Forestry

General Information

The Oconto County Forest is composed of approximately 43,345 acres, with 15 forest cover types comprising the commercial forest. The administrative offices are located in the Courthouse in Oconto and the field headquarters are located on County Trunk NN in Oconto. Timber contracts are sold yearly, allowing logging contractors the right to harvest forest products from county land. Major programs include the sale of timber contracts, an ongoing program of contract inspection to check for compliance, timber scaling to account for wood removed from the forest, and billing and payment collection. Other major programs include maintenance on approximately 28 miles of forest roads and property boundary lines, preparation of 100 acres for tree planting, machine and hand-planting of approximately 100,000 seedlings, herbicide and mechanical release of over 200 acres of pine plantations, issuance of approximately 50 firewood permits annually, and insect control as needed. The Forestry Department also cooperates with the Department of Natural Resources in fish management, wildlife management, and forest fire protection programs.