heart rot - TSI

[davidlarson]

I live on 75 acres of western NC mountain forested land - mixed eastern white pine, red and white oak, sourwood, hickory, cherry, poplar, mountain magnolia, etc., last logged about 50 or more years ago.  Recently the forest was reviewed by a forester for advice about timber stand improvement.  She noted there was evidence for heart rot, especially along the old logging roads, and I have learned how to identify which trees are affected.  My question to the forestry experts on this forum is, what, if anything, should I do with these trees -- leave them alone, or when they die, leave them for snags where woodpeckers can live, cut them down for firewood, or to make room for healthy sound trees, or what?  Thanks for any expert opinion.  David L.

[mesquite buckeye]

If you are looking for income, time for them to go. If you are looking to have a nice habitat for woodpeckers, let them stay. It is really about what your priorities are. :-\ :

[Ron Wenrich]

Is the heartrot from old logging damage?  Seems that they rubbed against them when they skidded their turn out, and skinned up the tree.  I've seen that happen, especially during a spring harvest, when trees skin a lot easier.  When they're skinned, they quite often develop heartrot.  Another avenue for heartrot is a hot ground fire.  That would be more widespread.

The problem with heartrot is that the tree will often lose the bottom couple feet of the log.  It depends on how the next harvest crew would utilize it.  Usually, it runs up the tree a couple of feet from the butt.  That can often ruin veneer value.  The most value in hardwood timber tends to be in the bottom 16-20' of the tree. 

But, I've sawn many a tree with heartrot on the mill.  If the log has value and has been left long enough, I could recover a good value from the jacket boards.  Any rot would be trimmed from the end of the boards.  The loss from the heartrot would be confined mainly to lower valued heart material.  Most times, when I got to low quality, and short material, I would send it to the chipper.

So, you're left the prospect of taking those trees forward to the next harvest, or removing them now.  My answer would be, it depends.  First, you must figure out when you're going to harvest.  If its within the next 10 years or so, then I would think about leaving them for that harvest.  That allows you to leave better quality if you're doing a thinning.

Next, I'd look at size.  If it is too small for sawtimber, then I'd think about cutting it now.  No use taking polewood forward if you have sufficient stocking.  I'd then look at the species.  If it is in a low quality tree, it should go in favor of a higher quality tree.  Same goes for form.  A poorly formed tree would go before a straight tree.

You can also get to the problem where the tree is really large, and of little value.  Sometimes dropping the tree causes more damage than leaving it stand.  Those are often wolf trees that were left during previous harvests because they were of low value.  Heartrot further up the tree is often noted as swelled knots where limbs are either present or healed over.  Those I would consider for girdling.  That kills the tree, removes the seed source, opens the canopy for future growth, and gives wildlife habitat.  Girdling can also be used for smaller trees that are too dangerous to drop, or if you want to leave for wildlife.

As you can see, there are quite a few decisions that you have to make along the way.  This is the decision process that I would use.

[Phorester]

Good replies from mesquite buckeye and Ron.

Other thoughts; Since these are trees along old logging roads, also consider root damage. If the tree is right alongside a road, 50% of its roots have been damaged by the road construction and resulting compaction when the road is used.  So they are also weak from this.  If a tree has exposed roots that have been ripped off, if you can see roots snaking out from the stump into the road, even worse.

I suspect that these trees will never be good commercial quality, but can develop into good wildlife trees.  If the top of a damaged tree is crowding in on the top of a nearby undamaged better quality tree that's back off the road, take out the one with heart rot to give the better quality tree more growing space.  If they do not inhibit the growth a neighboring tree, consider leaving them for wildlife.