United States

Department of

Agriculture

Forest Service

Northeastern

Research Station

General Technical

Report NE-301

Stewplan: Software for Creating

Forest Stewardship Plans

Peter D. Knopp and Mark J. Twery

Stewplan
NOTE

Download the software from www.fs.fed.us/ne/burlington/ned

or

Order the cd from the following address:

USDA Forest Service

Publications Distribution

359 Main Road

Delaware, OH 43015-8640

Fax: (740)368-0152
Stewplan: Software for Creating Forest Stewardship Plans

Introduction

Forest stewardship is defined as maintaining a healthy, productive forest for present and

future generations. Forest stewardship is a goal of many landowners and others in the natural

resource management community. Establishing long-term plans for your forested property

is a first step toward good stewardship. Stewardship plans are a prerequisite to enroll private

forest lands in the Stewardship Program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture

Forest Service and state agencies throughout the United States. An appropriate management

plan considers the needs and desires of the landowner and identifies how those objectives

can be met. Stewplan is software that helps create standard forest stewardship plans to facilitate

enrollment in the program. The objective is to produce a clear, concise document in which

the reader of a stewardship plan can follow the flow of ideas and understand what should be

done and why. Intended users of the Stewplan software include all professionals who may be

charged with preparing stewardship plans. It will also help informed amateurs, including

landowners themselves, to prepare adequate stewardship plans. The software has been approved

by numerous states and is being used by a growing number of consulting and service foresters

to organize and present information on forest ownership and boundaries, stand inventory

characteristics, landowner goals, harvest schedules, and other features necessary for stewardship

plans. It produces a written plan that can be printed and submitted to the Stewardship

Program, or a hypertext file that can be modified in a separate word processor. Stewplan is

distributed without charge.

Stewplan offers a familiar Windows® interface with a top-level menu structure, toolbars,

and status bar. The main application area is divided into seven tabs that correspond to logical

sections of a forest stewardship plan. Stewplan produces a nearly complete stewardship plan,

needing only a map and a few other external pieces to provide an acceptably formatted plan.

The content and the actions proposed in the plan are left entirely to the professional preparing

the plan, but Stewplan reduces concern over whether all necessary elements have been

included.
Installing Stewplan

Stewplan includes an installer program that makes it easy for you to install the software onto

your hard drive. Please read the following information before installing the software.

Minimum system requirements

Stewplan runs on the following minimum system configuration:

• Any IBM-compatible 80486 computer or higher, running Microsoft Windows 95 or

higher.

• A hard disk with at least 5 megabytes of free space.

• A CD-ROM drive (necessary to install Stewplan from CD).

• Any monitor that works with Microsoft Windows (800 x 600 or better is

recommended).

Installation

These instructions pertain to installation from a CD. Stewplan is also available on the web,

at www.fs.fed.us/ne/burlington/ned.

Insert the Stewplan CD in your CD-ROM drive. If you have autoplay on your CD-ROM,

the drive will read the CD and automatically launch the setup program for you. If the setup

program does not launch automatically, follow these instructions:

From the Start menu, select ‘Run’. Then type ‘D:\InstallStewplan.exe’. (If your CDROM is not drive letter ‘D’, then substitute your CD-ROM drive letter.) As an

alternative, open Windows Explorer, browse your CD-ROM drive, and double click

the ‘InstallStewplan.exe’ icon.

If you have installed other NED products previously, the shortcut to Stewplan will be found

with other NED programs, under Start –> Programs –> NED Programs.
Getting Started

To start Stewplan, click the ‘Start’ button, then click ‘Programs’. Click ‘NED programs’ and

then click on ‘Stewplan’.

If you are unfamiliar with some of the plan items, a quick way to learn is to view one of the

example stewardship plans included with the software. To view one of these plans, open a

file such as ‘example_plan.stw’ using either the ‘File>Open’ menu selection or the ‘File Open’

Toolbar button.

Finding Help

Stewplan provides online help that can be accessed by clicking on ‘Help’ from the top-level

menu. An index and a table of contents provide links to information.

If you place the cursor on any item in Stewplan, you can access instant help by clicking on

the book icon on the toolbar.

For additional assistance, you may contact us at (802) 951-6771 or by sending email to

nedsoftware@fs.fed.us.
Entering Data

Screens and Tabs

Stewplan data are entered directly into fields on the forms within the program. You can

switch among the sets of forms using the index card-like tabs at the top of each screen. The

example on this page shows the ‘Directions/Access’ screen. Note that some fields on each

screen are required by the Stewardship Program; these fields are identified with an asterisk.

All tabs have at least some information required for participation in the standard Stewardship

Program.

Cutting and Pasting

If you already have descriptions of the property that belong in any of the fields in Stewplan,

you may use standard cutting and pasting techniques within Windows to transfer text from

other programs into the appropriate sections.
The ‘Stands’ tab is the section of the program in which most of the detailed data must be

entered. Clicking on the ‘Add’ button in the upper right section of the window, or doubleclicking on an existing line of summary stand data, will bring onto the screen a form with

additional tabs and forms, in which all the specific inventory statistics, goals, and prescriptions

must be entered. Each stand on the property will have its own set of data.
Developing Plans

Stewplan incorporates a graphical depiction of the plan developed for each property. Clicking

on the ‘Plan’ tab brings up a screen in which you can define the years the plan will cover. For

each year you can identify activities planned for each stand, as needed. Double clicking on

the cell representing a particular stand in a particular year will bring up a window in which

you can select the icon for the type of treatment or activity, give a priority rating to the

activity, and then describe in detail what you are planning. These details are all reproduced

in a standard format in the program output.
Saving Customized Files

Frequently, people who develop stewardship plans do so for many different properties.

Often, much of the information, such as the name and address of the plan preparer, does

not change from plan to plan. One approach to simplify the generation of new plans,

especially if many plans are expected to include much of the same information, is to generate

a template of sorts by entering only the common data into a blank plan file, then opening a

copy of the file each time one starts to create a plan for a new property. Multiple variations

can be saved, for example, if a consultant works in several different states and wants one

template for each set of state regulations.

Working with other Software

Stewplan addresses many of the same topics as the Forest Stewardship Planning Guide,

NEWild, and NED-1. However, this version (1.3) of Stewplan does not facilitate transfer

of data between the programs. For example, if you were to develop goals using the Planning

Guide, or to complete an inventory using NED-1, you would need to transcribe the summary

data or goals to Stewplan version 1.3 by hand. Future versions of Stewplan will include a

mechanism to import data from other programs within the NED suite of tools.
Output

All plans generated from Stewplan will have a similar appearance and follow a specific format

to provide consistency among users. Stewplan also indicates which items are required in

order to meet state and federal stewardship plan guidelines.

There are some features of the output that you don’t see while developing your plan. For

instance, the output contains the name of the landowner at the top of each page and the

preparation date and page number at the bottom. Stewplan’s output resembles paper forms.

Just like paper forms, if you skip an item it remains on the form (with empty spaces to the

right). For example, if you do not enter any comments on the landowner goals, the field

“Goal Comments:” will still appear on the output with blank spaces.

Print Preview

You can preview your Stewplan output document before printing. To display each page as it

will look when printed, click ‘Print Preview’ on the toolbar or under the ‘File’ menu.

Exporting to Other Formats

If you have special formatting needs, you can output your plan for use in another program,

such as Word or WordPerfect. Open the plan you want to export. On the ‘File’ menu, click

‘Save As’. In the ‘Save as type’ box are three choices. Choose ‘.txt’ for a plain text file that is

compatible with other word-processing programs. Choose ‘.htm’ to save a copy in HTML,

which retains the formatting and can be opened by word processing programs. When you

click ‘Save’, Stewplan will export your plan to a file with the appropriate extension.

Printers

Stewplan can be used with any printer that works with Microsoft Windows.
The Authors

Peter D. Knopp is an information technology specialist with the Northeastern Research

Station of the USDA Forest Service. He is stationed in Delaware, OH, and works with the

research unit Integrating Social and Biophysical Sciences for Natural Resource Management,

located in Burlington, VT.

Mark J. Twery is a supervisory research forester with the Northeastern Research Station of

the USDA Forest Service, and Project Leader of the work unit Integrating Social and

Biophysical Sciences for Natural Resource Management, located in Burlington, VT.

Acknowledgments

We thank many people who played important roles in helping to define the purpose and

content of this software, and in developing earlier prototypes, especially Scott Thomasma,

Jeff Palmer, Lloyd Casey, Mark Buccowich, Roger Monthey, Bill Moulton, Ross Morgan,

and Neil Lamson. Cover photograph: large northern red oak and hackberry in the Olentangy

River floodplain, Delaware, Ohio. Photo by Peter Knopp.

The U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs

and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability,

political beliefs, sexual orientation, and marital or family status. (Not all prohibited bases

apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for

communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact

the USDA's TARGET Center at (202)720-2600 (voice and TDD).

To file a complaint of discrimination, write USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights,

Room 326-W, Whitten Building, 14th and Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC

20250-9410, or call (202)720-5964 (voice and TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity

provider and employer.
Copyright

Stewplan was developed by the USDA Forest Service, Northeastern Research Station, and is

provided free of charge. All content is in the public domain.

Copies may be obtained from the USDA Forest Service, Northeastern Research Station,

P.O. Box 968, Burlington, VT 05402-0968, 802-951-6771.

Every effort is made to provide accurate and useful information. However, the U.S.

Department of Agriculture, the Forest Service, and their employees and contractors assume

no legal liability for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus,

product, or process disclosed herein. Neither the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Forest

Service, nor their employees and contractors makes any warranty, express or implied, including

the warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose with respect to Stewplan

software or documentation.

The use of trade, firm, or corporation names in Stewplan or in this publication and linked

publications is for the information and convenience of the reader. Such use does not constitute

an official endorsement or approval by the U.S. Department of Agriculture of any product

or service to the exclusion of others that may be suitable.
“Caring for the Land and Serving People Thr ving People Through Research”

Published by: For additional copies:

USDA FOREST SERVICE USDA Forest Service

11 CAMPUS BLVD SUITE 200 Publications Distribution

NEWTOWN SQUARE PA 19073-3294 359 Main Road

Delaware, OH 43015-8640

March 2003 Fax: (740)368-0152

Visit our homepage at: http://www.fs.fed.us/ne/burlington/ned.

Knopp, Peter D.; Twery, Mark J. 2003. Stewplan: software for creating

forest stewardship plans (Version 1.3) [Computer program]. Gen.

Tech. Rep. NE-301. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of

Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Research Station. 12 p.

[User’s manual; CD-ROM].

Describes the purpose and function of the Stewplan computer program.

Provides instructions for loading Stewplan, a tutorial for getting started,

and instructions for use. A copy of the program is included.