Tending your little piece of earth

[SwampDonkey]

I think it's the brush from the thinning that concerns your mom. I have an uncle like that. The thought of having anyone thin his ground would cause seizures. :D :D A lot come from his uncle who would say: 'What good is that going to do me? Look at the brush, what an unsightly mess. What do I get out of this?' But, I could thin all that's doeable on ground owned by my folks.

[jon12345]

If worse comes to worst a few years down the road at least there'll be a bunch of firewood.  :-\

[tonich]

Good job, SwampDonkey!
Another lovely thread here!
As I can see, you’re having a plenty of spare time there.  ;D
Don’t want to consider, if you have to calculate this expenses in the future log’s price.
Actually, where does the hobby end and business starts?

[SwampDonkey]

@ Toni

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

[tonich]

OK!
Besides joking (SwampDonkey knows pretty well, I like joking) I must say that this is the most important thinning for hardwood stands. This isolation of forest defines the future composition. Always there are some species that are valuable and more desired. According to Murphy’s Law, it usually happens the weeds and bushes overcome if stand left unattended. In that big competition the most aggressive species are off-grades.

This is a pretty good example of good management. I know it takes many efforts and money. I hope that some day this forest will pay back with the most valuable sawlogs. I hope then SD will invite us all to see the result of his hard work. This is a good opportunity to play a host to annual pork roast. Personally, I’m looking forward it!   ;D

[SwampDonkey]

Everything from the road toward the green perimeter has been thinned in 2005. There will be about 11 acres inside the green and we should have it spaced within a week with four fellas on the crew. I may wait until late in the fall because the road stays good in wet weather. Freezing and thawing in late November makes roads greasy. This road has no hills to slip and slide all over.

[SwampDonkey]

Been poking around a little bit looking for newly germinated seedlings. I found 5 new butternut seedlings and 3 new oak seedlings and I flagged the locations to GPS later this year. I'm kind of like a squirrel, I know the general area the seeds where set into the ground. But, it takes some searching to find them. The leaves blend in with the surrounding ground veg.  ;) ;D

[ibseeker]

I've been wondering what to do with the slash left when the loggers finish their selective clearing. I had considered renting a big chipper but the price versus benefit just didn't make sense. I also thought about burning it but hate to lose the benefit of the nutrional value of the slash as it decomposed. If I understand these pictures, I can just leave it on the ground and plant right in it. Is that true?

[thecfarm]

Sometimes the slash is left to prodtect the seedlings in some areas.If you have some that is really bugging you to look at,a little chainsaw work will hide it.Depends what kind of wood it is on how long it takes to rot and if it's up in the air or on the ground.

[SwampDonkey]

Hardwood slash in our forests up here is usually gone within 10 years. Cedar and softwood slash can persist for a couple decades. On pre-commercial thinnings softwood slash disappears quicker because of the high humidity and moisture in under canopy. On our hardwood thinning blocks the initial (green) slash looks 3 feet deep. A week of sun and it's down to a foot and 1/2. By next spring a foot or less after the snow melts. On my lot the slash was not too bad in that small area, but it does slow you up a bit. The soil is wet in some areas so I had to pick the ideal spots. If you have tall hardwood tops, maybe planting in those tops can keep deer away. Just a thought.

[SwampDonkey]

Found several new butternut seedlings this year on the woodlot and flagged the locations for future GPS. I have some new oak as well.  Still searching for basswood when I get time. ;D

[tonich]

Softwoods
black spruce (seedlings)
white spruce
red spruce (seedlings)
balsam fir (moose food, but not preferred) ;)
white pine (seedlings)
red pine (seedlings)
hemlock (seedlings)
northern white cedar
tamarack (seedlings)
canada yew

hardwoods
trembling aspen (moose, grouse food)
large toothed aspen (moose food)
balsam poplar (moose food)
white birch (moose, grouse food)
yellow birch (moose, grouse food)
gray birch (moose, grouse food)
american elm
basswood (stump sprout selective)
butternut (seedlings)
black walnut (seedlings)
white ash
black ash
ironwood
sugar maple
red maple (moose food)
striped maple (moose food)
mountain maple (moose food)
willow (various species) baby moose food ;D
black cherry
pin cherry
choke cherry
apple
northern red oak (seedlings, saplings)
scarlet oak (seedlings)
beech (seedlings)
beaked hazel
dogwood (various species)
fly honeysuckle
bush honeysuckle
red berried elder (grouse food)
high bush cranberry (grouse food)
speckled alder (grouse food)

Now,

What will be the exact/desired tree composition at mature stage for the final cutting?
How will be natural regeneration directed, towards what primary and secondary species and how?

[SwampDonkey]

All the above.  ;D

Brushing, spacing and pruning as needed.


Most desirable is spruce, cedar, fir, aspen, white ash.


As far as final harvest, I'll be making fertilizer by then, but those top five species will be in abundance as with red maple. I may remove some aspen and fir in another 25 years, grows fast on my ground. A couple sections will be dominated by sugar maple with ash mixed in. Some area will be dominated with aspen mostly. Pruning will be done to hardwoods when the canopy closes in and trees are over 30 feet tall. 50 acres are spruce plantations, but when spacing we will be leaving a lot of other species mixed in.


First stage is establishment, second phase is pre-commercial thinning, third is commercial thinning of fir and aspen, fourth is pruning hardwood, fifth is a later commercial thinning to remove mostly junk and space the spruce more. I'll be long exhausted by this time.  ;D

[tonich]

I'll be long exhausted by this time.  ;D

Me too. Of long waithing.  ;D ;D ;D

[SwampDonkey]

Was just thinking, 2013 will be the 20th anniversary of the last harvest of my woodlot. That's six more years. I was hoping (mostly trying to remember) to do an initial inventory of the woodlot by 2015 and every 10 (maybe 5) years hence. Mostly to see how much stuff grows on various stands in my woodlot. Kind of like watching interest accumulate on the savings. I've seen a big difference in the last 7 years.

What would make it most interesting is to establish permanent sample locations, by placing a permanent stake in for point centres. Don't mark any trees just do a prism cruise on each point and watch as trees get larger, the plot grows to include trees further away as they increase diameter. I won't loose many trees because my woodlot is young, but once in awhile you find a young tree that died and you wonder why.  :-\

[crtreedude]

Very interesting reading Swamp Donkey.

I am curious, I have alwa ys heard / read that northern forest tend to be less diverse than tropical and yet that is a very nice list of trees. Not as great as we would have, but still impressive. Is this normal?

A mature forest for us should have 200+ species.

[SwampDonkey]

The Acadian Forest Region (St. John River Valley Hardwood Forest Ecoregion), which is where I'm at, is a lot more diverse (tree species) than the Boreal forest to my north. We have some Boreal in the far NW part of New Brunswick and I would argue there is a large scope of it in the Christmas Mountain - Big Bald Mountain region as well. All but black walnut and scarlet oak (from the list above), are native here.

Natural history of the area

[crtreedude]

It is probably in here somewhere - how big is your little piece of earth?

We just added to ours, now we are somewhere around 500 acres. I believe I still need to buy another 150 or so acres this year to have enough.

[SwampDonkey]

There is never enough land eh?  ;) My lot is about 70 acres. Dad sold off about 380 acres on other farms.

Here are some shots of thinnings I'm doing on my tree plantations.


Selection of crop trees for maximum species diversity.




Hand selecting natural born hardwood crop trees within the plantation with flagging, sugar maple and white ash.



A lot of white ash here for future crop trees.



Lets not forget the red oak seedlings starting to take hold. ;D

See? Not all of us are growing monocultures. ;D 

[crtreedude]

Nice pictures SD. What a neat project! I am not yet ready to do it, but I have had in the back of my mind to purchase land in the North to do something similar. There are times of the year I might want to go and dry out. ;)

Yes, you never seem to be able to get enough land. Each new piece is very interesting to me. I will say though it is pretty much impossible to fully explore 500 acres in the tropics. 

I used to walk all of our property every week - now it is more like once a month and just the plantation areas. Someday I might get a life back, but who knows?

[SwampDonkey]

This season the tree suffered from undetermined insect damage and the current year's growth was killed. I have to take a set of pruners and cut back to a good bud (hit the restart button).  I suspect sawfly or some shoot moth. :

[SwampDonkey]

Several more white pine have recently suffered from moose harassment.  There are 2-3 moose determined to spend the winter, I see them almost every trip to the lot now. :

[tonich]

There are 2-3 moose determined to spend the winter, I see them almost every trip to the lot now. :

OK,
Please, don’t let them spoil the view I’m keen on!  ;)

[Tom]

Where will you make the cut and what would happen if you left the tree to it's own design?

[SwampDonkey]

Tom, I guess I will have to go back to an internodal bud or shoot. If I don't prune it, it will have a 50/50 chance of being forked, probably closer to 80% chance. One shoot will eventually express dominance. I figure it's a lot better to prune a small shoot, rather than have the tree split in half some years down the road. See all those whorls of buds on that leader? They are all branch whorls now.