Thinning 20 acres of pines... with WHAT?

These times are not the best. Not as bad as it was down here back in 08 but definitely not great. Wood demand is still down, holding demand for finish materials down and having everyone on quota for everything basically.

 

'Bout time you show up to this thread...

 

I have slowed down here. Not intentionally, just my son is older now and we're more on the go doing stuff around the house. Also been busy at work with forester stuff. Haha

 

Just bustin' ya. Glad to see you here.

 

YeA I know

 

With dense young Loblolly and impenetrable understory that we get down here renting a skidsteer/mulcher or sub contracting the job would be the way to go.
I've seen this kind of mess(not on my property) but other clear cuts that aren't managed very well.

I use an MS170 for dropping these after swinging an old school FS353 brushcutter with a Beaver Blade for several years thinning woodlines on my property.

Beetle kill will eliminate swaths and allow established hardwood to eventually regrow to cover canopy and suppress the vines - takes a long time

 

I still would put a fuel chipping crew in their. Let them cut it back to some spacing like 10x 10 or 12x12 or just clearcut and start over.
Around here I could get $0.25 to maybe $1.00 a ton all day long for work like that for dirty chips.

I would not lift a finger. That's my opinion and if I was your forester that would be my recommendation and what I would do.

 

Based on how you describe you land, mechanized thinning sounds like the best option. You mentioned thinning from 300 down to 60 stems/acre. In order to make the ground usable in the coming years, you will need to remove all the cut trees. If you don't remove the cut trees, I would think there would be so much material on the ground, you wouldn't be able to find places to plant your hardwoods.
I think Deer Meadow Farm has some great advice for you. If you are wanting to get the job done for as cheap as possible, NRCS funding will likely be the best avenue. It may take a little time to get the funding in place. In the mean time, I'd go in and start the clearcuts you talk about. Clearing an acre is still cutting 300 trees. That will keep you busy until the thinning starts. You could likely pull them out with your atv.
As for chainsaw choice... The trees are small enough most anything will work. I'm sure your ms200 would work just great.

 

Those pines will rot to nothing in 3 years here in the south. And we don't plant hardwoods down here in the south....it may wor other places but don't do it, here in the south. It's a waste of money and you usually will have very poor survival.

 

Only ones I know about are on lands that are usually owned by the foundation or usually volunteers or staff members. I am sure some are on public land but the problem they probably run into on public is that it's a cross (from an imported species)and technically it's characteristics are unknown. Public land usually forbids non natives from being planted.

 

Only ones I know about are on lands that are usually owned by the foundation or usually volunteers or staff members. I am sure some are on public land but the problem they probably run into on public is that it's a cross (from an imported species)and technically it's characteristics are unknown. Public land usually forbids non natives from being planted.

 

Hey buddy ! How's all been going ? I haven't been on here in awile either. It's nice to see some familiar faces !
It must be different down south...Cuz stuff cut and left lay up north here...Hangs around for quite awhile lol !

 

Hey bud, Hope your doing good as well.

Yea stuff rots fast down here. Especially those small diameter young loblolly pine. They don't have any heart in them yet or much resin which is the only part that's rot resistant.

Now if your talking cutting down 20" loblolly it will be there for a decade or so and the heartwood if it has any will be there virtually forever. That's good heartwood.

 

I've contacted a couple different groups for seedlings and they seem to be out each year or they don't have the distribution network down.
Don't want hybrids but genetic stock from a champion tree they found not far from my property 7-8yrs ago A rare American chestnut tree discovered in Talladega National Forest is largest in the state

 

I read about the hybrid chestnut; not a true American as it has DNA from another type of chestnut tree; I was hoping they could figure out a way to make the American chestnut blight resistant.

 

It's chineese, which is blight resistant. First hybrid is 50/50 then they get the best of that generation and then start crossing it back to a parent tree that is 100% American that has show resistance. And breed most of the Chinese back out of it. What's a seedling that has a parent that's 50/50 and a 100% chestnut? Does that work out to 25/75%?? Chineese /american?

That's basically what there doing though

 

I would think it would depend on which characteristics were dominant and which are recessive in the DNA of each tree. Obviously the blight resistance of the Chinese Chestnut would need to be dominant over the succeptible American version otherwise it wouldn't make sense to cross breed them. But I don't think you can use simple percentages to define the characteristics that are passed down from each species. I do think that the more times the hybrid is crossed with the American Chestnut, the more like the AC it becomes.