More than a few times upon viewing a freshly harvested tract of timber I have heard people exclaim in horror, “Oh my God! They raped the land!” Soon after they regret saying that because that really pushes my buttons. However, barely a quarter into my explanation they realize I am right. I don’t know why it has to be explained. It seems self-evident to me.
There are about seven and half billion people in the world and like you they all want toilet paper in their bathroom and a roof over their head. They all want goods packaged, stored and shipped in boxes. When you look at a tract of timber you aren’t looking at “the woods,” or “the forest,” or “the land.” You are looking at a field. Growing in that field is a crop just like corn, soybeans or cotton. It is planted, tended and harvested like any other crop. Timber is one of the top ten crops in the world.
When Europeans began to migrate to the Americas they found a howling wilderness with boundless timber. Because the European powers at the time used wooden sailing ships as weapons of war, that timber was seen as a valuable resource of national security importance so shipyards were built. Unfortunately for them, primitive transportation methods put much of that timber out of their reach.
Connecticut, 1909
For settlers attempting to build farms, forest was seen as a hindrance so it was cut with impunity. They built houses, barns and fences. They kept their home fires burning twenty four hours per day year round. Everyone agreed that the forests had to be replaced with fields. The appearance of railroads allowed much more timber to be harvested and transported. By the time of the Civil War, most of the eastern seaboard resembled a prairie. The last virgin timber in Louisiana was cut near Woodworth in the early 1950s. My father as a young boy stood with his father and watched it being cut.
Realizing that much of a valuable resource had been squandered, The Civilian Conservation Corps was formed and tasked with restoring much of the forests. The family farm was a dying institution and most of the acreage from the farms that had checkered the land were replanted in timber. In just a few years the army of CCC workers had planted over three billion seedlings. The private timber operations, usually a division of railroads, began splitting off as separate companies and specializing in timber for uses other than rail ties. Today Louisiana produces between one and a quarter and one and a half billion board feet of lumber annually. It accounts for nearly half of the agricultural output of our state measured in dollars.
Every square inch of that harvested is replanted.
Timber planters are contractors for timber companies and for private owners. It is highly specialized work. Finding them is not easy as there aren’t very many of them. Finding a good one is even more difficult. The one we have used for decades is top notch. He has assembled a crew of 18 young men, mostly from Guatemala. To get them in on a work visa he has to screen them strenuously. No criminal record. No family here in the states. They must go back home after planting season. References to vouch for them. On top of that he personally screens them, trains them and watches their work. Those that can’t cut it are sent packing. He claims it took him years to assemble the crew he wanted. He is kinda pricey, but worth every penny. I also slip each of the crew an extra envelope at the end of the job. They can cover forty acres in four hours. The trees are spaced properly and every one of them lives. No bent roots and no tipped over seedlings.
Because we are planting a cultivar known as the super pine they grow incredibly fast. Hell, if you don’t get out of the way it grows so fast it will knock you down. After planting one patch it was five years before I returned. I didn’t recognize the place because it had grown so much. After only five years the road was barely passable and you couldn’t see the sky for the canopies.
The trees are acquired from commercial nurseries in bundles of 1000, a bundle being about the size of a square hay bale and weighing around 100 lbs. They are between one and two feet tall and their roots are dipped in gelatin to keep them from drying. The crew lines up with each man about eight to ten feet apart. Each man has a dibble and about half of a bundle of seedlings on his back. They begin marching in time shoulder to shoulder they take three steps, stop, put the dibble in the ground with their foot, wiggle it, place a tree in carefully so as not to bend the root tips up, then stomp their foot next to the hole to close it up. Then they take three steps making sure everyone keeps up with the line and then repeat. It is very physically demanding and tedious work. I stand by a fire and watch. Four hours and they are finished. I am tellin’ ya, those guys are machines, but I have never seen one of the crew over 30 years old.
I tried it once myself alone. I got approximately 100 yards by 100 yards planted…in two weeks. I was nearly crippled from it. I will gladly pay the 15K to have ol’ Joe and his crew do it.
Planting approximately 8×8 feet apart it works out to about one bundle per acre. That may seem too close but over time the trees will thin themselves out. Planting close causes them to grow tall and straight. If they are too far apart they will branch out and have too many knots making poor saw logs.
I have had success by casting seed. A forestry company here locally sells super pine seed which you buy by the pound. Each seed is coated with fertilizer and bug killer. It’s not cheap but I can do that myself. I found that the mechanical caster they sold me would put the seed out too thick no matter how I adjusted it so I cast the caster in the creek and started spreading/throwing by hand. I successfully planted 5 forty-acre plots that way over the years, each one taking me about two days to finish. On one hilly plot the day after I finished casting out the seed, a huge rainstorm came up. “Oh, hellfire,” I thought. “All of my seed washed away.” So I bought more and replanted it. Apparently, I was mistaken and double planted. Today the trees are so close together you have to turn sideways to walk through there.
I estimate we have planted around one million trees over the decades. Some of the first timber I planted is now ready to harvest. I don’t know if I can cut it. If hunting leases will pay the property taxes I may just leave it for my grandchildren.
Links of interest
I spent lots of time in northern Maine. Scott Paper would clear cut strips of land then send the planting crews through in the Spring. I knew guys who did that work – brutal. And before those new trees crowded things out, those bare strips were where you were likely to see deer and moose – eating the grasses that sprung up.
We have too many bugs here. If you plant the same year you cut the high population of homeless bugs will kill all of your seedlings. We wait a year for the pests to die off or disperse. Of course, by then the brambles have begun to grow and that can be a hinderance. We dont have much of a window between no bugs and too many blackberries so timing is essential. I envy Scott Paper.
Winter in northern Maine lets the bugs know who’s boss.
I lived in Tennessee as a lad. One day I went out with the Boy Scouts to replant trees that had been clear cut for paper production. It was hard work, and I doubt we were anywhere near a productive as your crew of Guatemalans.
You gave free farm laber to the paper company?
Sucker.
yup
I was told it was a community service project.
Send them a bill.
Why were boy scouts replanting commercial timber?
They were cheap?
They were prepared.
No idea.
Because the Scoutmaster was golfing buddies with the plant foreman?
If I had to guess, it was probably state land. Someone paid for the timber, and volunteers were used to replant
It was 50 years ago.
That really pisses me off. Fuckin’ subsidized timber. I dont get free labor. I dont get a pass on property tax. I dont gt a pass on taxes on the sale price. I have to compete in a distorted market where the govt is driving the prices down. I dont get a pass on protected habitat.
Godamned motherfuckin cocksucking lying cheating stealing sons of bitches. State and Fed forest is supposed to be about habitat preservation and public access to wild places, instead they run it as a timber operation. Fuckin’ evil worthless govt slugs. If they aren’t going to use it as originally intended then they should be forced to sell it off to private entities.
And so my amusing story of youthful incompetence takes a hard left turn.
I was toning it down, trying to be nice. Mention govt owned timber to the timber company guys and you better start ducking.
I LOL’d. And also completely feel for Suthenboy.
I have a longtime family friend who owns an ornamental nursery. Don’t get him started about agricultural subsidies.
Hmm. Typically government doesn’t drive down prices in regards to timber. Federal contracts are dozens of pages long and have extensive rules to follow. State contracts are better, but they still have more stipulations than a typical private contract. Many times federal contracts go no-bid bid since they have to set a minimum price to cover reforestation costs and many purchasers don’t want the hassle of government contracts.
Certainly the potential of an increased supply is a factor, in the sense that areas with extensive government ownership influence the market, but I doubt that is true in LA, where the amount of government land is minor. And most government land has been harvested for decades, so any supply increase comes from an increase in volume targets mandated by a new administration.
Typically government timber gets lower prices due to poorer quality as well. Private land managed exclusively for timber quality will typically fetch better prices if the market demands such timber.
That said, timber is both very regional and global, so YMMV…
As for federal forest, it has a mandate for providing timber, as well as many other values, called “multiple use”, it’s actually a law called the Multiple Use-Sustained Yield act. There are several other laws affecting the way federal forests are supposed to be managed, which results in conflicting regulations many times, and poor management even more often.
Also, cotton.
https://youtu.be/PToqVW4n86U
>>For settlers attempting to build farms, forest was seen as a hindrance so it was cut with impunity. They built houses, barns and fences. They kept their home fires burning twenty four hours per day year round.
I once read a Civil War history book that the Confederates feared the Michigan soldiers a lot because of the amount of woodcutting ‘n’ forest clearing those Yankee boys did. Made the Michigan boys tough – plus the hardship of winter, etc. No way I could find a link to the excerpt now; don’t even remember what book it was in.
Which reminds me – some day I’ll have to get my 20 acres of land “up north” harvested – some good wood there; Cherry and Walnut trees.
That sounds like prime material for selective cutting should you choose. Small sawmills will be your best bet there. Otherwise you will get paid the going rate for ‘mixed hardwood’. Read my article on Maximizing the value of your timber. Have the buyer walk in with you and choose his trees. You mark them and count them. You might also want to be there when they cut so you can count the logs going out.
I once asked one of my relatives familiar with the industry about pay-by-load loggers.
“Hey, do you know anyone that will pay me for 2 out of 3 loads instead of 3 out of five?”
He scratched his head and said…”No, I dont believe I do.”
get my 20 acres of land “up north” harvested
And that reminds me that I have to clear cut my land down south. ///euphamisms
You know who else created carnage to the south?
William Tecumseh Sherman?
Too easy. Sherman.
General Sherman?
William Tecumseh Sherman?
Wow. Really should refresh first.
The Happy Hooker?
Lorena Bobbitt?
Thank you, I was wondering how long it would take.
Plisade is pretty good at the “you know who else…?” game.
Omar al-Bashir?
I would suggest hiring a quality forester rather than letting the buyer select the trees to cut. Foresters work for you, loggers work for themselves or the mill. I’m sure you know how incentives work.
Cherry and walnut can be the two most valuable trees in the forest today, but they need to meet very specific criteria to attain that value. You may be better off doing an intermediate harvest now to maximize the value in the future.
Bottom line is, let a professional help you reach a decision that works best for you and your situation. You can’t put trees back on the stump, and they take way to long to grow to make a hasty decision based on bad information.
I have an extensive collection of contemporary writings from early America. I distinctly remember one early explorer reporting moose, grizzlies, elk and trees with 10+foot diameter trunks in Georgia. The south was one hell of a place to hack out a farm with a mules and an axe.
The shift in axe design from straight-hafted to the ergonomic curve we know today came about during the clearances of the colonies because they had so many trees to cut through. Old-fashioned axes just weren’t cutting it (pun intended), so they improved the design.
We had bison too, believe it or not. Near Washington GA (between Athens and Augusta), the oldest maps show the “buffalo lick” (natural salt lick) as a natural landmark. There were at least 2 well-known in GA.
What forest are you talking about Suthen? All I see are trees.
Easily the best comment of the day. We might as well all quit now.
*scuffs ground with shoe*
*blushes*
*mumbles thanks*
I’ve been wondering what that tool is for quite a few years. Now I know about dibbles. Great article, sir; thanks for sharing your world.
I spent a summer in undergrad clearing out an oak plot in mid-Ohio with my grandpa so the Amish could harvest and take it to the local sawmill. We went 6+ hours a day for weeks at a time, took a break every day at noon to grab a cheeseburger at the “local” diner, refill the gallon jugs of water, and get any repair or replacement parts. We only stopped when something broke or something/somebody ran out of gas.
It was hard, grueling work. I was the thinnest and strongest I have ever been in my adult life, and I would collapse from exhaustion at night. However, it was the single most fun I’ve ever had working. I may have been physically exhausted, but it was mentally and emotionally invigorating work. Completely the opposite of my desk drone job.
Also, I have a ton of respect for the Amish. 4 guys + 2 horses made quick work of the 40 acre plot when the time came to harvest.
There is something satisfying about the production of raw materials or the processing of raw material into something useful, that is the production of wealth, that nothing else can give. At least for me. So yeah, I know exactly what you mean.
I estimate we have planted around one million trees over the decades.
That’s amazing! I want to be you, Suthen.
I started 30 years ago. Words cant describe the satisfaction I feel seeing the first of those I planted myself reaching maturity now.
I planted that. Me. With my own hands. I planted those and spent 30 years tending them.
The only reason I would want to be young again is so that I could do it all over again knowing what I know now. Everything else I have experienced is just ‘Meh, been there done that’ but the trees never get old and I never get enough. I just wish I had the physical constitution I used to have.
*does back of the envelope math*
More like 35 years ago.
‘Everything else I have experienced is just ‘Meh, been there done that…’
Shhh, don’t tell the wife.
Kidding aside, thanks for sharing. I run across a few people who genuinely think that the ‘forest industry’ goes out to still untamed land, cut and slash away, rape the village women, then bound off to another conquest. Dispelling that myth is neccessary from time to time.
I never worried about people cutting the forests.
But when I was growing in TN, mining companies were still lopping off the top of mountains to get copper and leaving wastelands behind.
Very fair point. I wonder if, at least as I understand it(which isn’t very well), if outside of government regulations putting a ban on such practices, would still be occurring? And if so, would the resulting damage create a legitimate NAP violation to the surrounding communities?
My uninformed reaction would be: no, it wouldn’t still be occurring because the resulting damage would cause such outrage that the mining companies would be shamed into stopping the practice. And that’s probably for the best.
If they were still doing that I think it probably is a NAP violation and falls within the confines of legitimate government force.
Yep, I didn’t score 100% libertarian on the Nolan Chart, fight me. 😉
You are grown now. Go back and have a look at those wastelands today. The land restores itself.
Time heals everything.
I imagine that 50 years later, those flat-top mountain are all covered in trees. And I imagine all the copper that washed into every stream and river in the area is now out in the ocean.
Very true, but they are novel systems, not much like what was there previously. Similar to the tailings piles on the iron range with sparse, scraggly trees growing on them now. The productivity of these areas is quite low and isn’t helped by the short growing season up here. The southern land will recover much more quickly.
I was once talking to a guy from Texas, IIRC, at a hotel bar in Grand Forks, ND. He started talking about his drive up and how sad it was that all the trees that used to be there were all cut down to make room for farms. I had to explain to him that the Great Plains got that name for a reason, and except for along rivers, practically all the trees he saw were planted by evil farmers.
I was glad to educate him (and hopefully through him, his friends and family) but just had to SMDH that people actually the think the plains were clear-cut.
Long grass prairies exist for a reason — fire.
Fire is the result. The cause is lack of water.
http://www.bonap.org/Climate%20Maps/moistureindex20110322.png
You will note that the map correlates pretty well with the amount and type of vegetation growing in a particular area.
Faaaaake, that syas New York is wetter than Louisiana and Florida.
*checks forecast*
It’s suppoosed to rain again today…
I was waiting for that.
I just like that you can see the snowbelt in Northern Ohio on that map. It’s the little dot two counties from the PA border.
@ UCS: The map shows the combination of precipitation and evapotranspiration (ET). ET is a function of many processes, but basically it describes how water moves through an ecosystem.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evapotranspiration
Since those places are warmer, the water moves quicker through the system and results in less available water than an area like NY where cooler temps moderate ET.
@Stillhunter.
My entire comment was meant in a humorous context. Without artificial drainage, New York is a swamp.
You mean a shithole.
@ UCS: I know, just providing some context.
Was this a bar that serves food? I wonder where that food came from.
THAT SOUND LIKE SAW SMITH!
Where would I find some ‘super pine’ in Michigan to plant in my yard. We’d like to add a few pines to our back yard to break things up. Can you direct me to what they look like and how big they are when mature?
I am looking but not finding anything. The ones we have have been selectively bred from wild stock since the 1950’s, something that can be done if the planting to going to seed time is short enough (ten years or so around here). I dont know what that time span is in colder climates but someone is bound to be working on it.You might have to write to a forester/timber company up there and ask. I am not familiar with the industry there. The ones we plant are specifically southern pine species. You can check out the links on the article but I seriously doubt any of those would be suitable for your area.
There are bound to be parallel species in Michigan. If you are just planting in your yard and not for timber production you may find other species more desirable. Walnut, cherry (my favorite), yellow poplar and various oaks are attractive choices. They produce shade in summer but let sunlight in in winter. yeah, they produce leaf litter but just throw your rake away and run your mower over them so they will grind into mulch and filter down through the grass. You get a better lawn and saves you the trouble of putting out fertilizer. That greatly helps the topsoil.
I planted 10 of these on my property. The grow fast (2 to 3 feet per year) and are gorgeous in the fall.
https://www.thetreecenter.com/autumn-blaze-maple/
Nice choice. I have a number of red maples in my yard. Just yesterday I took a machete to the sweet gums trying to shade them out. I started 5 years ago when they were all the same size. Each year the gums try to come back but the maples are 15 or so feet tall now because I keep the gums cut back.
The local school superintendent bought 39 acres to become a gentlemen farmer when he wasn’t running the local schools. The land is mostly terrible. 10 inches of good soil over deep clay. It doesn’t drain worth shit, so corn didn’t like to grow on the land. So he planted trees to get the land declared “reserve” for the tax breaks. Then he split the 39 into 17 plots for houses.
The tree were a mix of hardwoods — oak, walnut, cherry, ash, and cottonwood — planted on 6 or 8 foot centers. The superintendent cleared the “front half” of each plot, but left the trees growing on the back half. I have spent quite a bit of time clearing out the trees from the back of the lot. Cottonwoods went first, then the green ash trees (fuck the emerald ash borer). I have been leaving the oaks to grow around the house.
I planted all the maple trees in the areas the developer cleared out early on.
I have 2 of those in my back yard, planted them last year, so they are still tiny.
They were six feet tall when I planted in the fall of 2005. After 13 growing seasons (some good, some bad), they are about 35 to 40 feet tall now. They are closing in on their mature height and should start to spread out over the next 5 to 10 seasons. So I will get to enjoy them through my retirement.
The couple of oaks that I have planted, I will never see at maturity.
Glad you picked one that is a mix of natives. Avoid the non natives. The Norway maple was planted as an ornamental for many years and is overtaking many native forests.
https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/terrestrialplants/woody/norwaymaple.html
I wasn’t aware that it was a mix of native maples.
But I did know that it’s sterile and doesn’t produce seeds. I lived under a white maple for 12 years, and I was sick of those fucking seeds every spring.
Cross between silver and red maple. Mentioned at the bottom of the page you linked.
Sterile specimens are preferred, but nature finds a way sometimes. There are no guarantees it won’t ever produce viable seed. Not something I’d be concerned about though. The two species could theoretically hybridize in the wild as well.
I forget which part of Michigan you’re in, but the nearest university should have a forestry extension office that can help with options for tree planting. As Suthen said the trees he mentions are not suitable for Michigan (at least not for another 12years!). But if you are looking for fast growing pines for Michigan, red (Norway) pine I a good bet. Eastern white pine grows well, but is not super hardy until it matures. Jack pine grows fast, but is shorter lived (100 years or so)and not quite as majestic as the other two, though it’s my favorite pine up here since it is the toughest and is kinda the black sheep of the pines around here.
I’m in the thumb area, and we’ve used MSU extension in the past for some info. Out lot is pretty small (in a sub) and we have a 20′ red maple in one corner. Probably going to get a few pines to try to ‘naturalize’ the look. The sub used to sit on farmland so not many mature trees even after being around for 25 years.
Yard trees are easier to maintain and you can make stuff grow that normally wouldn’t if you are willing to help them. My caution would be to avoid exotics. They usually end up causing more problems than they’re worth. Sounds like you aren’t going to do that though.
If you want something that will act as a screen, go with white spruce. Slower growing, but will keep branches near the ground, unlike the pines, which either self prune or need some pruning of lower branches as they run out of sunlight from above.
O/T – Lieawatha is now prattling on about impeachment on the Senate floor, making an in-kind contribution to the Trump 2020 campaign.
I wonder what the world is going to look like after 8 years of The Donald. Will I be able to retire in peace? Or will the world be in flames?
Surely she cites clear examples of high crimes committed by Trump.
No, no…they need to investigate more to find them!
Isn’t she a known liar herself? If you are watching “Les Mis” you saw how Valjean fired Justine just for failing to put on her employment app that she had a child.
Justine falls into poverty, sells her body and teeth, dies wretchedly. Maybe that should happen to Warren for using supposed Native American ancestry to get ahead?
[Well, at this point the only body selling she could do is to an anatomy class at Harvard Medical.]
Cause the Senate can totally do anything to start impeachment.
House is controled by Dems, Impeachment is a better than 50% likelyhood.
Problem is the only BS they have to impeach him on is a BS obstruction charge that wouldn’t likely standup in regular court, no way in hell a Republican controlled Senate goes along with it and removes him
Somehow that will turn into a Trump campaign finance violation.
Every square inch of that harvested is replanted.
So if I want more trees I should use more paper.
This guy gets it.
Yup, even though planting isn’t necessary in many forests unless you desire to direct what grows there. They grow back on their own, with some exceptions. The main thing to keeping more forests is ensuring they have value. When they don’t have value, they get replaced. In other words actual deforestation, not just a harvest that most people call deforestation.
But since everyone here understands incentives, y’all knew that already.
only now have i realized the BIF post is pinned. I though the site did not publish anything in the last day
me too
I just fixed that…
OT – I just got an amusing piece of junk mail courtesy of TOS. It contains a Venezuelan 100,000 bolívares note. I’m looking it up and it appears to be worth about 5 cents. Clever way to get me to read their pitch.
good overview. Sadly if you can cut forest that is not your own there is little incentive to replant. Happens all the time in Romania. Whole mountainsides were cut down and nothing bu mudslides left behind…
Communism is so environmentally friendly!
Now it is just corupt government… and austrian timber companies
Thanks for the article; I’ve been looking forward to it ever since you (I think) first mentioned it a few months ago. And a question for you: do you have any experience with “thinning from below”?
I have about 70 acres of over-thick timber that’s all along the branches between fields. East GA, generally sandy. Each is typically 60-100 yards across, and wet where the branch runs. They haven’t been cut in 50-100 years, and are a mix of big pines, sweetgum, black gum, poplar, etc. But they’re thick with little stuff and privet (will get back to that), and I want them opened up.
So I’m reading that thinning from below is an option, where all the understory comes out, and some of the big stuff, leaving widely-spaced mature ones to reproduce. We’d aim to burn after that every year or 2. Apparently a risk is that soil compaction down in the branches can kill the ones you leave. And when it’s thinned, I mean to have the privet sprayed out the following spring.
So, anything you could advise about either thinning from below (and its risks) or privet eradication. Thanks!
Privet, by the way, is the thing for me that makes me want to make exceptions to the NAP. I think that allowing one to live should be grounds for a solid whupping.
Can you do controlled burns for the understory?
Won’t work on the bigger parts, no. Too much of it, and it’s too wet. Controlled burns here get the grass/straw/weeds in the late winter. Will hinder some of it, but won’t make the fix.
I am with you 100 percent on the privet. Shoot them, cut them down, piss on them and set them on fire.
I have another article specifically on thinning from below that should be published soon. In short, what we did was thin it ourselves but took 30 years to do it. I went slow and methodically over 200 acres but concentrated most of my effort on around 70 acres of it that is identical to what yours sounds like. I dont think of it as thinning but rather as eradicating undesirable species….it functions the same.
when it was small I would choose an area around five acres at a time and go at it with a machete. Then I graduated to a chainsaw when the growth was larger.
Sounds like you need to start with a chainsaw. You are eating an elephant so…one bite at a time. After you cut chop all of the cuttings down to less than 3 feet so that the vines that are going to come up cant use your felled material as a step ladder to get up into the desirable trees.
After the trees get large enough I will let the muscadine vines stay but the honeysuckle is worse than privet.
Draw backs: cutting the understory lets sunlight in. Briars and weeds will start popping up at an alarming rate. Winter burns can take care of that. Any dead material that you have killed or cut can be a fire hazard if there is too much of it. I dont mind letting it lay as it rots away quickly and helps the topsoil but I always worry about fire. I would be very cautious about spraying. It is pretty easy to kill more than your targets, especially if you have someone else who doesnt care do it for you.
Don’t cut any desirable species. Anything that produces good lumber or food for wildlife should stay. Sometimes small oaks, pecans, walnuts, etc will not seem to grow at all. Leave those. They are waiting for the larger trees shading them to die. When that happens those small trees will take off like rockets and replace the lost trees. After you have gotten rid of the cussed damned privet you can replace some of it with persimmon, paw-paw, crabapple, or mayhaw. Summer huckleberry can be a great species too. They are all shade tolerant and produce prodigious amounts of food for wildlife.
Take your time. Work slow but diligently. You will be amazed how fast you make progress and how much difference it makes. You can easily see the difference in how fast the desirable species grow once you remove the trash and weeds they are competing with. It really makes a big difference.
One other thing: All of that land and all of those trees aren’t worth getting hurt or killed over. You are working with dangerous tools at one of the most hazardous jobs there is – be extremely careful. Never cut a dead tree. Every swing of the machete should end by hitting the dirt, not your kneecap. Long swings, bend your knees, follow through and make sure the blade hits the ground. if sharpened properly (will shave hair on your arm) a machete can be your bestest friend or your worstest enemy.
I cant emphasize this enough – never cut a dead tree. Even light blows with an axe or the vibration of a chainsaw can start to resonate in the tree and a top section of a snag or the limbs can come crashing down on you while you are cutting. This is how most timber cutters are injured or killed. Never cut a dead tree. It will rot and fall on its own soon enough.
I strongly encourage you to thin from below. The transformation of your land for the better will be dramatic.
Thanks very much. Looking forward to the next article.
And regarding the folks who tolerate privet: “Shoot them, cut them down, piss on them and set them on fire.” Absolutely. But even after you do that, you still have to get rid of the privet. 🙂
What are your goals for the forest? Timber? Wildlife? A place to recreate? All the above?
Before you fire up the chainsaw, fill up the sprayer, or light the drip torch you should ask yourself what you want from your forest. Make a plan or get help from someone who can help make a plan (good forester, university forestry extension office, e.g.). You may not harm the forest by use removing a few things from the understory, but you can cost yourself some money to fix it later or as Suthen says, you may remove something that you value. Forestry is a long game like building your retirement. Treat it as such and you will benefit, along with future generations. Unless you are willing to do a lot of research to figure it out yourself, hire a professional to help!
True thinning from below removes only those trees that are not in the canopy. If you want a new cohort of trees to grow under the canopy you will need to thin the canopy as well, (crown thinning) or even go so far as doing a shelterwood or seed tree harvest where you remove higher proportions of the canopy, since new trees will need sunlight not available with a dense canopy. As Suthen says, you will get more sunlight to the ground with just a thin from below, but that will mostly benefit stuff you likely don’t want. Give trees good sunlight and they will compete with undesirables more easily, though in the south you will need some form of competition control given the extreme productivity.
Heavy equipment on moist soils can cause compaction which can kill trees and lower productivity. Up here we have winter to deal with that. You don’t have that luxury. You may have to avoid using equipment in the wetter areas and stick to hand work unless it dries seasonally, otherwise you can maybe time it to a drought event with atypical soil moisture.
I’d love to see faster growing conifers selectively bred and engineered for high altitude forests here in Rockies since most of them only grow a few inches per year. If a stand is burned or killed by beetles, you know you’re never gonna see it again in your lifetime.
Selective breeding with help, but it’s really a function of the environment. Short growing season, harsh wind that favors girth over height, poor soils with few nutrients or moisture, etc.
Can one make super-pesto from super pines?
The guy who lets my family deer hunt on his land had a crew come in 5 years ago and selectively log a bunch of hardwood. It is amazing to me how the forest changes every year when we are out there looking at it.
For the first few years, a lot of scrub grew in the areas where they logged. Now we are starting to see some of the bigger trees emerge from the brush and I’m sure in a few more years they will shade out the scrub brush.
The logging changed some of the deer patterns, but didn’t seem to bother them too much.
stop shooting innocent deer
If they were innocent they wouldn’t be lurking out in the woods up to no good.
Better the woods than the roads.
Or the yard.
innocent, my ass!
The deer in my town are worse than rats, I want to apply for the in-city archery hunt just to recoup all the money I have spent on apple trees, blueberry bushes, elderberry bushes, flowers, bird seed, etc.
I have fences around all my smaller trees and they still managed to kill one last winter.
Yeah, I hated dealing with the public when I worked for the feds. When people see a beautiful forest they want to keep it as it is. The problem is that forests are dynamic and constantly changing. Some changes happen quickly while some take a generation or more, but they will change. I like to tell people who claim to be preserving forests for future generations that they are doing no such thing. That forest as they see it will be gone in two generations, so they are in fact the selfish ones for wanting to deny a similar experience to their grandkids.
That’s no forest.
Yep. Sucks to be you, Macbeth.
As it stands, I’m prepared to clear cut every cottonwood in the county…
I guess cottonwood makes paper. No matter. I have never planted a cottonwood in my life. Oak, pine, beech, poplar, cypress, hickory, pecan, walnut, and various wild fruits aplenty, but never cottonwood.
Hear the bell, Comey, it tolls for thee
He could flip on his bosses, then we’ll see how good the Clinton hit men are.
That’s what I keep thinking… Eventually, someone big is gonna flip.
I’ll believe it when I see it. I remain skeptical that anyone will be held accountable.
+1 conspiracy of silence
I leave my wood au naturale.
Current scene at my house: the flooring team foreman is halfway up the ladder to the attic, getting advice from the A/C repairman. Good thing I ain’t paying them hourly!
The temps up here haven’t even gotten up to A/C ranges yet. Fuck, I had to turn the heat back on a couple of days ago (high in the mid 40’s, lows down into the 30’s).
With the A/C out, the afternoons have been warm (80s), but the mornings and evenings cool enough that I’ve been OK with the ceiling fans on “turboprop” speed.
22 degrees this morning. This shit is getting old.
Upper 70’s/lower 80’s yesterday afternoon. Mid 40’s this morning. At least with the sun out it’s been warm enough to get some bike rides in.
85 and sunny today. Great day to sit on the back porch and work. A little too hot in the direct sunlight, but for once I’m happy for the tree canopy overhanging the house.
Is he checking the thermostat?
I’m pretty sure he did that before climbing in the attic the first time to inspect the (failed – but luckily under warranty) furnace fan.
Great article Southern. We have several paper mills in my area and there was always some idiot commenting that they clear cut forests just so we can wipe our arses. I have two comments when I hear that. One: good, i don’t want to use corn cobs and Two: every one of those trees are replanted and then some.
I also have the privilege of being able to hike in a 600 year old growth forest. It was too remote and steep to harvest for logs in the 19th century, became a private recreation area in 20th century, then a protected state forest/park. https://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/02/travel/day-trips-a-watery-wonderland-carved-by-nature.html
I did a section of the Appalachian Trail (can’t remember if it was in VA, WV, or TN) that was never logged. Crazy how big hickory, oak, and maples can get.
I read that the first European to explore Connecticut was able to ride long distances without ever getting off his horse. The trees were so large and the canopy so think there was almost no undergrowth except where an old tree died.
I’m “I’m a Toys’R’Us kid” news, this arrived today.
Cotton balls everywhere? Yeah, those are awesome!
That was in reply to leon…
I spent two seasons as a tree planter in northern Alberta and northeastern British Columbia in the early 1980s. The first place we planted was north of High Level on the Alberta/NWT border. Got paid five cents per tree, with a penny bonus if more than 95% of your trees passed forestry inspection. Fierce little mosquitos drove one guy nuts and he had to be helicoptered out. Most of the crew were high-level athletes. My friend and I were both junior hockey players and weighed around 200 pounds when we left home. I weighed 165 when I got home three months later despite eating probably 5,000 calories per day. My own mother didn’t recognize me.
Then we went to a blowdown block north of Fort St. John in northeastern B.C. Tens of thousands of trees easily three to four feet in diameter blown down by wind you had to climb over to plant for 12 cents per tree with a one cent bonus. No bugs because it was still freezing at night.
From there we took a jet boat around three hours north of Fort Nelson. The block had been winter logged eight years earlier and had regrown in rose bushes and assorted other thorny bastards. We worked from four in the morning til noon as there was a fire ban on. Twenty-five cents a tree and you could make $200 in eight hours. A bunch of the crew got a stomach parasite from drinking bad water from a nearby stream. The last day there only two of the 18 man crew were working while the rest shat their guts out.
That fall, we traveled to a burn block around 60 miles north of Prince George B.C. It was like a moonscape. Six million trees to be planted there. The ground was baked so hard you had to jump up and down on your shovel to break a hole. Eighteen cents a tree and you couldn’t make $100 bucks in a day.
One day I will go back to these places and see how all that work looks like decades later.
I remain amazed at the diversity of experience among the Glibs.
It’s not uncommon to find people who tree planted in western Canada. A lot of university students do it, along with other young people looking to make a quick buck. A lot of free spirited young women now do it as well as it has been regulated (set work hours, days off, etc).
I was recruited to be on one of those crews back around ’82-’83; I bailed when I discovered that most of the people from the previous season’s planting had become so sick from slathering 100% DEET on themselves for a week or two straight with no bathing that they had to be choppered out. I’ve never minded hard work, but slowly poisoning yourself with no way to remove the accumulation didn’t sound like my idea of fun.
I admire your drive.
That is around the time I went. I used so much DEET in High Level the skin on my back cracked. I used my stormrider to scratch it as it was driving me nuts.
sounds like a great area to build a brothel.
LOL. About 10 years ago I was at Seymour Arm at the north end of Shuswap Lake and there were a group of around 20 tree planters there, including about eight women. At the end of the day when they came back to the campground they would strip down and jump in the lake and them lie on the beach drying off. I was thinking we could have used some of those when I was tree planting. When I got home to Calgary there was a story in the newspaper about the super-high rates of STDs among tree planters.
Go home, Andy. You’re drunk.
Trump was wrong about the Derby though.
it was a good call.
Yeah, it was legit. It sucks, but that was the right call.
I have no idea if it was a good call or WTF Trump is even talking about with “political correctness”. All I know is the tweet had exactly the intended effect.
What was that PC bit about, anyway? I didn’t get the reference, but I don’t claim to know what happens in the mind of Donald Trump.
I didn’t see the tweet, but it sounds like “can’t let the winner be the winner – have to make sure that the Top Men instead dictate the results from on high and hand the trophy to somebody else”. Frankly, I felt the same way, even after the analysis.
Part of it (for me) is “let ’em race”. And I know there’s reasons for the rules.
But the bigger part is that it’s one more case of adding technology (a zillion cameras and replays) to an old sport in a way that changes it fundamentally. I’m more like “if they wouldn’t have been making that change in 1911, then they shouldn’t do it now.”
I’m of two minds. On the one hand, I think Maximum Security was the best horse in the race, and I hate that the race was decided by a DQ. On the other hand, he was all over the place towards the end and he definitely interfered with other horses, and apparently them’s the rules. I don’t know that they wouldn’t have made that call in the absence of slow-motion replay, honestly, but I do tend to agree with you in general that I don’t think that all of the reviewing and replay technology has made sports better. Not as a fan, certainly.
The electoral college is an old rule. Gee I mean everyone forgets about it all the time.
Some old white slaveholders wrote it, so it’s got to go.
Supposedly, according to Chuck Mann, that wasn’t quite the case. There are diary entries and letters from early settlers in the northeast and mid-Atlantic talking about forests with trees so sparse that you could drive carriages through them. The natives managed the forests pretty actively, cutting clearings for farming, keeping paths clear, and cutting–and replanting–trees for lumber. It wasn’t until later sets of settlers arrived after the native tribes started to die off or move west that those areas were left to seed and become dense, young forests.
Which is a long way to say that, yet again, the Greens don’t know what they’re talking about. A quote from Mann: “Native Americans ran the continent as they saw fit. Modern nations must do the same. If they want to return as much of the landscape as possible to its state in 1491, they will have to create the world’s largest gardens.”
Let’s try a link that works:
This one maybe?
They also did controlled burns and showed the settlers how they did it.
Absolutely. Lots of examples of pre-European folks managing the land. I would also say European forestry doesn’t always fit over here.
Then why are you playing into his hands?
“Don’t tell anybody I told you this: Trump is goading us to impeach him,” Pelosi said during an event sponsored by Cornell University in New York City. “That’s what he’s doing. Every single day, he’s just like, taunting and taunting and taunting.”
Pelosi argued Trump is daring them to impeach him because he believes it would help him “solidify his base” ahead of his 2020 re-election. Pelosi said that puts Democrats in a dilemma.
“We can’t impeach him for political reasons, and we can’t not impeach him for political reasons,” Pelosi said. “We have to see where the facts take us.”
Before Special Counsel Robert Mueller released his report on the Russia investigation, Pelosi stated her opposition to launching impeachment proceedings against Trump, calling it “divisive” and “just not worth it.” But Pelosi is now facing mounting pressure from those inside her party who say the report’s details having to do with accusations of obstruction of justice lays the groundwork in Congress for impeachment proceedings.
“We can’t impeach him for political reasons, and we can’t not impeach him for political reasons,” Pelosi said.
Yep, that’s about the size of it. I believe that’s referred to as “checkmate”.
From what I understand the dems have basically two options at this point:
1. try to impeach Trump, which will obviously fail. And he’s probably going to win in 2020 either way.
2. Don’t try to impeach Trump, and get primaried by their base.
Excuse me if I feel absolutely not even the slightest bit of sympathy for their current state of being stuck between a rock and a hard place. You made your bed. Now lie in it. And i hope it suffocates you, Nancy
Also: “the report’s details having to do with accusations of obstruction of justice lays the groundwork in Congress for impeachment proceedings” – right….except the report says literally the opposite of that
Impeachment backfired on the Republicans when they did it to Clinton, and that succeeded. There’s just no upside to impeachment unless you’re really going to try someone for serious criminal offenses, remove them from office, and pretty much cart them straight off to prison.
exactly.
they’ve talked themselves into a corner with their rabid base. now they have to keep talking about it like it’s a possibility and draw this out until primary season is over. then they can torch their rabid base by announcing they won’t impeach all the while blaming Trump.
“cast the caster in the creek” is poetry to mine ears and why i read here.
Sorry I overwhelmed your post Suthen. I need to send in my mostly finished article(s) and you can chime in as you wish.
Suthen, do you know if ‘super pine’ is also known as ‘slash pine’? A few paper companies had some pretty big farms of those just SE of the Florida panhandle. 2-3 years until harvest
In case Suthen doesn’t see this, I will respond best I can. The pdf he linked is an older paper that mentions longleaf and slash pine by name, so I assume they are the two species they have used for tree improvement. I’m not clear whether they hybridized The two species to get one super pine or did genetic improvements within each species and came up with two. Most likely there are now several super pine cultivars, but I’m not as familiar with that part of forestry, especially down south. They are really trying to maximize growth and fiber production down there. Makes sense with the high productivity soils and long growing season.
Do you mean 2-3 years from planting to harvest? That is indeed a super pine. I may need to check into that more. They likely harvest them when they’re still fairly small by tree standards since they are just using them for pulp, but still… wow.
IIRC, and if you ever check on this, SH, yes. I think it was 2-3 years to harvest for pulp. (Note: my memory is not what it was). The ‘forest’ looked like a corn farm, but with wider rows, obviously. A “factory” farm for trees.
I have no idea if this is still a thing, when I moved to central Florida in the early 80’s, citrus groves were still huge here, and the slash pine forests were abundant just north of here. I don’t think I’ve seen a citrus tree in 15 years. I imagine some of the pine trees still around are slash.
This is an interesting article. Thanks Suthen!
I remember trying to explain to some Boston area Progressives that if they want more trees, use more paper, because that causes paper companies to look for more tree farms. Their response was, “But those trees have short and terrible lives!” There’s no getting through to some people.
“But those trees have short and terrible lives!”
Apparently, Boston-area progs are about as sentient as the trees.