Tending your little piece of earth

[SwampDonkey]

It is flat ground with gentle rises. Soil is sandy clay loam and gravelly on elevated sites and organic with gravel on low sites. There is no heavy clay and the root restricting layer is shallow because the water table fluctuates seasonally. The highest sites seem to favor hardwoods and fir and lower ground favors more cedar, aspen and spruce. Fir on the low ground is necrotic. But, the tree has been growing fast the last 3 years, over 30 inches a year. It's growing on an elevated site. Can't count height growth this year because the weevils killed the top.  In 2006 the tree grew 33 inches.

At eleven years since planting, the volume is about 2.5 cords/acre. It was the same for 5, 10 and 14 plots measured.

[SwampDonkey]

A small piece of land I own across the opposite side of my brook needed tending where the softwood were growing. Today, I took the brush saw and made the 1 km hike to the back of the lot. I had to walk across a small wetland and later a small beaver dam to reach the softwood.

Here is the site before the job.



The beavers have been busy lately, cutting aspen in behind the fir stand for winter food.




After the first tank. I found a few spruce along the bank of the stream, a couple in the foreground here.







The images are a bit fogged up, because my lens got condensation between steam rolling off me and high humidity of the air. A couple of images in the middle of it after the job was done. It took me about 4 tanks to cut about 1/2 an acre. I was done at 12:00 pm.



One last shot from the beaver dam looking back as I was exiting the site. This is the same vantage as the first picture. Used wide angle lens.

I pruned the buts up 5 or 6 feet with the brush saw as well.

After the first picture I took crossing the dam, I managed to sink up to my knees in muck and water, so that was nice.

[SwampDonkey]

The hardwoods in the middle two pictures where sugar "rock" maples. The beavers like to cut them to. 

[Mooseherder]

Looks like a Moose friendly lot.

[SwampDonkey]

Here is the Norway spruce damage.

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Damaged leader


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We've just diagnosed the bug as white pine weevil. Yup it hits spruce to, but mostly Norway spruce and White spruce.

The spruce has recovered from the damage and little evidence of any damage unless you look thoroughly. The new leader is growing straight as an arrow. The tree is now over 6 meters and has doubled in girth.

[SwampDonkey]

This is what the spruce looks like today.

[tonich]

This thread is one of my favorites!
Keep on posting! 

[SwampDonkey]

Can't say too much at this stage, but from what I've seen in 2-4 years growth since the thinning (this will be year 3 and 5), depending on section treated, it's probably better than fertilizer alone since the trees have more room to put on volume.  I updated some measurements in the pill bottles the last couple days. The moose spent the whole winter in the woodlot, but they don't hold up this winter in any one area, not much snow.

[SwampDonkey]

I brushed out one of my side lines this morning and I came across a small patch of taller fir and spruce that I thought I had better touch up with the 550. The beavers have been removing the balm-of-gilead out of it this spring it seems. Anyway a good deed done on that patch and carried on into neighboring plantation to finish out the tank. I need to do my north line some time, but looks to be wet weather a few days coming. Then I will also brush my trail on the way back to the car. I have about 12 acres I'm going to be spacing sometimes, but maybe not until next year.

It's on the same line as the previous thinning and about 400 feet to the east on the other side of the beaver pond. Those buggers are really flooding a lot land down stream. Darn things.  There was a nice stand of white cedar coming back on the neighbor's lot real good until they destroyed about 10 acres of it with flooding. That's what clear cutting invites, beavers.

[BrandonTN]

Hey SwampDonkey, fall is here....good weather to be out in your woodlot. Is the commercial thinning of the fir and aspen next?

[SwampDonkey]

Another 20 years Brandon, the oldest thinnings are 5 years old now.  Some of the fir buts are over 8 inches across, but that is not the average since there were two harvest entries years before and some fir is ahead of others. I'd say though, that most are at 4 inches. I keep records on certain trees in a little bottle I tie on a wire. That's if the bear leave them bottles alone.

As to being there in the fall, it will be late fall as I'm still thinning on crown land, probably into late November if I don't get snowed out.

[SwampDonkey]

Here are some photos of 6 year old thinning on my woodlot.

This shows tamarack I planted in 2002, beside black spruce planted in 1996.



This is a section of natural that has sizes ranging from 3"-6" in view. The dominant trees are around 32 feet. You can see the lower limbs dying now and soon will prune up.



Another area of natural here with some older fir 4" to 10", with the biggest around 50 feet tall. There is a dead yellow birch there that I think was killed by herbicide. Been dead for some years.



This area is in plantation, but between planted rows is balsam fir 3"-7" mostly, some 8"-10"  scattered in it, bigger sizes are sparse up to 16". I believe these in the photo are 7" and around 32 feet. One behind me and at the end of the stick.



Here is a largetooth aspen which only appear in small groups and not very common on the lot. It's 10" and 53 feet tall.



Here is a butternut near the main road I planted (the nut) in 2004 I think.



This balsam fir is 20" and 68 feet tall. It has reached it's potential and beyond and the ants and wood buzzards are at it now. Surprising the crown is still all green and the pitch blisters still look decent on the bark. But once they are attacked this way they are usually gone in 3 or 4 years. Some of the trouble was harvest damage to some trees. This tree may not actually be real old.



On the neighboring lot there is 10 acres where they are in the same shape and destined for worm food.

[WDH]

Looking good there, SD.

(I mean the woods  ).

[SwampDonkey]

This year I also cleaned another 14.5 acres of plantation with a "clearing" saw. The trees planted in the first photo of this thread where part of the area. I had a few balsam poplar and white cedar that needed to be spaced and cut from those spruce. One area on a gravelly bank was invaded by a lot of white cedar, it was solid green. Some areas where kind of marginal because of drainage, but had lots of tree count for crop trees. That pretty much completed the first phase of thinning.

[tonich]

I may have to take a chance and visit that plantation myself!
Have to start planning the visit.