in fact as carbon offset revenue generation. Developing that plan with enough flexibility to still sell some land and still harvest timber requires a careful and thoughtful approach. We are convinced that there is a path to success which includes that flexibility, and we are looking forward to completing that plan and sharing it with the board.