Need help with Select cutting and clearing land

[Biglurr54]

I just bought a house and heated it last winter with dead and standing wood I could find. Now im clearing wood for this winter and would like to select cut so i have some lumber trees to sell. I have 30 acres of woods that has been used for fire wood for the house for the last 180 years. Thats not a typo its an old farm house. I have Oak, Hickory, Maple, Cherry, Walnut,
Elm, Ash, and other junk wood. Im wondering what Trees I should leave to let grow to sell and what trees are worth more as fire wood then If i sold them. I can get a cord of log length wood for $100 right now. I do have some nice big stuff thats clear up to about 20 -25 feet that is ready to sell now. But if its not worth much to sell i might as well us it for firewood as I am going to need 10 cord a year. What trees are worth the most for lumber? What trees aren't worth saving and using for firewood? As I am new to growing trees, clearing trees, and the such, what is a good way to learn how to identify the trees. Ive tried with the sticky thread on this forum but the pics wont load for me for some reason. I want to get good at IDing them and knowing when they are ready for harvesting for either firewood or to sell. I dont want to send a valuable tree through the boiler and leave a less valuable tree standing. Any help links or further reading on this would be greatly appreciated! Thank you all in advanced.

 

[redheadwoodshed]

First take all the dead trees then go after the ones that might be twisted or malformed in one way or another, scarred, top blown out etc.All the trees you mentioned are valuable for lumber, they need to be about 18" dbh, that's diameter at breast height,or greater to get the best price.
How do you plan on harvesting, and hauling the logs?Do you have a mill or will you be transporting the logs to a mill?A good logger could cruise your timber and pretty much tell you what you need to know.Or yall might even have a state forester who would come out and help you.Otherwise you can hire a forester.Cruising timber and doing a timber stand improvement is kind of hard on the internet.Hope this helps.

 

[Dale]

Veneer-grade Cherry (clear), by far is king if ya have any. "Regular" Cherry still fetches more than any other. Of course Oaks, Hard-Maple, Walnut to some degree. Market has been way down, not sure what the forecast is, but.... Go on a Timber Stumpage website and follow the trends. Penn State has an excellent site for just that.

 

[Biglurr54]

I was going to fell the trees limb them and skid them out with my 8-n. Once i had a good load of worthy timber I was going to call a local guy that buys up timber and runs it through his mill. I have an Uncle who is a logger but he does much bigger plots of land, 300 acres or greater, so i doubt he will have any interest in such small amounts. Plus i would like to keep the loggers off the land so it doesnt get all torn up by skidders and what have you. Im hoping to get a few trees a year. I have alot of mature (greater that 18 inch) maple and hickory. I have one beautiful cherry that im hanging on to to make kitchen cabinets for the house in the next couple of years. Theres a few smaller cherries that will probably be ready in 5 years. If the market isn't great now then maybe ill let them continue to grow. I have begun to take the weak, deformed, and odd trees already. Im also taking competition away from the good straight clear trees so they can grow better. I have been running into the issue of do I cut the oak so the maple can grow or cut the maple so the oak can grow. I have no idea what trees are worth the most.

 

[Mac88]

I was going to fell the trees limb them and skid them out with my 8-n. Once i had a good load of worthy timber I was going to call a local guy that buys up timber and runs it through his mill. I have an Uncle who is a logger but he does much bigger plots of land, 300 acres or greater, so i doubt he will have any interest in such small amounts. Plus i would like to keep the loggers off the land so it doesnt get all torn up by skidders and what have you. Im hoping to get a few trees a year. I have alot of mature (greater that 18 inch) maple and hickory. I have one beautiful cherry that im hanging on to to make kitchen cabinets for the house in the next couple of years. Theres a few smaller cherries that will probably be ready in 5 years. If the market isn't great now then maybe ill let them continue to grow. I have begun to take the weak, deformed, and odd trees already. Im also taking competition away from the good straight clear trees so they can grow better. I have been running into the issue of do I cut the oak so the maple can grow or cut the maple so the oak can grow. I have no idea what trees are worth the most.

Try these folks:

Private Forest Management - NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation

 

[zogger]

Good advice so far. I would never clear cut of any of one species, that's nuts. You want a diverse spread.

Twisted trees, crowded trees, crippled trees, they can go for firewood. Just open up what you have. As to selling, too many variables in local markets and what you want to do, you can sell raw logs to finished pieces of whatever you want to make with your wood. Every step you make is "value added" and makes the wood more valuable.

I think proper woodlot management...what was said above, get a qualified pro to walk around with you and point, you'll learn a lot and know what to do then.

Sounds like big fun! I am slowly trying to do that here, I could spend full 100% time on it if I didn't have to do anything else, and never run out of work....

 

[fields_mj]

I'm no logger, and this is only my opinion, but from what I've seen around here Hickory isn't used for much of anything but firewood. Having said that, I wouldn't clear cut it out. If I had to choose between a white oak (or any of the others you listed) and a hickory of the same size, I'd drop the hickory. The only exception might be with soft maple. I'm not sure it has much value for lumber either. Then again, it doesn't have much value for firwood either The farm I cut on has a partnership agreement with one of the local logging companies. They come out and basically manage his woods for him. The ring any junk trees that need to be removed and they helped him get a lot of new trees planted in what used to be open pasture. I can cut anything that's already down, or leaning out over a field. Last year they logged over 1100 trees out, mostly white oak. I won't have to worry about what to cut for another year or so. By then I hope to be 4 or 5 years ahead

 

[Dalmatian90]

https://utextension.tennessee.edu/publications/Documents/PB1772.pdf

I think for a novice (that includes me!) the hardest part to learn would be how to grade your trees to obtain the maximum value before cutting -- it's a skill & experience thing.

Find out from the local mills what lengths of what species they prefer. Might be better off making a single 12' log of a better grade with a bit of firewood left over, then two 8' logs of a lower grade. Mills also want them a bit longer then the final board length, so you'd probably be cutting 12' 6" or 8' 6" logs...but that's information you can get from your local folks.