Hardwood logging, select vs clear-cut

[floyd]

Uneven age mgmt. Worst first. Low return now but building a savings account for your children.

Hire a forester, you will be $ ahead in the long run.

Maintain the roads you build for future use.

 

[Curlycherry1]

I drove by a state forest over in WI a few years ago that was clear cut hard maple/birch/beech forest. It was harvested over 30+years ago and there was nothing growin in that area. I later heard they call it the "Charlie Brown Forest" because every tree growing is a pathetic looking stub of a tree. If you do some looking online you might be able to find out about it. The state admits it was the biggest forestry mistake they ever made. The basically ruined tens of thousands of acres of forest forever.

I worked for a long time in NY on managed forests and they were some of the best looking wood I had ever seen. Typically a 10 year cycle where the logs are selectively cut (~15-25% tops) and then afterwords the culls were taken out for firewood. After a cut the remaining trees would explode in growth and put on massive height and diameter in short order. For a hardwood forest, selective cutting is the only way to go.

Do some reading on forest succession and you will find all kinds of information about how forests have to go through a normal progression for each kind of wood. Upset that balance and the forsest has to start from scratch with poplar/pine.

 

[2dogs]

This is exactly why I asked the question, each have pros and cons.

Clearcutting - timber grows taller faster with less lower branches creating prime lumber trunks. Selective - cuts prime lumber out leaving standing timber to mature (sometimes allowing lower limbs to grow and mature).

Old farm fields take time to regenerate, this is earth that has been plowed over, harvested on and no longer a forest base. House lots areas can be even stripped of topsoil. With out any desired species to regenerate, natures process will take longer for trees to propagate. Your faster growing matter will be invasive - weeds to rose bushes & brush to faster growing trees (whatever may be close and seeded by animals or wind), as Mike Van mentioned.

It seems as though a well managed area (selective cutting and weeding unwanted timber) is the only way to create a area that will insure good quality timber. Working with a neighbor on this method, cleaning out his land of undesired material, creating firewood for the homes.

Others let nature take its natural coarse, I see sumac, popular, and other undesired trees growing.

Worked on some jobs were we clearcut for farms and it raised this question of what is better. I feel selective is with tolerance of leaving healthy timber to inspire prime regrowth.

It also comes down to the landowner.

You are lumping tree farms and forests into the same category by comparing them. You have to determine what you want before you begin a management plan. A tree farm suports a limited eco system. In the west what is undisireable to a tree farm may be just what sustains small animals the forest needs to grow healthy trees that mature in a natural form.

 

[woodsrunner]

Uneven age mgmt. Worst first. Low return now but building a savings account for your children.

Hire a forester, you will be $ ahead in the long run.

Maintain the roads you build for future use.

:agree2:

Where my timber is we are still battling the effects of "high grading". That's taking the good and leaving the junk. Guess what those junk trees don't get better. By junk i mean small stuff that was small 50 years ago and is still small today. I cut a little ash one day (about 6 or 8 inches at the butt) that had fallen across a trail and counted the rings. it was dang near 100 years old!

Hire a forester. He or she will help you alot more than he/she will cost you and they can bring good regional info to your management strategy.

Scott

 

[056kid]

:agree2:

Where my timber is we are still battling the effects of "high grading". That's taking the good and leaving the junk. Guess what those junk trees don't get better. By junk i mean small stuff that was small 50 years ago and is still small today. I cut a little ash one day (about 6 or 8 inches at the butt) that had fallen across a trail and counted the rings. it was dang near 100 years old!

Hire a forester. He or she will help you alot more than he/she will cost you and they can bring good regional info to your management strategy.

Scott

I cut abunch of government timber near Covington VA that was like that.

Along the top of a long ridge where small 5 to 12'' diameter/30 to 50 foot tall chesnut & red oaks that you needed a microscope to count the rings.

on other parts of that same ridge where some BEAUTY reds!

 

[Wishie22]

You are lumping tree farms and forests into the same category by comparing them. You have to determine what you want before you begin a management plan. A tree farm suports a limited eco system. In the west what is undisireable to a tree farm may be just what sustains small animals the forest needs to grow healthy trees that mature in a natural form.

When I think of a tree farm, I think of an area that has one type of specimen growing. I know what your referring to regarding natural wildlife, tree farms can seem baron or empty compared to a natural forest.

When I am referring to a well managed area I am thinking of a area that has a variety of species that are timber of healthy quality. Trees can choke each other out of water, minerals, sunlight, CO2, etc. Allowing a tree room with less competition can inspire better conditions.

A squirrel burying its bounty of nuts, can also be planting the next generation of hardwood timber. Providing the seedlings make it past deer feeding, rutting, and other creatures that eat the young seedlings. Each forest creature add and spreading out nutrients for established timber to reap (once it renters the soil).

In Australia an Emu is a vital seeder, I forget the species they are vital to. It is also interesting how some species need forest fires to reseed. Forest fires naturally happen and in areas vital to a forest eco system (carbon to seeding).