About Us
Our forestry consultants and land management professionals are here to serve you
At American Forest Management, we’ve been helping landowners like you manage, sell, buy, improve, and enjoy millions of acres of land for over 50 years. We remain keenly focused on our vision of making ownership more rewarding by helping people explore the full potential of their land.
At American Forest Management, we are a one-stop shop for all of your land management and forestry consulting needs. We serve a diverse client base and manage over 5.7 million acres of land in the Southeast, Gulf Coast, Appalachia, Northeast, Pacific Northwest, Intermountain, and Lake States Regions of the United States, and Central America. With over 370 employees and exclusive contractors, we can provide customized services in all aspects of natural resource management, including forestry and land management, timber sales and harvesting supervision, forest data and inventory management, resource planning and biometrics, valuation and acquisition services, internal and client accounting, real estate sales, environmental and farmland management services, and SFI®/FSC®/ATFS certification system management.
Our foresters and land management professionals have a deep understanding of local markets and conditions. They can apply their knowledge to your specific property, giving you the care and attention you deserve.
Our History
How it all started
In 1966, Bartow S. Shaw, Jr. formed Bartow Shaw and Associates to provide consulting services for private forestland owners. Nearly 20 years later, Roy Belser and Frank McLeod III purchased stock, and Shaw, McLeod and Belser was born. Over the next 30 years the company expanded through both organic growth and acquisition of esteemed companies and consultants, including the Hurlbutt firm, Canal Forest Resources, Sustainable Forest Technologies (consulting arm of International Paper), and International Forestry Consultants. This dynamic growth brought us to become the strong company we are today--the company we’re proud to call American Forest Management.
Frequently Asked Questions
American Forest Management has been helping landowners manage, sell, buy, improve, and enjoy their land for over 50 years. That long track record reflects a sustained commitment to making land ownership more rewarding for clients across the country.
AFM works with landowners on a wide range of needs, including managing, selling, buying, improving, and enjoying their land. The company focuses on helping people explore the full potential of their property, whether that involves forestry consulting, land management, or real estate brokerage.
American Forest Management is described as the largest land consulting and real estate brokerage firm in the United States. Despite that scale, the company emphasizes treating all landowners with the same level of care and respect, regardless of the size of their holdings.
The company's vision centers on making land ownership more rewarding by helping people explore the full potential of their land. AFM has pursued that vision for over 50 years, working with landowners across millions of acres throughout its history.
AFM works with landowners of all kinds. The company's stated approach is to treat all landowners with the same level of care and respect, which reflects a commitment to serving both individual private owners and larger institutional clients.
American Forest Management offers a contact option directly on the About Us page of its website. Reaching out through that contact feature is a straightforward way to connect with one of the company's forestry consultants or land management professionals to discuss your specific needs.