Written by Acorn Sales Company, manufacturing stamps and seals since 1964 · Reviewed by Holly R, VP of Sales and Marketing at Acorn Sales, against New Hampshire Board of Licensing for Foresters on 22 September 2026 · Updated 22 September 2026
New Hampshire requires a licensed forester to obtain a seal and to apply it, and it is the most completely specified forester seal we have researched. Fors 305.02(a) provides that “Upon issuance of a license, the licensee shall acquire a digital seal, an impression type seal, or rubber stamp of the design in compliance with these rules. The seal shall bear the licensee’s name and number as shown on the license. This seal and original signature shall be affixed on all plans, maps, contracts, and reports prepared by the licensee unless the licensee is exempt under provisions of RSA 310-A:98.” The verb is shall, twice, and it governs both owning the device and using it.
The design is not left to you or to a manufacturer. Fors 305.02(b) fixes the geometry to a sixteenth of an inch, fixes the wording of two legends, and says where every line sits. One housekeeping point before you read further: the rule is Fors 305.02. There is no Fors 305.03. Part Fors 305 contains 305.01 (License) and 305.02 (Licensed Forester Seal/Stamp), and an earlier version of our own hub page cited 305.03 in error. If you have been searching for 305.03 and finding nothing, that is why.
New Hampshire forester seal requirements at a glance
| Requirement | New Hampshire rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Seal required | Yes, mandatory. On issuance of a license the licensee “shall acquire” a seal, and “This seal and original signature shall be affixed” to the listed documents. A conduct rule repeats the duty: the licensee must “Affix seal to all plans, maps, reports prepared by the licensee, and to all contracts related to the practice of forestry.” | N.H. Code Admin. R. Fors 305.02(a); Fors 501.03(al) |
| Required elements | Six items: two concentric circles; the words “State of New Hampshire” in the outer band at the top; the words “Professional Forester” in the outer band at the bottom; the licensee’s full name inside the inner circle, written horizontally; the license number inside the inner circle, written horizontally; and the word “Licensed” below the name and number and inside the curve of the inner circle. The name and number are those “as shown on the license.” | N.H. Code Admin. R. Fors 305.02(b); N.H. Code Admin. R. Fors 305.02(a) |
| Size and shape | Round, and published to the sixteenth. The seal “shall consist of 2 concentric circles, the outer circle having a diameter of 1-9/16 inches and an inner circle having a diameter of 15/16 of an inch.” No tolerance and no alternative size is given. | N.H. Code Admin. R. Fors 305.02(b) |
| Device allowed | Three, on an equal footing: “a digital seal, an impression type seal, or rubber stamp of the design in compliance with these rules.” No device is excluded, and no reproduction or legibility test is imposed on top. | N.H. Code Admin. R. Fors 305.02(a) |
| Signature and date | Signature is required with the seal, and the rule says original signature: “This seal and original signature shall be affixed on all plans, maps, contracts, and reports prepared by the licensee.” A date is not addressed. We read all of Fors 305.02 and the forester sections of RSA 310-A and found no requirement to date the seal. | N.H. Code Admin. R. Fors 305.02(a) |
| What must be sealed | “all plans, maps, contracts, and reports prepared by the licensee”, unless the licensee is exempt under RSA 310-A:98. The conduct rule states the same list, putting contracts as “all contracts related to the practice of forestry.” | N.H. Code Admin. R. Fors 305.02(a); Fors 501.03(al) |
| Electronic seal | A digital seal is one of the three permitted forms, named in the primary device list rather than in a separate rule. No digital certificate, PKI or authentication technology is required or mentioned, and there is no separate electronic seal rule anywhere in the Fors series. | N.H. Code Admin. R. Fors 305.02(a) |
| Renewal and lapse | A license “shall expire 2 years from the date the license was issued.” The consequence for the seal is express: stamping or sealing any document “after the license has expired, has been suspended, revoked, or surrendered voluntarily shall be a violation of these rules and RSA 310-A:114.” Lapses of 12 months or more are handled under the reinstatement rule. Nothing requires surrender of the seal itself. Name change is not addressed. | Fors 401.01; N.H. Code Admin. R. Fors 305.02(c); Fors 401.05 |
| Firm requirements | Not addressed. We read the Fors rules and the forester sections of RSA 310-A and found no firm registration, no firm seal and no business entity provision. | N.H. Code Admin. R. Fors 100-505; RSA 310-A:98 to 310-A:114 |
| Regulator | New Hampshire Board of Licensing for Foresters, rules series Fors, under the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification. The statutory name is Board of Foresters. | RSA 310-A:100; N.H. Code Admin. R. Fors 100-505 |
Does New Hampshire require a forester to seal work?
Yes, and on two counts. Fors 305.02(a) puts the duty on the licensee the moment the license issues: “Upon issuance of a license, the licensee shall acquire a digital seal, an impression type seal, or rubber stamp of the design in compliance with these rules.” That is the acquisition duty. The next sentence is the application duty: “This seal and original signature shall be affixed on all plans, maps, contracts, and reports prepared by the licensee unless the licensee is exempt under provisions of RSA 310-A:98.”
The standards of conduct rule says it again from the other direction. Fors 501.03(al) requires the licensee to “Affix seal to all plans, maps, reports prepared by the licensee, and to all contracts related to the practice of forestry.” There is no permissive “may” anywhere in the operative duty. New Hampshire is not a state where the seal is a nicety.
The exact geometry, to the sixteenth of an inch
Fors 305.02(b) opens with the dimensions: the seal “shall consist of 2 concentric circles, the outer circle having a diameter of 1-9/16 inches and an inner circle having a diameter of 15/16 of an inch.” Two circles, one inside the other, sharing a center. The outer diameter is 1-9/16 inches, which is 1.5625 inches. The inner diameter is 15/16 of an inch, which is 0.9375 inches. The band between them is therefore a little over five sixteenths of an inch wide all the way around, and that band is where the two legends live.
Those are the only dimensions the rule gives. It sets no line weight, no type size, no font and no tolerance, and it gives no alternative size for a different device. The same geometry governs a digital seal, an impression seal and a rubber stamp. When you send artwork to a manufacturer, the two diameters are the part that has to be exact; everything else is typography fitted inside them.
The exact wording, and where each line sits
The rest of Fors 305.02(b) reads: “In the space between the circles there shall be the words ‘State of New Hampshire’ at the top of the circle and the words ‘Professional Forester’ at the bottom of the circle. In the space inside the inner circle shall be the full name of the licensee and the license number written horizontally. Below the licensee’s name and number and inside the curve of the inner circle shall be the word, ‘Licensed.’”
Read carefully, that is a layout instruction as much as a content list. The outer band carries two fixed legends, one at the top and one at the bottom, which on a round die means both curve with the band. The inner circle carries your full name and your license number, and the rule says those are written horizontally, so they do not follow the curve. The word “Licensed” goes below the name and number, inside the curve of the inner circle, which places it low in the inner field where the circle is closing. Note also what the rule does not say: it does not spell “Licensed Professional Forester” as one phrase on one line. The credential words are split, with “Professional Forester” in the outer band and “Licensed” inside the inner circle.
Fors 305.02(a) fixes the source of the two variable elements: “The seal shall bear the licensee’s name and number as shown on the license.” Fors 305.02(b) says the name is the full name of the licensee. Between them, the standard is your license record rather than your letterhead, your business card or how you sign an email.
That matters at ordering time more than it sounds. A licensee who goes by a middle name, uses an initial, or added or dropped a suffix after licensure should pull the license up and read it before sending artwork. A die that reads correctly but does not match the license is a die you will replace. New Hampshire has no rule on what happens to a seal after a name change, which is another reason to match the license as it currently reads rather than to improvise.
Three devices are allowed, and one of them is digital
Fors 305.02(a) names a digital seal, an impression type seal and a rubber stamp, in that order, and treats them as alternatives. Nothing in the Fors series excludes an embosser, and nothing imposes a reproduction test of the kind some other states use to push licensees away from embossing. You may hold one device or more than one.
The digital option is worth pausing on. Vermont, next door, also names an electronic insignia. New Hampshire goes further by putting a digital seal first in the list and then attaching no technology conditions to it at all. There is no requirement for a third party digital certificate, no public key infrastructure, no signing platform and no separate electronic seal rule. A digital seal in New Hampshire is an image of the prescribed design, carrying the same six elements at the same proportions, applied by you to a document you prepared.
Original signature travels with the seal
The application sentence binds two markings together: “This seal and original signature shall be affixed.” The word original is doing work. The rule does not say a signature, or a facsimile signature, or a signature block. It says original signature, and it puts it alongside the seal on every document in the list.
A date is a different question and the honest answer is that New Hampshire does not require one. We read all three subsections of Fors 305.02 and the forester sections of RSA 310-A and found no date requirement attached to the seal. We report that as not addressed rather than inferring a date line from other professions or other states. If you want a date for your own records, nothing stops you writing one beside the seal, but it is not a rule element and it does not belong inside the prescribed design.
What has to be sealed, and the RSA 310-A:98 exemptions
The document list is short and specific: “all plans, maps, contracts, and reports prepared by the licensee.” Contracts are in the list, which is unusual and easy to overlook. Fors 501.03(al) phrases it as “all contracts related to the practice of forestry.” A management plan, a stand map, a timber sale contract and a written report all carry the seal.
The duty is subject to the exemptions in RSA 310-A:98. Those exemptions cover practice on one’s own lands, employees of a licensed forester working under direct supervision, and activities incidental to the practice of forestry, which the statute lists as timber harvesting, agriculture, wildlife management, land use planning, arboriculture and procurement of forest resources, provided the person does not represent themselves as a forester. The statute puts it as “Nothing in this subdivision ... shall be construed as requiring any person, business organization, state university, department or agency ... to be licensed ... in order to practice forestry on their own lands.” Those are exemptions from licensure, and the seal duty follows licensure.
The separate endorsement duty in RSA 310-A:107
There is a second marking obligation, and it sits in statute rather than in the seal rule. RSA 310-A:107 provides that “Plans, maps, and reports issued by the licensee shall be endorsed with the licensee’s name and license number during the life of the license.” That is an endorsement duty, not a seal duty, and its document list is slightly shorter than the rule’s because it does not name contracts.
In practice the two overlap neatly, because the seal already carries your name and license number. A sealed plan is also an endorsed plan. The statute adds teeth the rule does not: it makes it a class B misdemeanor for a licensed forester to endorse any plan, map or report “unless the licensed forester shall have actually prepared such plan, map, or report, or shall have been in the actual charge of the preparation of the same,” and it treats endorsing with name and license number after expiration or revocation the same way, unless the license has been renewed or reissued.
Sealing after a license expires, is suspended or is surrendered
Fors 305.02(c) is explicit where many states are silent: “The stamping or sealing of any documents by the licensee with the licensee’s seal after the license has expired, has been suspended, revoked, or surrendered voluntarily shall be a violation of these rules and RSA 310-A:114.” All four situations are named, including voluntary surrender, which licensees sometimes assume is a clean exit.
Licenses run two years. Fors 401.01 provides that a “License shall expire 2 years from the date the license was issued,” which is an anniversary date rather than a common renewal date, so two foresters in the same office can expire in different months. Fors 401.05 governs reinstatement where a license has lapsed 12 months or more, by universal renewal application, an addendum carrying three forester references, fees and continuing education documentation. Nothing in the rules requires you to surrender or destroy the seal itself. The device stays yours; what stops is your authority to use it.
The conduct rules on sealing someone else’s work
Fors 305.02(c) also provides that “The stamping or sealing of any documents by the licensee not prepared by the licensee personally or under the licensee’s direct supervision shall be a violation of these rules and RSA 310-A:114.” The standards of conduct rule adds three more duties in the same register. Fors 501.03(ai) requires the licensee to “Not sell nor permit the use of a seal to anyone, recognizing that the seal indicates the licensee’s personal responsibility.” Fors 501.03(aj) requires the licensee to “Not affix a signature or seal to any map or document dealing with subject matter in which the licensee lacks competence.” Fors 501.03(ak) requires the licensee to “Not affix the licensee’s signature or seal to any map or document not prepared by licensee or under the licensee’s direct supervisory control.”
Those four sentences have a practical shape. The seal is personal property in the strict sense: it may not be sold, lent or left where an office can reach it. That argues against a shared drawer, a shared drive folder holding the digital seal image, or a template that drops your seal into a document before you have read it.
The board’s own seal is a different instrument
Fors 103.05 concerns the Board Seal. That is the board’s own corporate seal, used by the board on its own instruments, and it is separate from the seal you buy and apply. It carries no bearing on the design, the size or the use of a licensed forester’s seal, and no forester should be looking at it when preparing artwork.
The same caution applies across professions. New Hampshire land surveyors, engineers and architects each have their own seal rules under their own boards, with their own diameters and their own legends. Those designs are not interchangeable with Fors 305.02, and a die cut to another profession’s specification does not answer this rule.
Ordering a New Hampshire forester seal
Because the design is fixed, ordering is short. Send your full name as it is shown on your license, your license number as it is shown on your license, and confirmation that you want the Fors 305.02(b) design. The two diameters, the two outer band legends and the position of the word “Licensed” come from the rule and do not vary between licensees. Decide which of the three permitted devices you want, and remember that you may have more than one.
A word on fitting the type. A 1-9/16 inch outer circle with a 15/16 inch inner circle leaves a band of a little over five sixteenths of an inch for “State of New Hampshire” and “Professional Forester”, and an inner field under an inch across for a full name, a license number and the word “Licensed”. Long names are the pinch point. A proof at actual size is the way to catch it, because a design that looks fine at screen size can close up when it is cut. If you would like us to proof one, contact us, and the profession overview at Forester Stamps and Seals sets New Hampshire beside the other states.
Keeping it right over the life of the license
Re ink a self inking stamp when the impression starts to gray rather than when it fails. Keep a pre inked stamp capped and away from heat. An embosser needs little beyond keeping grit off the die faces. If you hold a digital seal, keep the image file where only you open it, which is what Fors 501.03(ai) is really asking for.
The check at each two year renewal is three questions. Does the name on the die still match the name shown on the license. Does the license number still match. Is the license current, given that Fors 305.02(c) makes sealing after expiration a violation in itself. Nothing in the rule ties the design to a renewal cycle, so a correctly made die does not go stale; only your authority to use it can. This page is a research summary and not legal advice.
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- Vermont Forester Seal: Required, Format Comes From OPR
- South Carolina Forester Seal: Optional, Two Fixed Sizes
Frequently asked questions
Does New Hampshire require a licensed forester to have a seal?
Yes. Fors 305.02(a) says that on issuance of a license the licensee “shall acquire” a digital seal, an impression type seal or a rubber stamp, and that the seal and original signature “shall be affixed on all plans, maps, contracts, and reports prepared by the licensee” unless exempt under RSA 310-A:98.
How big is a New Hampshire forester seal?
Two concentric circles. The outer circle has a diameter of 1-9/16 inches and the inner circle has a diameter of 15/16 of an inch. Those figures come from Fors 305.02(b) and there is no alternative size and no stated tolerance.
What exactly goes on the seal?
“State of New Hampshire” in the outer band at the top, “Professional Forester” in the outer band at the bottom, your full name and license number written horizontally inside the inner circle, and the word “Licensed” below the name and number and inside the curve of the inner circle. The name and number are the ones shown on your license.
Is the rule Fors 305.02 or Fors 305.03?
Fors 305.02. There is no Fors 305.03. Part Fors 305 contains 305.01, which is the License rule, and 305.02, which is the Licensed Forester Seal/Stamp rule. An earlier version of our own forester hub cited 305.03, and that was wrong.
Can I use a digital seal in New Hampshire?
Yes. A digital seal is one of the three forms named in Fors 305.02(a), alongside an impression type seal and a rubber stamp. No digital certificate, signing platform or authentication technology is required or mentioned, and there is no separate electronic seal rule in the Fors series.
Does the seal have to be dated?
Not addressed. We read all of Fors 305.02 and the forester sections of RSA 310-A and found no requirement to date the seal. The rule does require an original signature alongside it. We report the date question as unaddressed rather than inferring one.
What happens if I seal something after my license expires?
Fors 305.02(c) makes it a violation of the rules and of RSA 310-A:114 to stamp or seal any document after the license has expired, been suspended, been revoked or been surrendered voluntarily. RSA 310-A:107 separately makes endorsing documents with your name and license number after expiration or revocation a class B misdemeanor unless the license is renewed or reissued.
Do contracts really need the seal?
Yes. The document list in Fors 305.02(a) reads “all plans, maps, contracts, and reports prepared by the licensee,” and Fors 501.03(al) repeats the duty for “all contracts related to the practice of forestry.” Contracts are the item foresters most often miss.
