Bobby L. Lanford, PhD is a Forest Operations Consultant assisting forestry equipment manufactures, forestry products manufacturers, forest management companies and logging companies with training and logging systems evaluations. Dr. Lanford has over 35 years of experience developing business plans, performing cost benefit analyses, and evaluating businesses for companies involved with forest engineering and manufacturing concepts. Dr. Lanford has offered forest management advice, equipment, and logging system selection consultation for various companies including Caterpillar, Timberjack, Valmet, Melroe, and Ponsse. Selected Consulting Experience Includes:
- Equipment Design: Chainsaw Safety Device - Retained by National Bureau of Standards to review safety device for chainsaws for potential government funding. Performed First and Second Stage Evaluations. Chainsaw operator's manual for bow guides - Reviewed manual for improvements to reduce the safety hazards associated with chainsaw use
- Timber Cruising: Determine potential value of timber
- Environmental Impact Studies: Clearcutting effects along the Tombigbee and Warrior River basins - Participated with a team of scientists studying environmental effects of clearcutting. Identified logging methods, costs and economic ramifications as a part of an overall study initiated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
- Training and Continuing Education for Foresters and Loggers: Logging Cost Analysis, Thinning Analysis and Methods, Harvest Planning and Layout, Chainsaw Safety and Operation Methods, GPS and Land Navigation
View Dr. Lanford's Expert Witness Profile.
Anyone who has a home with trees around it will someday need to remove dead or dying limbs and trees. The best managed landscaping requires trees to be pruned or removed as they grow. In addition, storms often create dangerous situations as limbs and trees are broken or bent over. I remember living on Lake Martin in Alabama during Hurricane Opel. The storm hit at night and we sat in the basement listening to all the commotion and guessing what was happening to our home. Occasionally, I would go up to the main floor with a flash light (power was toast) and peer out the windows trying to assess the damage. One time I reported to my family that the porch roof was gone. The porch faced the lake and the direction of the wind. It had rained all day before the hurricane winds hit causing the soil around the trees that separated our home from the water to soften up. At day light we found all the lakeside trees pushed over onto our roof.
