Forest Stewardship in New Hampshire

[teacherman]

Howdy!

I just moved to a little old farm a bit east of Concord NH, and I have a couple of acres of long-neglected forest. Unfortunately it is mostly white and pitch pine, with a few red oaks and maples for the tall trees, and the understory has some white oak, what I think is hophornbeam, a few shagbark hickory, and some others. The forest floor is deep with fallen pines and undecayed oak leaves, and I've been busy taking down leaners and hangers to reduce the hazard. This does not seem to be a healthy forest to me. Trees are tall and skinny, and vulnerable to windfall and resultant damage to other trees. I have an email in to the county forester about getting some management advice, as well as how to approach the still-healthy (I think 🙏) four-and-a-half foot dbh white ash shading the house. No response yet on that.

I'm making a walking trail through this by moving some deadfall and removing obvious hazards overhead, but I'd sure like to begin practicing proper stewardship of this small bit of timber. I have the possibility of managing the surrounding timber, given the neighbors are wonderful, very busy people with whom I've been fortunate to start out on excellent terms.

A specific question is: How do I decide which trees to remove to make room for healthy canopy development, or, how do I decide which ones to keep? Is there a good beginning forestry stewardship book or pamphlet? I can climb, and I have all the rigging equipment from a late-in-life tree trimming business. I am not interested in commercial activity, and though I have an old English barn to restore, nothing in this stand is good for that, as all the tall oaks are red ones.

Thoughts? Any neighbors nearby? I'm in Epsom.

[teacherman]

This is sort of a repeat of a post in another part of the forestry forum a couple of weeks ago. So, I'm sorry for the redundancy on that. I'll try to be more attentive in the future... :

[Ron Scott]

Contact a local professional consulting forester, local conservation district forester, or local DNR service forester serving your area and have them look at your property for a recommendation on your best vegetative management for the property. They will provide you with the best options to meet your management objectives.

[mike_belben]

Timber Resources | Woodlands | Logging | Tennessee Timber Consultants, LLC

Go to bottom and click on the pine tree logo.. Its about 100 pages, PDF format.  Great booklet. 

[thecfarm]

Missed this almost a month ago.
No help from me, accept keep at it, it's fun to do, but really a never ending job.  ;D
I just look for the trees I don't like the looks of and remove them for firewood.

[Ron Scott]

Be watchful that some undesirable looking trees may be beneficial den, snag, cavity, hard or soft mast trees, etc. beneficial to maintain habitat for both game and nongame wildlife species. ;)

[thecfarm]

Yes I do that. But there is a never ending supplies of those trees on my 150 acres. There are some places I have not seen for 5 years.