Foresters and TSI Pine cutters

[CCC4]

Doing an operator select cut on 35 or so acres of wild stand SYP. Targeting 80% of the flat toppers, forked tops, and eliminating crowding where tops are touching. So here is my question, 3 pine growing together same height and diameter, each are opposing each other with exact lean. Which one do you take...or leave all three? I have been leaving them. Only been by 2 different clusters where this has happened though.  Trees at base are 6 feet apart from each other and sort of a circle. There is no "middle" tree. If you take one, the other 2 are gonna look funny because of their lean outwards away from each other...see my dilema?

[treeslayer2003]

i would probably take all three. but then, pine grow close together here, maybe closer than there. one thing i do see in mature natural stands here is most of the stems are same age unless its been stair stepped before. depends on what you want to do, seed trees or leave what will grow. i get the flat top term......mature. but i do see small flat tops as well.

[CCC4]

This stand is naturally stairstepped, Im not seeing any signs of logging except a few cross cut stumps. I am cutting it to leave it with a full appearance, giving the future timber some room and taking the mature and the 20" stuff out if it wont leave a hole. Some areas are a little patchy so I skip every other one to leave the full appearance but yet get the thinning that is needed. Love this cut I am doing Mike, i need to get some pics...gonna be a primo stand of pine for the future. These are my favorite cuts, really proud the LO turned it over to me to do as I want.

[thecfarm]

stairstepped?never heard that in logging.

[CCC4]

The age and size difference. It appears that every 20 or so years they regenerated leaving a stairstep in size and age. For instance I would guess the poles at 20, the mids at 40 and the flat toppers around 65 plus years old

[treeslayer2003]

cfarm Clint got it right. read a primer to forestry by Gifford Pinchot [prolly spelled that name wrong]