Pre-Commercial Thinning

[WDH]

Stew,

Next time that I am over we will take some plots and develop a plan.  But, we have to wait until it is so hot that it will be a thing we will always remember .  (Just kidding .  I already have enough memories like that !).

[SwampDonkey]

Especially after it has been thinned. The hot sun beaming down and the heat radiating off the cut stems. Doubly hot! 

[Radar67]

Danny, that sounds good. It is already hot enough to remember, I know I won't soon forget my culvert installation. I've been seeing lots of mudbugs in my creek.  , along with Jake.

SD, the humidity here does not need the sun to make it miserable in the woods, but the sun does add to the misery. 

[SwampDonkey]

The jet stream has kept that mostly to the south so far this year. Makes for nice cool working weather for bush whacking. I think 75 F with a dew point  of 56 has been about the hottest here this spring. It's been 50's and 60's mostly, which is fine by me. Not so good for growing corn maybe. Don't think it got to 65 today and yesterday, not quite 50 F.

[Clark]

Since the evils of row-thinning haven't been mentioned, I feel obligated to do so.  And maybe your plan has changed, but a simple view of row-thinning is this:

If you plan on taking every third row (very common way to perform the first thinning of red pine in the Lake States) you are going to be taking 1/3 of all the good trees, 1/3 of the bad trees and 1/3 of the mediocre trees.  Bcraw's method of every 5th or 10th row is better down the road as you can decrease the % of good trees taken and increase the % of damaged, poor form, etc bad trees taken.  20 years down the road this will pay for itself.

IMO, you want to row thin only as much as you need to, which usually equates to giving the equipment enough room to access the entire stand.

Clark

[Radar67]

Clark, the equipment will be me, a chainsaw, and a winch line. No feller/buchers or skidders will enter the stand.

I have not done any thinning yet. I have been busy clearing the house site and building roads and firebreaks. The next step is to build the house and do some spot thinning as I go.  I have picked out a couple of dead trees to take down and make lumber out of.

Sd, 90 F here today with 70% humidity.

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah I see it has been bared from coming north at about central Mass. I'm not excited about it, 65 F is nice working weather though.