I worked my way from the east to the west side of our property putting in trails and then thinning out the smaller trees, the area I'm working is worse than any of the areas around the house were, by next fall that area will look so much better.
Tree plantation spacing is 10 feet each way when you first plant those tiny whips and 20 feet each way as the trees reach a decent size. My district forester said to plant on about a 10 foot grid then thin by half at around 10 to 15 years and again 10 years later to remove half of what was left. The objective was to remove some competition at the first thinning and wind up with the best of the planted trees at 20 to 25 years on about a 20 foot grid. The dense planting spacing was expected to provide something to choose from, give some wind protection and to take care of any early losses of the planted trees. The final thinning was to achieve a sustainable population of trees that could then mature. My early planting looked ridiculous because the trees were so far apart but by 10 years they were looking pretty darned tight. Now I am at about 30 years and have to agree that I should have thinned a lot more several years ago. If I remove the 20% +/- that are ash it will still be a very dense planting. Pictures of my plantation last spring Along a row From an angle not showing a row as such
Our lot the house is on should've been thinned out many years ago but it wasn't so we do our best on the thinning so it will be a better lot.
