Business and Contact Information Page
Comprehensive Forestry, l.l.c., is a limited liability company
registered in Montana.
Registration No.: C172549
Type: LLC, Managed by Members (sole member)
Date of Organization: 7/26/2007
Member and Manager: Richard Freeman
Address: P.O. Box 853, Hot Springs, MT 59845
Registered Agent and sole member: Richard Freeman,
P.O. Box 853, Hot Springs, MT 59845
Comprehensive Forestry, l.l.c, functions as an Independent Contractor.
Richard B. Freeman, sole member, holds a current Independent Contractor Exemption Certificate,
State of Montana, Department of Labor and Industry (406)444-7734 or www.mtcontractor.com
Contact Information
Comprehensive Forestry, l.l.c.,
P.O.Box 853
Hot Springs, MT 59845
(406)239-1171
Prices and Invoices
For field work, we charge by the hour at $70/hr and bill by the quarter-hour. We pay our own travel expenses.
For office work (mapping, research, planning, reporting, and communications), we charge by the hour at $50/hr. We bill by the quarter-hour.
We would be happy to give you an estimate. E-mail us or give us a call at (406) 239-1171.
Bio for Richard Freeman
President and Owner,
Comprehensive Forestry, llc.
Richard is a forestry consultant working in the wildland-urban interface of western Montana as Comprehensive Forestry, llc. His professional objective is to blend a conservation ethic with forestry to create beautiful, healthy landscapes. He loves working in the field as well as solving the analytical problems that planning, management, and document-writing present.
Since finishing graduate school in 1998, Richard has been building his forestry business and expanding his knowledge base and field experience by doing diverse forestry work. He has worked with a variety of wildland-urban interface property owners on fuel management, forest restoration, aesthetic improvement, and other stewardship objectives. He has also performed extensive contract stand exam work with a large timber company.
Richard's current professional learning pursuits include further training in wildfire fuels assessment for wildland-urban interface preventative management, developing the production of non-timber forest products and forest-based carbon sequestration, and acquiring the skills to create internet-served documents, data-bases and maps for forestry-related applications.
Richard has taught himself several technical skills (with the kind help of on-line technical forums and friends), including basic computer-based forest mapping with geographical information systems, basic data-base management, forest inventory and projection software, and currently, basic web development in pursuit of some pet forestry projects.
Curriculum Vitae
Richard Freeman
Education
Doctorate of Philosophy: School of Forestry, University of Montana, Missoula.
Received Spring, 1999. Emphasis on forest policy, administration,
planning and management. Dissertation: The U.S. Forest Service and the
Political Construction of Ecosystem Management (a history of federal policy).
Master's Degree of Science: Environmental Studies Program, University of Montana, Missoula. Completed Spring, 1992. Emphasis on community and regional planning and development. Professional paper: A Planning Model for Rural Community Development.
Bachelor's Degree of Arts: History, College of Letters and Arts, Montana State University, Bozeman. Completed Spring, 1989. Emphasis on American history.
Special Coursework
- National Wildfire Coordinating Group S-130: Basic Firefighting
- NWCG S-190: Introduction to Fire Behavior
- NWCG S-290: Intermediate Fire Behavior
- NWCG S-215: Fire Operations in the Urban Interface
Professional Skills
- Aerial-photo interpretation, stand demarcation, and ground-truthing for large-area and landscape planning in GIS environment.
- Stand exams and data compilation and analysis. From timber cruising to data-compilation and presentation, including incorporating data into a GIS.
- Wildland-Urban Interface Hazardous Fuel Assessment and Reduction and Home Ignition Zone Hazardous Fuel Assessment.
- Stand and landscape planning, including identification of target stands and scheduling of treatments.
- Administration of treatments including hiring, contracting, and overseeing operators.
- Professional editing, technical writing, documentation.
- Computer skills. Basic knowledge of geographical information systems and Spatial SQL, (Manifold System), Forest Planning and Projection System, Fuels Management Analyst, as well as word processing, spreadsheets, communication, and some image processing. Currently learning and employing client- and server-side web site construction (MySQL, PHP, JavaScript, CSS, XHTML).
Related Work Experience
2007 - Present. Forest Consultant doing business as Comprehensive Forestry, l.l.c.
2001-2007. Forest Consultant doing business as Comprehensive Forestry. Have consulted with a variety of landowners in the wildland-urban-interface in regard to: Creating defensible space and reducing wildfire fuels by modifying ground fuels and forest canopy structure; restoring healthy forest structures; enhancing aesthetic values; conducting due diligence research for urban-interface, residential forestland acquisition; conducting inventory and fuels assessments; writing forest stewardship plans for on-going management; and producing GIS-based resource maps. Much of my work has been on small holdings, though I have had the ongoing opportunity to work on the Little Falcon Farm, a 1,500 acre holding with roughly 800 acres of dry Douglas-fir/ponderosa pine forestland.
2005-Present. Contract Stand Examiner/Timber Cruiser. Subcontract with Clearwater Forestry, l.l.c., to a major Timber and Land company operating in western Montana. Involves extensive field work collecting data on variable-radius plots in diverse cover types.
1999-2001. Intern and Man-about-the-grounds. Dearborn Solar Electric Company/ Balsamroot Institute. I helped with construction projects, solar panel and wind generator installations, research projects, and gardening for the owners and operators of a small, non-profit business aimed at educating people on small-scale alternative energy generation, food and herb production, and building. I lived in a small house on the grounds.
1994-1998. Teaching Assistantships. School of Forestry, U.M., Missoula. Professor Alan McQuillan. Forest Planning and Ethics and the Management of Public Lands.
1995. Research Assistantship. School of Forestry, U.M. Coordinated Planning Committee for Lubrecht Experimental Forest Planning Committee.
1990-1992. Teaching Assistantship. School of Forestry, U.M., Technical Forestry, for Prof. James Lowe.
1984-1989. Student and Professional Writing Tutor at The Writing Center, Montana State Univeristy, Bozeman. Tutored students from all departments in basic, reader-based composition using inquiry method of tutoring. Individual work (including theses and dissertations) and in-class work for writing-across-the-curriculum.
Professional Organizations
National Network of Forest Practitioners, 2003-present Forest Stewardship Guild, 2004-present
Volunteer Work Experience
Board of Directors. Sustainable Obtainable Solutions, Helena, MT. Currently working on biomass and biochar development. For more information on Sustainable Obtainable Solutions, please click here.
Associate. 2000-2009. Sustainable Obtainable Solutions.
1990-Present. Volunteer. Dearborn Solar Electric Company. Help with building projects for the owners of small, non-profit business.
1992-1993. Board of Directors. Down Home Project, Missoula, MT. Helped launch Missoula Urban Demonstration Project. Facilitated transition to new by-laws.
1992-1993. President and Board of Directors. Center for Resourceful Building Technology. Missoula, MT. Facilitated transition from unincorporated, ad hoc group to formal, non-profit company.
