"I have several different prescriptions in mind and as I go along, I vary the mark based on the trees I find, the site, signs of animal use, access for the logger and what's going around the group of trees I am marking," he said.
     Since 1994, Harry has marked every commercial tree cut on Philmont Scout Ranch. The resulting stands are diverse, healthy and offer increased forage and wildlife habitat.
     The northern New Mexico national high adventure base hosts approximately 23,000 backcountry visitors a summer. Most of them walk through stands that have been recently logged and never notice there has been a forest management activity.
     Harry describes the careful balancing act required to maintain a quality wilderness experience by actively managing the forest.
     "Good forest management should mimic the natural process as much as possible and be imperceptible to the casual observer," Harry wrote in 1994 when he was explaining forestry to ranch managers.
     Today scouts visiting the high adventure base are now encouraged to be more observant. Forest conditions throughout the country are posed for catastrophic crises. Particularly in the West, fire patterns have been disrupted for over a century.
     In the absence of regular burning, unnatural forest conditions have developed. Dense disease-prone woods are now burning across the West with increased intensity at alarming rates.
     Philmont has not escaped these intense ecosystem-altering fires. In 2002, the Ponil Complex burned approximately 18,000 acres on the ranch, 8,000 acres that were severely impacted. Scouts and staff who hike through miles of burnt woods become keenly aware of dense forests and increased volumes of large wood elsewhere that pose as time bombs for future wildfire devastation.
     Across the West, forest stands that have recently been logged, thinned or burned are consistently surviving intense wildfires far better than surrounding lands that have not been treated. Not only are most trees living through the event, but soil erosion is minimal as these treated areas rapidly rebound with native vegetation.
     Since 1994, approximately 5,000 acres on Philmont have been treated through commercial harvests. Only trees over 12 inches in diameter are cut, and each is carefully selected with a focus on growing conditions for the trees left in the forest.
     With Philmont's recent certification by the Sustainable Forest Initiative, wood cut from Philmont is eligible for various certifications for "green buildings." Most of the lumber is marketed to area sawmills, which are generally family-owned operations in rural communities.
     Sustainable harvest of wood is part of managing Philmont as a working ranch.
     Commercial harvest is only part of the forestry activities on the ranch. In May, scouts planted 5,000 ponderosa pine seedlings in the Ponil Burn region.
     Crews often assist staff throughout the ranch with conservation projects such as meadow restoration and tree thinning. Many of these projects are designed to reduce forest fuels so firefighters will be able to protect backcountry cabins from future fires.
     Not only does Philmont practice exemplary forestry, but the scout ranch offers an excellent platform for forestry education. Several years ago, the New Mexico Tree Farm program and New Mexico State Forestry assisted the ranch in developing a 45-acre "demonstration forest." A wooden pavilion made of lumber harvested from the area sits above the scenic Cimarroncito Reservoir and Cathedral Rock. The forest shows five methods of commercial harvests and includes features such as meadow restoration and riparian buffer zones. Interpretive signs introduce scouts to forestry information.
     During the off season logging operations are more likely to cross hiking trails and improve forests in campsites, but even during Philmont's peak hiking season, loggers are actively working in less populated sections of the ranch.
     Harry is right along with them, carefully marking each tree, creating healthy, productive forest landscapes.
     The Forester's Log is a monthly column published in newspapers and magazines primarily in the American West. Stuever is a forester in the American Southwest. She can be reached at mary@foresterslog.com.