Fort McCoy timber harvest improves training capabilities, environment for training

Photo By Scott Sturkol | Logs are shown in piles on North Post on March 13, 2025, at Fort McCoy, Wis. The logs were part of a timber harvest. Timber sales are administered by the Omaha District of the Army Corps of Engineers and are sold by sealed bid. Timber sale bidding is held once each year, typically in December. Revenue from the timber sales at Fort McCoy goes into an Armywide forestry account and is returned to fund forestry projects on Fort McCoy. The timber harvest activities also support Fort McCoy’s strategic objective of enhancing the post’s military training value through improved area utilization and land use initiatives. (U.S. Army Photo by Scott T. Sturkol, Public Affairs Office, Fort McCoy, Wis.)  

FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, UNITED STATES

03.19.2025

Story by Scott Sturkol                                                                                                  

Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office           

Spring 2025 at Fort McCoy is active with timber harvest activities on North Post and South Post at Fort McCoy, according to Forester Charles Mentzel with the Forestry Office of the Fort McCoy Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division Natural Resources Branch.

There are six active timber harvest activities going on during March at Fort McCoy, Mentzel said. Four are on North Post, and two on South Post, including one going on near Highway 21.

“They’re in training areas B-16, B-30, C-2, C-14, C-18, and C-15,” Mentzel said.

The timber harvest activities also support Fort McCoy’s strategic objective of enhancing the post’s military training value through improved area utilization and land use initiatives, Mentzel stated in a past news article. The work helps lead to a better training environment for all who come to Fort McCoy.

“From a forestry perspective, our mission here, first and foremost, is to serve the Army and create training environments that better serve our Soldiers who support future missions in defense of this country,” Mentzel has said. “By thinning trees, the ones left will grow larger faster. This gives troops overhead cover and again allows for better maneuver space. … Harvesting along the fence lines for security (for example) saves the government money from having to remove the trees individually.”

And every month Fort McCoy’s Forestry program is busy not just monitoring timber sales, they complete a wide variety of requirements. According the NRB, the following are some of the accomplishments of the program during February 2025.

— Administered four active timber sales.

— Received $3,273.20 in timber sale revenue.

— Facilitated a half-mile of timber harvest on the installation boundary followed by shredding of the area creating a 50-foot-wide visible/cleared boundary with private land.

— Facilitated 4 acres of black locust removal near/around the Child Development Center on the installation cantonment area.

— Facilitated over one mile of firebreak “clean up,” removing snags and woody fuels within 50 feet of firebreaks.

— Continued work on annual review updates of the Integrated Wildland Fire Management Plan.

— Forestry staff continued setting up timber sales; cruised 57 acres, marked 386 cords, and over 3 miles of boundaries marked.

— Worked on and updated the Army Geospatial Data Layer Quality Assurance Plan for the timber harvest layer.

— Inspected prescribe burn fire units, planned “Go/No Go” meetings with installation prescribed burn team.

Timber sales at Fort McCoy are administered by the Omaha District of the Army Corps of Engineers and are sold by sealed bid, Mentzel said.

Timber sale bidding is held once each year, typically in December. Revenue from the timber sales goes into an Armywide forestry account and is returned to fund forestry projects on Fort McCoy.

Also, when a timber harvest is complete, NRB officials said a Land Rehabilitation and Maintenance (LRAM) crew will use a severe-duty shredder to grind the tree tops and branches left over from logging (called slash) and knock down the smaller trees the logger did not take, in areas where the military needs clear ground or to reduce fire hazard.

The LRAM crew is part of the Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security Integrated Training Area Maintenance program, which coordinates natural resource management and training activities. Overall, officials said, the forestry work at Fort McCoy is a critical part about ensuring safe and well-maintained training areas on the installation.

Fort McCoy’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.”

Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.

The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.

Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortmccoywi, and on X (formerly Twitter) by searching “usagmccoy.”

Also try downloading the My Army Post app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”

• Date Taken: 03.19.2025
• Date Posted: 03.19.2025 16:35
• Story ID: 493260
• Location: FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US