CONYERS — The saying “Money doesn’t grow on trees” may be taken out of the equation as Rockdale County considers implementing a timber management policy for county-owned land.

Rockdale County Forester Jeffrey Tyler said there’s the possibility of thousands of dollars in revenue in timber harvesting if the county implements a timber management plan for the more than 2,100 acres it owns within the county.

During a presentation to the Board of Commissioners at Monday’s work session, Tyler requested permission to hire a consultant to do a timber inventory of county property. That would be followed by a bidding process for someone to harvest the timber by the fall.

If there’s any money to be made from timber harvesting, Tyler told the commissioners it needed to be done soon. He said there had never been any type of timber management practices done by the county and the current stand of trees is reaching the point of deterioration.

Tracts Tyler identified 120 acres ready for timber harvesting at South Rockdale Community Park, 560 acres of the Union Church Road property and 221 acres at the South Rockdale 911 tower property.

“There’s a chance that the revenue could be in the six figures, but we really can not get a handle on that until get a forestry consultant in here to do a survey,” Tyler said.

Tyler’s plan has a consultant hired in March who would inventory timber, create maps mark trees to be removed conduct the timber bids and oversee the harvest and cleanup.

A management plan could create and maintain a healthy environment for trees on county lands that could add additional revenue for the county.

Tyler gave Panola Mountain State Park as a good example of timber management. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources does controlled burns at the park and regularly thins out the tree stand.

A forestry management fund would be established with the budget set on the previous year’s income from harvesting. Any funds above that could be transferred to the county’s general fund, Tyler said.

Commissioner JaNice Van Ness said the plan was “an innovative way to move the county forward.”

The Board of Commissioners indicated Tyler should move forward with a Request for Qualifications announcement to find a pool of qualified forestry consultants to bid on the consulting work for the county.