I have 5 acres that was high graded years back. I have exactly 2 Oaks 6 walnuts and a chit load of sugar maple ash beech. Cut out any damaged ones then move on to what's shading out the next generation of firewood. Your woods wants sunlight. So do critters. Maples and beech will live in shade so if oak hickory etc is what you want I suggest opening up the canopy. It's hard to do I know....but a necessary evil. I'm dropping a few 24 dbh maples this winter for just that reason. Food plot is another
Paint can mean many things....my neighbors property was logged and they marked ones not to be cut due to chitty trunks or being near property lines
+1, This is my scenario in a nutshell as well. The vast majority of my wood is standing dead or blowdown. You could call your county forester and have them out and they could give you pointers on which trees to select. A few acres or a few hundred doesn't matter they are supposed to be there to help you.
But it was the chitty trunk ones that should of been cut, because 10 years for now he is just going to have bigger trees with chitty trunks that are worth the same few dollars a cord on the stump. The long term value was reduced for a short term gain.
This first pic are Ash saplings I thinned out several years ago. There were a ton of them in one small area. I need to thin them out again. The second pic is of a group of Hickory. I'm leaving the big one because it has barb wire in it. I'm waiting for the trees near it to get bigger before I cut them.
I have some big Hickories I'm leaving as well, but if others are growing under the shade of the big Hickory canopy, well in that scenario the big Hickory should really go to let the others get big and not fight for light... They are amazing trees to look at when they're big, just something about them..
Yep...all the more reason to get your county or state forester involved rather than just trusting the word of a logger.
When I find time I am going to start cutting wood/splitting/stacking wood for next season. I will start by taking standing dead White Pine and thinning out White Ash. That should keep me busy for the next couple of decades. (81 acres and one happy camper here) I am going to have a forester come in some year and take a look at what I have and get some advice on tree health, forest health, etc.
Uh oh, I can't believe you typed that out loud. Need to use your inner typist for stuff like that. Nice thing about W. Pine is that it dries very quickly, so I guess you're okay. Good idea on the forester thing.....I've thought of it also.
+1 on getting a forester involved in any timber sale... He'll take a percentage, but will follow your management goals to prevent high grading. This brochure has some good info. http://extension.unh.edu/resources/files/Resource000210_Rep228.pdf One key thing to look at when deciding which trees to cut is crown ratio. The percentage of height that is live crown. As competition for sunlight grows, less and less of the tree is crown which causes the tree to grow slower and eventually die. Sure it's nice to be able to say that you don't cut live trees and only take the dead and down trees, however if you're doing that, you're not doing all you can do to ensure that your prime growing stock is putting on as much diameter (biomass or sawlog volume) as possible. Page 3 of this talks about crown ratio.. http://extension.oregonstate.edu/sorec/sites/default/files/stand_improvement_class_handout.pdf
I have lots of Hornbeam trees in one part of my hard woods.. One logger said to get rid of a lot of them as they are short lived and can crowd out better trees.. Guess they are really good firewood after looking up the BTU values... I haven't touched any yet.. Most have trunks with about a 6 in DBH.. Here's a picture of the bark..
Hornbeam is great. I cut it whenever I get the chance. I have one next to the garage and it was beautiful this summer.
Jack, if you leave them alone, those ash saplings will thin themselves and you'll still have some good trees.
I have quite a few scattered Hophornbeam (Ironwood) on the property,mostly the SE & south central part on those 2 very steep hills.None are over 7"-8" diameter,most is 3"-5" that I noticed.State Record is around 12" & 30 feet tall in a protected spot in NE IA.Very slow growing,small understory tree that's considered a ''weed'' by foresters,but I leave them alone cause lots of birds & small mammals use them for habitat.Only take out 1 or 2 a year,those are broken down or split from the occasional heavy snow or ice storm.The wood is very dense,fine textured,very tough & strong,rivals Hickory in bending strength & resilience.I've heard its good for archery bows,though hedge & Yew are the best. I've made a few tool handles & a mallet or two from the wood.Early settlers used it for the same purposes,along with levers,wedges (especially good for felling wedges),and rollers for moving heavy objects.Finishes very smoothly,takes a very high polish. Some years they have very nice yellow-gold leaves in Fall,werent quite as nice this year though.
Dave. Please explain. I am not sure what you mean by this. Don't be shy. Do you mean because I burn wood that is not more than one year seasoned and say it out loud on this site of experienced wood burners? LOL.
Actually, saying it out loud would be fine, but when you type it out loud.......well, that's just asking for trouble. Trying to look out for ya' bud.
