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Thats some prime pasture pine right there. I've cut down quite a few like that being on what was once pasture and field gone back to woods.Lots of firewood in those.
I wanted to cut it but it would be such a big bald spot in the canopy takes up SO much space
Quote from: woodroe on March 19, 2021, 04:09:17 PMThats some prime pasture pine right there. I've cut down quite a few like that being on what was once pasture and field gone back to woods.Lots of firewood in those.AFAIK my land has never been a pasture or farm, no evidence of logging in last 100 years from what I can tell either I’m not expert though. There are some truly old spruce, balsam(as old as a balsam will get )and pine around here. I wanted to cut it but it would be such a big bald spot in the canopy takes up SO much space
It does not have to be an old pasture but in one that's what the first generation looks like. Open grown does that to trees. To bad they invented cardboard. There once was a market for w. pine almost that bad; box shooks.
There was a market for pine like that back in '93 to '96. That was when I was cutting with my father. Swampdonkey favorite company, Irving, was buying pine like that. I really can't tell how big that is, but the stuff we had was 3 feet across easy. And the leaders was almost 2 feet across too. They would buy it and cut out the knots and bad places and dove tail it. We sold them truck loads of that junk. My father came from the Old School and could not believe they would buy wood like that. He did not believe the young truck driver, my age, that they would buy that. After putting a log on, and they paid us for it, we started to chase all those ugly trees down. I can still hear him say, You can sell good logs all the time, but can't sell bad ones all the time.We even sold them crotches. We sent some with 3 crotches too. Something else I can still hear him say, They paid us for it!!!Some of that stuff had limbs 6-8 inches across. We would haul some of the limbs out for pulp.
Quote from: HemlockKing on March 19, 2021, 05:40:14 PMQuote from: woodroe on March 19, 2021, 04:09:17 PMThats some prime pasture pine right there. I've cut down quite a few like that being on what was once pasture and field gone back to woods.Lots of firewood in those.AFAIK my land has never been a pasture or farm, no evidence of logging in last 100 years from what I can tell either I’m not expert though. There are some truly old spruce, balsam(as old as a balsam will get )and pine around here. I wanted to cut it but it would be such a big bald spot in the canopy takes up SO much space Places thatve been logged will have stumps and tops. Abandoned pasture will have none and the ground is pretty smooth. Truly old growth will have pits and mounds and evidence of big trees dying of old age or already half composted on the stump. as well as different flora/fauna species thriving in a much wetter, mossy shaded environment from the super closed mature canopy. Old woods is wetter year round and supports different stuff.
Quote from: HemlockKing on March 19, 2021, 05:40:14 PM I wanted to cut it but it would be such a big bald spot in the canopy takes up SO much space That big hole in the canopy is what's needed for the pine seedlings around it to grow though. Too much shade and you encourage the shade tolerant hemlock and beech (or whatever you have locally that fills that niche)Then you watch your new saplings, and if you spot one that's lost it's main leader ~6ft off the ground, just thin it out, otherwise it's going to end up like that mutant in 50 years time. So personally I'd drop it, and let 4 useful trees grow in it's place.
There was a market for pine like that back in '93 to '96. That was when I was cutting with my father. Swampdonkey favorite company, Irving, was buying pine like that.
I've got aspen ground that wasn't cleared by man, but fire. It had 36" aspen when they got too old by then. The original stand before fire, I suspect was cedar/spruce. Found old charred cedar trunks. Full of pits and mounds, but trees only 90 years old. I have a good idea of when the fire occurred. Grandmother was a young girl and she was born in 1900, so I figure 1910 or so. Her uncles were teamsters cutting wood up in there, and I don't know how the fire started. Dad did cut 300 cord on 10 acres on Feb 1984, at that time the aspen was 20"+, and that wasn't a clear cut. The trees grew to 90', actual tape measure. The remnants along the property line have all died off now and making soil. The maple, birch and softwood wasn't touched at that time. But has been clear cut since. I have a yellow birch in there in the 'Great Trees of New Brunswick', co-authored by Dave Palmer. It wasn't the biggest one found when researching for the book, so just a mention in the appendix of the book. Still old, and the bark is all platy, you have to look at the crown to see the yellow bark. 77 ft in height (estimate with clinometer), not exceptional as this ground isn't exceptional soil but it holds moisture. The aspen was definitely taller.
Yep, I'm with ya HemlockKing. I've thinned about 60 acres of the best land, lost 3 acres of second growth 10" aspen to Arthur on that area that had the huge ones. I have 3 wet runs that I let nature deal with. I put the effort where the biggest bang for the effort counts, so that is probably the other 7 acres in wet land. Still waiting for the cedar to get some height on a 2 acre section. You thin them too soon, they will have green limbs down low that want to grow trees and become a mess. I'm now thinning the second time with chainsaw for firewood. It's been running 8 cord/acre harvested, but I still have not fully thinned this area, probably another 18 cords to get and I've cut 22 now. Around 4 acres, so that bumps the average up to 10 cord/acre from thinning. Did a fix area plot cruise 14 years ago on this area and was only 2.5 cord/acre. Rings are 2 to the width of your index finger. I figure 30 cords per acre before thinning. In 15 years I hope to have 40 cords/acre total, for another thinning for $$ this time. Retirement fund.
Girdle it and walk away. By the time the babies need thinning it will have taken care of itself. Falling apart slowly with help from the woodpeckers. Yes the initial impulse is to cut it. But save the mess and stand damage. Girdle it tomorrow!!
Quote from: SwampDonkey on March 21, 2021, 06:07:30 AM I have 3 wet runs that I let nature deal with. I put the effort where the biggest bang for the effort counts, so that is probably the other 7 acres in wet land. Do you have any pictures of this wetland area you speak of SD?
I have 3 wet runs that I let nature deal with. I put the effort where the biggest bang for the effort counts, so that is probably the other 7 acres in wet land.
Hemlokking What part of Nova Scotia are you in.
If it was my tree, I'd keep it because it is awesome. Awesome mutant trees matter.
Your thinning looks good. That cherry is like most up here, not straight. But I have a few in the back yard I save. I want to open them growths up on a lathe or saw and see if there is treasure buried inside. I cut one a few years ago, 54 cm and made this. (Image hidden from quote, click to view.)(Image hidden from quote, click to view.)https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=47604.0
Here's a pretty ugly old pine that's just around the corner from home. I think it has 5 leaders remaining, one blew out in a storm a few years back. Hard to show a scale, but the limbs / leaders would be 2-3 ft dia.(Image hidden from quote, click to view.)
Pretty sure this was just one little pine when I bought this place in 1993. Now it's got it's own little forest and still spreading. I used to brushhog that area around it but haven't in 5 years or so or it probably would have spread even more.<br(Image hidden from quote, click to view.) (Image hidden from quote, click to view.)
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