Planting Trees for Future Lumber

[panhandle]

I'm young and I'd like to plant about twenty trees now so that I might harvest and mill them in the coming decades. I'm brand new to milling, so I thought I would ask for species recommendations here.

I would be planting in North Idaho, USDA zone 5-6, and I'm curious about the following aspects of different trees

1) Time to harvest maturity
2) Price/bf
3) Price of saplings
4) Ease of cultivation

Thanks.

[bandmiller2]

I would look up your local county forester,he will know whats best for your area and probibly give you the seedlings.Mayby look into exotic high dollar varietys too.You have the years ahead thats an advantage that cannot be bought at any price. Frank C.

[hackberry jake]

It might be hard to harvest them after you nourish them and raise them for 20 or so years.

[Ianab]

I'm going to suggest walnut trees.

Reason is that you can get a crop off them for many years before you actually harvest the timber.

But the main problem is it take a LONG time to grow good quality trees in most climates. Sure there are trees that can get to a millable size in 20 years, but they tend to be low value. Hybrid poplars, things like that.

Ian

[Tree Feller]

I second the suggestion to talk to your county forester or extension service agent. They will be able to give you up-to-date advice on what will give you the best ROI in your area.

[thecfarm]

Plant trees but also take care of what you all ready have growing too. Take out the bad shaped one,prune up the good ones,maintain roads to get to the trees, think about widlife too.

[Okrafarmer]

What they've all said is true, but why not plant more than 20? (assuming you have room). Like Frank said, the county forester will probably give them to you if you sit down and discuss it with him. They do that a lot.

If you plant a good few, you could plant several different species. Some indigenous to your area, and maybe some from the eastern US, Europe, Asia, or the southern hemisphere. It's up to you. If you have even an acre of land, you can plant and nourish quite a few trees.

Some I would look into in your location, if it were me:
Sitka Spruce
Port Orford Cedar
Western Red Cedar
White Pine
Doug Fir
Sugar Maple
White Ash
Northern Red Oak
White or Yellow Birch
Black Cherry
Black Wlanut

Some of those may not work on your property, especially if the altitude is too high. Your forester will know.

[Okrafarmer]

And wow, I never would have guessed you would be zone 5-6 in northern Idaho. I grew up on the edge of zone 4-5 in Maine at relatively low altitude.

[SPIKER]

I agree with others about talking to local forestry/ag extension service for help.

If you are after trees that you can cut and turn into wood in 20 years I dont know of much that will be of high value in that time in your area.

Someone suggested walnut which will give you a crop in 10~12+ years but won;t get you a lumber market value until 40 yrs for best size/value.

I would add to that idea and say since you want only 20 or so trees I'm going to say try some fruit trees for a few reasons.   20 or so trees are of little quality (age/value) for timber but at 8~10 yrs old you can have a good little orchard producing some good fruit.   of which a few hundred bucks could be produced each year for only a few hours trimming in late winter and some mid/late summer picking.

mark