what to do for the best results?

[Ron Wenrich]

Bob

I agree with your management of uneven aged stands.  That's how most stands are managed here in the east.  Essentially, its all even aged management, just that your size of stand is a lot smaller.  Then you blend it together to get a representative of all diameter classes.  The classic "J" curve is pretty hard to accomplish with most types of private ownership. 

The way I use thinning is to use a BA gauge and to look up.  The gauge tells me the stocking level, the crowns tell me which trees need thinned.  Sounds like we all do it pretty much the same way.

For those still playing along, a BA gauge of 10 can be made with the ratio of 1:33.  A 1" target at the end of 33" will give you a BA factor of 10.  If you have a quarter and your arm is 33", then you're in luck.  Point sampling makes it that you don't have to measure plot size.  If the tree is larger than the target, you count it.  If its smaller, you don't. 

[WDH]

A small tree may be "out" and not counted at 20 feet from your sampling center point, but a very large tree can be "in" at 50 even 100 feet or more.  The larger the diameter, the farther it can be away and still be "in" the sample. 

This is very different from a fixed radius plot where all trees are counted within the confines of the plot.

[paul case]

i am going to have to study your methods some more. some of the things you guys are talking so deeply about gets way over my head. i think i get the whole jist of it though. make some room for the trees to grow by taking some out but dont take out so many that a lot of light gets to the ground. spread the stand out if possible and leave desireable species and type.
 however i have been working close to these woods lately and noticed that i didnt mention there are some big wolf trees. some will be a little big to saw. i dont like to saw over 32'' and some of those will have a but cut of 40'' or more. the crown of those trees takes up a lot of room. i will probably take some of those out when i thin these woods since they are really too big already.  pc

[Ron Wenrich]

Big wolf trees can be girdled and killed if you don't want to fool with the wood.  They make good den trees.

The BA thing is just something that you can do as you thin to see if you've taken enough or have taken too much. 

[SwampDonkey]

Often times the harvesting is dictated by the species presented to you. If for instance you're in a hardwood stand that is familiar to us in NB you may be met with a different approach. If your stand is predominately maple with beech as a lesser component, it's best to create small patches or your understory will be overrun by beech if the crown closer overhead is too tight to allow the maple regen to grow. The maple will live in shade, but that's about it. Once the beech seeds in the maple regen is choked out. We had a hardwood course one time and a guy from NY was trying to apply what they do to here. The beech down there apparently suckers a lot off roots. Not up here, he found out right quick that all them seedlings he pulled up was from seeds. Also our hardwood don't put on 4" every ten years, it's closer to 20. Beech is like balsam fir, it is very shade tolerant and will take over when everything else is shaded out. Another to include in that is ironwood (O. virginiana). I have seen sugar bush be over run by ironwood undergrowth when doing light thinning as well.

I have a photo in my gallery of beech that has over run my uncle's firewood lot. Slow light thinning over years, does it every time. The same happened to another lot he and grandfather cut firewood from for years. Thick beech undergrowth, overstory of sugar maple.