Back-office services available to support your business.
back-office services to free-up your time
When I was a salaried forest manager, I would find myself bogged-down in paperwork that I thought could be more efficiently and cost-effectively produced by somebody else. This other person would have to be someone who was familiar with the workings of the forest industry and who also had the knowledge and the skills to take the task out of my hands and complete it with the minimum of intervention by me.
They would also have to be reliable and trustworthy.
Someone who would get on with the task and have it completed for when I was ready to implement the project.
Take the paperwork associated with forest roads, tracks, and borrow pits for instance. Aside from the route planning, tendering and budgeting aspects of the work, projects of this nature would also require, at best, a Prior Approval notification to the competent authority or, more likely, an application for planning permission that was not only sufficiently robust to pass the Planners' initial evaluation, but would also need to anticipate the concerns and requirements of other agencies should their formal opinion be required.
Now that I am self-employed as a forestry consultant, I can do something to address this skills gap and offer support services to foresters, land agents and other managers in respect of planning applications and many other back-office activities .
For instance, with regard to a planning application for a new forest road, I can assist by:
Undertaking desk-based and field-based scoping to identify matters likely to be of concern to Planners and stakeholders.
Working with your chosen contractor to fine-tune the proposal to address site-specific matters.
Producing the maps and documents to support the EIA determination application required by Forestry Commission Scotland.
Investigating the potential for grant support from the Scotland Rural Development Programme (SRDP) and prepare applications for funding.
Producing a planning application that considers the potential impacts of the work and is supported by documents that aim to preemptively address the requirements and concerns of Planners and stakeholders, including Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA).
Maintaining a watch over the approvals process and responding to inquiries in a timely fashion to ensure that the application process is completed without unnecessary delays.
In many cases, work such as this can be undertaken at a fixed-price and, if required, using your stationery and company details.
There are many other ways that I can support your business, of which the following are just a few suggestions:
Preparing and submitting grant applications to the Scotland Rural Development Programme (SRDP).
Producing digital maps to update IACS maps and land parcel records (see here).
Writing safety management plans for borrow pits, quarries and other forestry activities.
Providing NVC, wildlife and archaeology surveys both in-house and by using competent contractors.
Maintaining timber income records by receiving and recording weight tickets to produce weekly reports of timber sales values, product breakout and to reconcile self-billing invoices with payments received from timber merchants.
Please use the links below for more information on a few of the ways that I can help.
It is not an exhaustive list, so feel free to use the form and contact details here to send me your own requirements or questions. I can probably make your working life a little easier.