Forest Management of 13 Acres mixed HW, Cedar, Pine trees

[Tenn Slim]

ALL
bt
Finally got PW set. Now to work
bt
I have a 13 acre hobby farm, NE Arkansas, with some 200 mixed HW, Pine, Cedar trees. I have eliminated most of the dead trees, via a local logger. Maintained the Insect population from borers, to fungi, over the past 9 + years. I have a few stumps to remove, and a HUGE pile of debris left over from the 2009 Ice Storm. I use the debris pile for firewood. Tree types are Red Oak, White Oak, Hickory and 1 Walnut, Juniper Pines, Red Cedar.
bt
My current questions are:
1. I have 2 trees with fungi appeared, after the summer of 09 probably from the Ice Storm damage. Need to know proper Herbicide to kill these w/o tree damage.
2. Measuring trees for sawtimber logging. I use the DBH and Log estimate method currently. I am still learning about the proper method to determine how much actual logable timber I have. There is a host of data out there about measurements in general, and quite frankly I am up to my ears in data, w/o a certain level of confidence here.
bt
Thanks for the Forum. Just getting into forestry, dont really know all the terms yet.
end
Semper Fi

[Magicman]

First,  Welcome to The Forestry Forum.  I guess that you are a Tennessee guy, living in Arkansas, that is/was a Marine.

I really can't answer your questions, since I'm not a Forester, but maybe I can also learn from the answers.  There are several very qualified folks on here, so I'm sure that you will hear from them.   Again, Welcome.

[Don K]

Welcome to the Forum. We have some people well qualified to answer your questions. They'll be along shortly.

Don

[Ron Wenrich]

I can't help you too much with the herbicide question.  I never got too bent out of shape over a little fungus.  But, they may be on my cut list.

As for measuring trees, foresters use the same criteria you're looking at.   We measure the dbh, and estimate the number of 16' logs in a tree.  From there you get a fair estimate in the amount of lumber in the standing timber.  But, you have to be realistic on the number of 16' logs are in a tree.

When you cut the trees into logs, you may get an overrun from tree scale to log scale.  It depends on how good you are at bucking logs, or how good you are at scaling trees.  Overscale the trees, and you'll have a hard time of making it up in logs.

From log scale to lumber scale, most guys get an overrun.  It depends on what you're cutting and the type of equipment you have.  International scale is pretty close to what you get in hardwoods.  Softwoods will probably overrun more if you cut on the 6/4 scale and call it 2". 

[BaldBob]

Ron answered your question #2. I have bad news re: question #1. There are virtually no economically viable options for treating fungal infections in live trees, if the infection is in the main bole.  Infections in branches can sometimes be eliminated by pruning off the infected branches