Healthy Maine Beech

[chester_tree _farmah]

I just like to see a healthy beech around these parts so they r staying. My lot is about 1200' wide. I cut the dieing ones for firewood. My lot is a "Mosaic" stand. Some old wood. Some 25 year old wood etc. Some pure hemlock groves, pine, fir, spruce, pure hardwood sections with red oak, hard maple, soft maple, Yellow birch, white birch, ash, beech etc. Some areas they mix some are well defined edges.The lot soils vary from area to area so I have about all species you can grow in these parts. That's  a big ole' hemlock for my avatar on 5/19/2014.   ;D

[CJennings]

I see a lot of healthy beech around me in southern/central Vermont, but there is a lot of beech bark disease as well. I was honestly a little shocked when I was in Maine (Orono/Bangor area) at how much worse the beech is. A lot more beech bark disease and a lot fewer healthy beech trees. That's just an informal observation.

Beech sprouts terribly when disturbed. So if you go through and log a site, taking out the diseased beech, you might just end up with a forest full of beech sprouts that will become diseased as they grow larger unless you're very careful and/or using herbicide on the diseased beech. This may account for some of my observations in Maine, as I was on more intensively managed lands than in VT.

You're doing the right thing by keeping those healthy beech, keeping them and breeding them is the only way we'll have healthy beech in the future.

[SwampDonkey]

We don't find that beech suckers off roots, like in the south, in this region. It does stool shoot, but mostly them shoots don't grow well with the rabbits nibbling the bark off. I've had this conversation before with someone from NY. Our beech are mostly from seed and not much from suckering up here. I've posted photos on here of sugar bush beech regen. Thick, but from seed. ;)

[mesquite buckeye]

If the sick ones are resprouting, better make sure they are all dead or all your selection efforts will be wasted. ;D :( 8)

[chester_tree _farmah]

No need really. They are scattered about I really haven't had a big problem with them. I typically don't clear large openings and the trees around them are usually large enough so u don't have to worry about them being over taken by any beech that pops back up.

[Pete and Jesse]

Not many grown beech left in my woods but I do have a few that are growing well.
Northern Woodlands Magazine ran an article about beech.
Here is the link.
http://northernwoodlands.org/articles/article/beech-party-woodlot