Beech trees

[Don P]

Eastern hophornbeam is another I wish was on their plate here. They seem to like the same trees I do.

[Ron Scott]

Retaining 2-4 beech trees/acre for wildlife mast and den trees should be part of your wildlife management plan if improving and maintaining wildlife habitat is one of your land management objectives.  

[Old saw fixer]

     Well, this turned into an interesting conversation!   I thank all for their contributions and advice.

[mainepatriot]

Like peakbagger my small woodlot in western Maine is getting overrun by Beech.  I have a love hate relationship with Beech, I love it for firewood as it seasons quickly if kept covered and burns hot but the gnarly branches and stubborn stumps make clearing around my homestead/woodlot a real pain.  The benefits to the wildlife are obvious too so I'd like to control them.  A fairly heavy cut 10 years ago has really increased the numbers and 90% of the trees over say 12" have bark disease.  I'm just starting to research my options of which none sound too good.  Red Oak, Ash, Sugar Maple and Birch do well here so I'm interested in them growing them for saw logs.  
It's interesting to me that Hornbeam is a problem for some.  I have it on my land in very small numbers.  I have to look for it.  I know where they are when I need one for a project where I need a solid pole.

[HemlockKing]

So I've read, when a beech is cut, lots of shoots grow out of the root system. Could explain a woods full of beech.

I was a on a 'course' held by a guy in New York, but in our NB beech-maple-ash-yellow birch woods. He said beech have that habit to do that down in upstate New York. I showed him in those woods we were in, that most all of them are seedlings from seed. You could dig the little small ones up and see the root system, not attached to the old tree roots.

I've seen sugar maple woods clearcut, there was 10 % yellow birch in it. Skidder logged. The regen was 90% yellow birch. :D Thinned it with clearing saws 12 years after the CC. But then again, seen sugar maple clear cut and 90% sugar maple regen to. You just never know. ;)

Just curious SD is it common in your area for the red spruce to sprout 2-3 trees from the same root system? I notice when a spruce has multiple trees on one root system it's 90% a red spruce, and if the main one dies, a bunch of others rise up from the same system, they seldomly grow straight trunks out of the ground, always a slight bend/curve to them.

[peakbagger]

Like peakbagger my small woodlot in western Maine is getting overrun by Beech.  I have a love hate relationship with Beech, I love it for firewood as it seasons quickly if kept covered and burns hot but the gnarly branches and stubborn stumps make clearing around my homestead/woodlot a real pain.  The benefits to the wildlife are obvious too so I'd like to control them.  A fairly heavy cut 10 years ago has really increased the numbers and 90% of the trees over say 12" have bark disease.  I'm just starting to research my options of which none sound too good.  Red Oak, Ash, Sugar Maple and Birch do well here so I'm interested in them growing them for saw logs.  
It's interesting to me that Hornbeam is a problem for some.  I have it on my land in very small numbers.  I have to look for it.  I know where they are when I need one for a project where I need a solid pole.

Same with me. I have some Eastern Hophornbeam in spots, mostly rocky slopes but its always just minor component. 

[SwampDonkey]

Just curious SD is it common in your area for the red spruce to sprout 2-3 trees from the same root system? I notice when a spruce has multiple trees on one root system it's 90% a red spruce, and if the main one dies, a bunch of others rise up from the same system, they seldomly grow straight trunks out of the ground, always a slight bend/curve to them.

Snow shoe hare browse for the multi stems and snow load for the bending over.

I looked after a harvest on a town lot some years ago. It was a water reserve for the town for ever, so was never cut. The red spruce were as big as pine and the rock maple was up to 45". The regen was red spruce under the maples, no balsam fir except in the gullies.

Some birdseye maple, but too much heartwood and the eyes never went deep. The birdseye buyer wasn't interested, so it got ground up at the pulp mill. If it were me I would have bought the logs, but not prime rate. There wold be a lot of good jacket wood before you got near the heartwood. Some folks want perfect logs. Up here they are scarce, so have at it. Salute! :D

Only red spruce I have, i hand planted. My ground was white spruce ground before I planted a lot of black spruce. I have planted a few whites after I seen spots that black spruce didn't take to. I lost a lot to hares I think.

[KEC]

SD, Just curious, how would you rate hares as table fare ?

[Rhodemont]

I find the Beech good for wildlife and aesthetics but invasive in my forest.  Nothing besides it's own suckers grow under the mature beech so it opens up areas from filling in with sweet pepper and briar.  But, when a neighboring canopy tree is cut and more sun gets to the ground the root sprouts come up like weeds.  If I do not cut them back within a year or two the area becomes a thicket of saplings.  I have not taken any big beech down but have milled some medium size into boards and like it for firewood.

[SwampDonkey]

SD, Just curious, how would you rate hares as table fare ?

Hare stew is good eat'n. Mom's aunt liked it the time she made it and never told anyone. There was a few blessed redeemers uttered. :D :D