Custom and Executive Education

Forisk offers specialized training for analysts, professionals, executives, and investors in the fields of forestry, bioenergy, market analysis and timberland investing.  Our value proposition to you:  we teach you to do it yourself so that you can leverage your own experience and insight when making investment and operational decisions.

Forisk teaches two “core” courses: Applied Forest Finance, and Timber and Wood Market Analysis. Forisk can customize these short courses to meet your organization’s specific needs and teach a workshop virtually, at your location, or at our office in Athens, Georgia. In addition, Forisk also offers custom Executive Education classes in strategy, risk management and equity investing specific to the timber, forestry and bioenergy industries. Please contact Heather Clark for details.

Courses qualify for Continuing Forestry Education (CFE) credits, Georgia Continuing Logger Education (CLE) credits, and Continuing Education (CE) credits through the Georgia Real Estate Appraiser’s Board.

Public Courses include:

Applied Forest Finance

This class details the step-by-step financial analysis required to answer key investment and forest management questions. Learn how to identify, value, and rank timber and forestry investments. This one-day course qualifies for CFE credits, CLE/MTH credits, and GA Real Estate/Appraiser CE credits.

Key forest finance topics addressed in this course include:
  • Common mistakes and how to correct them
  • Financial criteria: ranking investment options
  • Discount rates: estimating risk
  • Marginal analysis: when does forest management pay?
  • Case study: when do we clearcut for pulpwood versus manage for sawtimber?
  • Case study: maximizing financial returns from existing stands

Students receive a copy of the Forest Finance Simplified handbook along with reference materials and Excel models for reinforcing and applying the concepts learned during the course.

Feedback from previous “Applied Forest Finance” participants includes:
  • Clean, clear explanation, narrative, and discussions. Excellent visual aids and handouts. I felt like I was back in my forest economic college class on steroids…Excellent presentation!
  • The structure was great. Learning and then applying what you learned in a group setting (large and small) really helped me understand the concepts.
  • Wonderful introduction to finance applied to forestry.
  • Full of meaningful content without industry slang. Useful for forest professionals, real estate folks, appraisers, and landowners (me!). Thumb drive and handouts are super useful and helpful.

Timber Market Analysis

This class details the step-by-step process to understand, track, and analyze the price, demand, supply, and competitive dynamics of local timber markets and wood baskets, including the impacts of new and announced wood bioenergy projects. This one-day course qualifies for CFE credits, CLE/MTH credits, and GA Real Estate/Appraiser CE credits.

Key topics addressed in this course include:
  • Timber market frameworks: tools of the trade
  • Defining “operable” and “analyzable” markets
  • Specifying types and sources of wood and timber supplies
  • Detailing wood demand and competition
    • Assessing size, location, status and risk of wood-using mills
  • Screening wood bioenergy projects and markets
  • Analyzing and forecasting stumpage and delivered prices
    • Identifying, organizing and analyzing basin-specific prices
    • Estimating future stumpage and delivered prices by type
  • Evaluating supply chain issues
  • Compiling and communicating final results

Students receive a workbook and templates to conduct and deliver assessments of wood baskets and timber markets to clients and managers. Students also receive copies of the book Wood for Bioenergy (Mendell and Lang 2012) published by the Forest History Society.

Feedback from previous “Timber Market Analysis” participants includes:
  • Brooks and Amanda are terrific speakers.
  • Very informative, very applicable and very well presented.
  • Knowledge of the instructors is superior.
  • Excellent review of process and analysis.
  • All materials and topics were well presented with lots of real world examples.