Premier Forestry & Environmental Consulting, PLLC
About Premier Forestry & Environmental Consulting, PLLC
Premier Forestry & Environmental Consulting, PLLC is a consulting forestry and environmental practice based at Jacksonville, N.C., carried on the N.C. Forest Service consulting register for eight counties around the lower Neuse and the central coast — Onslow, Craven, Carteret, Pamlico, Jones, Lenoir, Beaufort and Pitt — and billing itself on its own site as an Eastern North Carolina forestry and land management firm. Its published service lines are forest management (long-term management planning, Present Use Value applications, timber sales, harvesting supervision, timber inventory, timber appraisal and boundary line maintenance); prescribed burning (fuel reduction, site prep, silvicultural and wildlife enhancement burning, with low-impact fireline installation and maintenance); herbicide application, ground-based via skidder and ATVs, covering site prep spray, mid-rotation release and food plots; GIS/GPS mapping; wildlife management; environmental services covering wetland delineation, impact permitting and BMP compliance; technical data collection; and expert witness work. Timber appraisal appears on the firm's own site although the register entry does not carry it, which answers a question the earlier description here left open. The firm operates its own herbicide skidder and bulldozer. President and senior forester Seth A. Ward earned a B.S. in Forest Resources and Conservation from the University of Florida in 2003, worked for the Florida Division of Forestry as a state lands forester at Tate's Hell State Forest and then as Putnam County Forester, joined the environmental consulting firm ESI in 2005 and opened and led its Eastern North Carolina branch office in 2006, then left in late 2009 to form Premier Forestry; in early 2011 the firm acquired Comprehensive Forestry Services, Inc., gaining five experienced employees and new service lines. Ward is N.C. Registered Forester #1611, a member of the Association of Consulting Foresters and a past chair of its N.C. chapter, a Certified Master Tree Farm Inspector, N.C. Certified Prescribed Burner #682, a N.C. and Virginia licensed pesticide applicator and a N.C. ProLogger; he sits on the Forestry Advisory Council for Wayne Community College and advises the Onslow County Career & Technical Education Program. Five staff are named in all: Ward; forestry technician Angelo Chimonas, who served in the United States Marine Corps from 2001 through 2023, finishing as a master sergeant, joined through the SkillBridge program and oversees logging and the skidder spray work; equipment operator Scott Adams, with over 25 years operating a bulldozer in forestry applications and skilled on the spray skidder; bookkeeper Brenda Garvey, who joined in January 2018; and office manager Taven Ward. (source: premierforestry.net, read 22 September 2026)
Can they handle a timber sale?
Selling standing timber properly takes three things. Here's what the state register credits this firm with.
Timber AppraisalAn estimate of what your standing timber is worth in dollars, based on how much there is, its quality, and current prices. When you are selling, settling an estate, dividing property, or need a value for taxes or insurance.What does this mean? → — not listed
works out what your standing timber is worth
Timber Cruise & Volume EstimateA field measurement of your standing trees — their species, sizes, and quality — that adds up to how much wood you actually have. Before you sell, so you go in knowing roughly what is out there rather than taking a buyer's word for it.What does this mean? →
measures and grades what's actually out there
Timber Sale & Contract AdministrationRunning the sale for you: advertising the timber, taking bids, writing the contract, and overseeing the logging so the agreed terms are met. When you want someone on your side handling the whole sale rather than dealing with buyers and loggers yourself.What does this mean? →
runs the sale and handles the contract
This firm isn't credited with all three, which doesn't make it a worse forester — plenty specialise in management planning, wildlife or wetlands. It does mean that if your goal is to sell timber, you'd likely need someone else for the part that's missing.
Everything they're registered for
Hover or tap a service to see what it means for you.
Premier Forestry & Environmental Consulting, PLLC
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Registered forester
Member of
SAF Certified Forester
Association of Consulting Foresters