FOREST MANAGEMENT

Noyo Forestry provides forest improvement and vegetation management services designed to strengthen long-term forest health while reducing wildfire risk. Our treatments improve tree spacing, manage competing vegetation, reduce surface and ladder fuels, and create more resilient forest conditions. These same practices form the basis of our shaded fuel break, roadside fuel reduction, and fire-access vegetation management contracts.

We use mechanical and manual techniques tailored to each property’s terrain, vegetation, forest structure, and management objectives—from dense timberlands and overgrown woodlands to roadways and critical access routes.

Our services include:

• Tree Limbing & Pruning: We selectively remove lower, dead, and overhanging limbs to improve clearance and sunlight penetration while reducing vertical ladder fuels that can carry fire from the understory into the forest canopy.
• Understory & Brush Removal: Using mastication, mechanical removal, and hand cutting, we reduce dense brush and understory vegetation that can increase wildfire intensity, form vertical fuel ladders beneath trees, and compete with established trees for sunlight, water, and nutrients.
• Hand & Mechanical Release: We remove competing brush, hardwoods, and undesirable vegetation from around young or established trees. Depending on site conditions, release treatments may be completed by hand crews or mechanized equipment to improve tree growth, survival, and access to available resources.
• Removal of Dead, Dying & Diseased Trees: We remove trees that threaten safety, access, or surrounding forest health. Selective removal can reduce hazardous fuel accumulation and help limit the spread of certain pests and diseases.
• Tree Spacing & Selective Thinning: We thin overcrowded stands to reduce competition, improve forest structure, and promote the growth and vigor of retained trees. Improved spacing can also reduce fuel continuity and increase the forest’s resilience to drought, pests, disease, and wildfire.
• Biomass & Slash Treatment: Material generated during treatment may be chipped and broadcast, masticated in place, piled for future burning, lopped and scattered, or hauled off-site. The appropriate treatment method is selected according to site conditions, fuel-reduction objectives, erosion concerns, and the landowner’s long-term management goals.

Noyo Forestry has extensive experience completing grant-funded forest improvement and wildfire-resilience projects for private landowners. We perform treatments funded through federal programs such as the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program (NRCS EQIP), state programs such as CAL FIRE’s California Forest Improvement Program (CFIP), and regional programs such as the North Bay Forest Improvement Program (NBFIP), administered in partnership with local Resource Conservation Districts and conservation organizations. 

Noyo Forestry performs smaller timber operations under applicable timber harvest exemptions. These exemptions allow qualifying defensible-space and homesite-preparation projects to include the lawful harvesting and sale of merchantable timber.

Our exemption-based work includes:

• 0–150-Foot and 150–300-Foot Fire-Safe Clearance Exemptions: Used for qualifying defensible-space and fuel-reduction projects where merchantable timber may be harvested and sold as part of the work
• Less-Than-Three-Acre Conversion Exemptions: Used when preparing qualifying forested land for a permanent non-timber use, such as a residence, building site, or associated improvements

Our services also include forest road maintenance, drainage improvements, and erosion-control work, such as: 

• Road brushing, either by mastication (which mulches vegetation in place) or bucket brushing (faster through dense brush and small trees but requires sidecasting or piling debris)
• Slash treatment, using mechanical methods in lieu of burning — including chipping and broadcasting on-site, chipping and piling for later use or disposal, chipping and hauling off-site, or mastication to treat and mulch slash in place 
• Culvert installation, repair, and maintenance to manage seasonal water flow and protect road integrity
• Watercourse crossings, including installation and removal of temporary crossings
• Road winterization, creating waterbars to redirect water off of roadways
• Storm-related response, such as restoring road access by clearing storm blowdowns, culvert failures, and washouts
• Erosion control, using straw mulch, slash packing, and rock armoring to protect drainage features and prevent sediment delivery into watercourses