Going to harvest some of my timber, any advice will be appreciated.

[sflynn]

You guys hit it right on the head. I talked to some mills, and I need to go into managment mode. I'm looking forward to getting into the woods this winter. I also have a lot of honey suckle, and autumn olive. I need to get started on them.

[BlaBla]

Steve:

It sounds to me like the forester was suggesting timber stand improvement:  essentially killing the junk trees and invasive species in order to favor your best trees--your straight, tall oaks and walnuts. Timber stand improvement is absolutely something that you can learn to do although you shouldn't need much more than a chainsaw and spray bottle.

Waiting to harvest immature timber until markets improve makes sense for a whole lot of reasons. The volume difference between an 18" oak and 22" oak is nearly double and in the case of high quality veneer timber, the value difference is probably even greater.

Keep in mind that cost-share incentives are available for timber stand improvement and invasive species removal work whether you do it yourself or you hire the forester ($50/acre with the current cost-share sounds like you wouldn't have much out of pocket cost). Here is a good place to start:  http://www.il.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/eqip/index.html

The state forestry guys are a great resource but can be difficult to get on your property.

[Ax- man]

Honeysuckle and olive ARRGGGH. Good luck with that one. Nothing more than a twisted,crooked and tangled mess to deal with. Another small invasive tree I hate is that Buckthorn.

[treefarmer87]

cut out the crooked, low value trees for pulp and fire wood.

[sflynn]

What is pulp? I dont think I can sell it around here.

[Banjo picker]

Usually a product to make some sort of paper out of...I see you haven't filled out the location part of your id so we don't know where you are located...If there is a paper mill close to you...someone is selling pulp wood...Tim

[sflynn]

Ahh, I'm near Ottawa Illinois.

[thecfarm]

Pulp wood or pulp is really the junk wood of a land owners lot.This info is in my area of Maine.Some paper mills and some landowners may plant certain trees for pulp.Most times in my area the trees are softwood that are planted.The trees are too crooked or may have too much rot it in to make saw logs.The pulp can be no smaller than 3 inches and no bigger than 28.The sawmill will not take anything below 8 inches.Pulp wood is not really a money maker on a wood lot either,when the lot is being cut for sawlogs.Species does matter too.White pine is the cheapest,while fir will bring $30 more a ton.I feel the only one that makes the money is the trucker.He's the one that has the less time with it.It just cleans up the woods.If a trucker had 10 cords on the landowner would get about $50-100 for that load of wood.Some take it tree length or 8 foot.When I first started one paper mill was still taken 4 foot wood.Again this is in my area.

[SwampDonkey]

I was wondering where the $10,000 management fee came from. You presented here a cost of $50/acre on 200 acres. If it's actually $500/acre, then there is more to it than tree marking. There is planning, marketing, "babysitting", and access issues (roads/yards).

[Dieselbreath]

I used to do all the logging on my place but falling the trees was one area I never was very comfortable with. Now I have a logger friend who does the falling (and some delimbing) and I do the skidding and bucking. Works well for me and in addition to pay he gets to hunt my property. Everybody is happy and I'm still alive!

[timberjake]

My advice would be to never, ever fall trees by yourself.  Many have spent several miserable hours pinned under trees waiting for someone to realize they are missing.  And those are the lucky ones who weren't killed. 

It is important to know which trees to cut and when.  Just cutting the "big" trees to let the smaller ones grow is not the way to do it.  Not all small trees with turn into quality large trees or even into large trees at all.  Being able to tell wich to cut can make a huge difference in the future stand quality and the rotation time.  If you cream all the nice log trees and leave a bunch of craplings on the first cut, you will have only have medium to large junk for the remainder of the time you have the property. 

You probably have enough property to practice on if it's only a weekend thing, but I have to agree with most of the others.  You will come out better overall to have a forester and professional logger do it.  And 12000 for 200 acres worth of up 18" trees sound like about 1/5 of what it should be.  I cut 40 acres for a guy a couple of years ago and it was almost all soft maple and junky stuff at that for that price. 

[beenthere]

My advice would be to never, ever fall trees by yourself.  ..............

I hear what you are saying, but I don't practice your advice.
If I have a difficult tree or two, I have a friend come over to watch. Takes his time out of his day for 5 minutes watching. I do the same for him, but it involves at least an hour of time total. Usually these are trees that need some re-directing with rope or cable and a "tractor" driver.

And I'd prefer not to cut alone, but have no one available to come around and who is interested in watching me cut trees. Besides, having another around is in itself dangerous to them.

Not saying you have bad advice, but not real practical to carry it out.