For the third installment in the Funding Your Forest series, we’re focusing on ways to improve the diversity and productivity of your forest. Stewarding a forest that is diverse in species, age and size classes, with appropriate stocking densities is beneficial to the entire ecosystem – supporting resilience to diseases and pests, and boosts overall productivity. So to speak – it diversifies your forest’s investment portfolio. The objective of enhancing forest health can be accomplished in a variety of ways and typically includes: pre-commercial thinning, planting native trees and shrubs, and removing invasive species – mechanically or chemically. For example, forest stand improvement (EQIP code 666), or pre-commercial thinning, entails removing individual trees