Silviculture work pays off

[Ken]

Here is New Brunswick our government and industry has been doing pre-commercial thinning for the past 30+ years.  We are now beginning to see the benefits of this activity as many of the earliest treated stands are reaching merchantable size.  Over the next few years we will be spending most of time harvesting in these previously treated stands.  The piece size will be fairly uniform and there will be fewer unmerchantable stems than you may find in a natural untreated stand.

I have approximately 50 acres to harvest this winter that was thinned in the early 80's.  The area was agricultural land 45 years ago and when it was abandoned it regenerated to predominately white spruce.  The merchantable volume in these stands run between 40 and 50 cords/acre.  Although the piece size is not large the operating conditions are ideal. 



 

 

 

 

[jocco]

I agree and did quite a bit of it in the states they could not seem to justify it or afford it in many cases. Pluss it brings in a lot of fill in work.

[Clark]

So this is ~40 year old white spruce that is yielding 40-50 cords/acre?  That's pretty good!

It would be interesting to see some more PCT done here state-side.  I think for the ambitious land owner there is potentially great gain.  Private industry will never try it because the time value of money comes back to bite you and with no guaranteed results they are obviously hesitant to put their money on the line.  I think the gov't could justify it if they wanted to.  One way would be to see some sort of CCC-styled program brought back.  Certainly there are plenty of young men who aren't working right now.  The potential research projects that could be undertaken would be enormous.  The benefits for future forest production?  Look to Canada!

Are there any papers, studies or bulletins showing the changes between a forest that has had PCT work carried out vs one without?  I would be very interested to see them if they are out there.

Clark

[SwampDonkey]

The returns are there. For those interested in improving quality and growth rate to sustain harvest levels without pulling out and moving onto the next patch of forest, then it's simple, you spend the money. It's money in the bank if your planning for your future existence on that land base.  You want to treat your best stands however, and not apply it to every acre in a blanket prescription. Not all soils support the returns. But like so many outfits they are impatient with their money and as you get older in life your end is getting near, so to some the benefit is for someone else so the investment wanes. Northern Europe is so far ahead of the game that it would put most outfits over here to shame.

The structure of the forest does change as you target certain species, like softwoods over hardwoods. So hardwoods are cut out. But it doesn't have to be that way if the government and mills didn't set the pecking order in their criteria. Up here spruce is king. But, when I thinned my woodlot I targeted all species. If there was a nice rock maple or white cedar beside a fir, the fir got cut. Fir is like weeds, no shortage of'm.

I took inventory of recent thinning I did over the last 6 years on the woodlot and with a lot of larger fir and aspen in the plantations I averaged 2.5 cords/acre of wood. That's with 2500 st/ha and no time yet for any self thinnings. I suspect there is a lot of suppression runt trees and dead snags in that stand. Just in front of that buncher, in the first pic, I see 4 stems that would probably not be of much value and the two closest usable stems look to be 18 feet apart.

[WDH]

It pays off big time too in the South, although the first thinning is a commercial thinning.  I have commercially thinned as young as age 12 down here.  Thinning on time and thinning to the proper density has a dramatic impact in SYP. 

[jocco]

I would add to it that in some cases replanting is good also.

[SwampDonkey]

Over the years up here what I have observed is that thinning has to be done every 25 years after planting or the first pre-commercial to keep the growth rate up. If you wait, say ten years beyond this, your stands suffer. That's what we do wrong here, we don't keep the thinning going. We seem to do the ground work during establishment and weeding and don't follow up with semi and commercial thinnings. There are hundreds of acres right now on private woodlots that need another thinning. The trouble is we are in a down swing in the economy, so the attention wanes when prices for wood are suppressed. Planning is long term, but short sited cash wise. I believe last year the marketing boards where developing criteria for the next stage or two of thinnings. Working out some tangible targets and subsidy rates with time studies. Probably a small percentage as there are a lot fewer outfits around to experiment with.

[Ed_K]

Here in Ma.I have been doing TSI work for private land owners for 6yrs w/the state paying for a portion of the work. We just finished a 20 ac. parcel where it was cut 5yrs ago and now theres new oak/white pine regeneration.We spent our time cutting any other species from 1" to 10" and bad formed w/pine.The forester will have a logger come back in 2-3 yrs and finish the over story.Then it will start again.I hope to have a forwarder by then so I can bid on it.
I do find satifaction in this work,but wish they would do some pine suckering to may some great logs down the road,60-80 yrs.

[snowstorm]

a clearcut ken?? are you wacking every tree in sight? nice looking wood just the rite size the chainsaw can stay in the truck all winter. so now that you have been ctl for a while you like it? i told you some days it would seem to good to be true. heat ac no flies. other days

[Ken]

Without doing silviculture work our forests would be a tangled mess of unmerchantables and thickets.  On average our forests regenerate with 10-15000 stems/acre.  Eventually a merchantable forest would take shape from those densities but the time before it could be harvested would take longer.  When we thin today our target densities are around 1000 trees/acre.  When the stand pictured above was thinned the practice was to leave 12-1500 stems/acre.   Therefore the crowns in many areas of those stands are narrow and may not respond well to a commercial thin.  Also, our market conditions do not allow for making a profit doing a light cut at todays rates.  If we had a strong pulp and stud market the opportunity would be there to do more commercial thinnings in these stands. 

The stand we are cutting now is mostly studwood quality with pulp out of the tops and smallest stems.  I agree that the stand would continue to develop into a higher quality (larger piece size) stand if left alone but I'm not going to argue with a client wanting to cut his/her property if that is their desire.

Clark,  There have been numerous studies done that have shown the differences between thinned and unthinned stands.  I'm not sure where exactly to find a link to some but will have a look when I find some time.   And yes the volume of 40+ cords/acre is there.  The basal area is averaging over 50 m3/ha.  Not sure of conversion to sq ft/acre.

snowstorm,  We are clearing the site.  You are right when you say that wood is just the right size for the harvester.  My machine is not nearly as large as many in our forests but works really well in that type of stand.  I do thoroughly enjoy cutting wood from the cab of a machine although I may be getting a little soft from sitting around pushing buttons and pulling levers.  Had to use the skidder and saws to clear a power line easement in a subdivision the other day and it nearly killed me.  The largest downside to running the machines is the fuel bill and trying to troubleshoot electrical problems when they present themselves.

[Ianab]

I'm surprised how little importance is placed on early Silviculture in the US.

In this part of the world it's considered Vital to prune and thin in order to get a commercially viable harvest. Now we are usually growing plantation pine on a short rotation. But if unpruned logs are worth $50 a ton, but properly pruned butt logs are $300 / ton....

Assuming harvesting costs are the same, an un-pruned  tree may be worth $100. A pruned tree might be worth $350. Assuming $50 to harvest and transport. Unpruned tree is worth $50, properly managed tree is is worth $300. Cost per tree to prune and thin, $10?. Good investment? Sure is.

Now this is in NZ where you can harvest good pine sawlogs in 25 years. So an investment in silviculture pays off in your own life time. Different forests probably have a longer return, but a bit of careful work early on can certainly improve most forest types.

The local species are pretty much non-commercial, 200-400 year rotations is just a bit too much. The timber is fantasic and very valuable, but very limited supply. Sure they will regenerate, just not in our lifetime.. or our children's, or even our grandkids.

Ian

[snowstorm]

ken dose your tj use a 6 wire boom cable or 26? mine has 6 and from what i have been told its the way to go. with 6 there is 2 hot 2 ground 2 can high and low they control everything the valves the length dia. troubleshooting can be a bit of a .......you know. jd dealer up your way are they good on ctl? as you know i was on my own with my keto

[SwampDonkey]

the crowns in many areas of those stands are narrow and may not respond well to a commercial thin.  Also, our market conditions do not allow for making a profit doing a light cut at today's rates.

I agree that the stand would continue to develop into a higher quality (larger piece size) stand if left alone but I'm not going to argue with a client wanting to cut his/her property if that is their desire.

I agree on both counts Ken, you have to look at the economics and what the "boss man" landowner is going to do regardless of advice. Also, It's hard to eat when you turn jobs down.


220 ft²/acre = 50 m²/ha  Would SYP grow that thick for 45 years?

[WDH]

No, it would self regulate through mortality from competition plus the beetles would get it if it was that thick.

Could you thin heavier initially and produce larger stems versus leaving so many trees?  I thin my SYP to about 175 trees/acre at the first thin. 

[SwampDonkey]

WDH, they don't seem to recommend below 600 st/acre in PCT work from years of density studies. But that has now been raised to 800 as a minimum in the last 3 or 4 years of the program. Spruce and fir are shade tolerant and the density helps self pruning. Manual pruning is not recommended because of cambium damage and they don't heal up as fast as pine, thus fungus and rot. I will be doing a thinning in 10 years in some sections of the woodlot and I will pay close attention not to be too open and cause dormant buds to limb out of the trunk. I've always said 1000-1200 st/acre is way too thick in spruce. Out west they plant 250-600 st/acre on the coast if you look at the silviculture guides. They are not planning on thinning, but letting the trees grow a longer rotation. They also have no hardwoods for competition to speak of besides alder, which does more good than harm probably.

[Stephen Alford]

Great thread,thanks for posting.   

[Clark]

Ken - I know there are numerous studies on thinning and the benefits of it.  I was looking particularly for the benefits of pre-commercial thinnings.  Most of the studies I've run across deal with either central/southern hardwoods or pine. I can't seem to find much written about PCT in spruce/fir, northern hardwoods or the like.  There is some written about aspen but my mind tends to switch off when I hear that word!

Clark

[SwampDonkey]

There is a bit of literature tied up in scientific journals, thesis, and government reports. A lot isn't online. A lot of this literature you will only find with leg work and visits to brick and mortar. If you search "thinning densities in spruce" you'll get some hits, look beyond the first search page.

Oh, and don't forget the jobs.


And aspen thinning isn't of much benefit, it self thins quickly. The only time to thin aspen is when it's mixed with other commercial species.

[Furu]

Nice discussion to stumble upon, considering I have recently completed PCT on  a stand of alder. Also did conifer release/thinning on a stand of Doug fir. Age of both stands is 10 years.  The alder (which used to be a junk tree but seems to be more valuable today) showed the last two years of growth had slowed significantly over the previous years (by as much as 50%)  It is going to be very interesting to continue to monitor these stand's growth rates post thinning.

[rwthom279]

I'm surprised how little importance is placed on early Silviculture in the US.

Assuming harvesting costs are the same, an un-pruned  tree may be worth $100. A pruned tree might be worth $350. Assuming $50 to harvest and transport. Unpruned tree is worth $50, properly managed tree is is worth $300. Cost per tree to prune and thin, $10?. Good investment? Sure is.

The local species are pretty much non-commercial, 200-400 year rotations is just a bit too much. The timber is fantasic and very valuable, but very limited supply. Sure they will regenerate, just not in our lifetime.. or our children's, or even our grandkids.

Ian

Guys I am no where near the level of what you fellas are at, but I learned alot of what I know from cruising timber, marking for thinnings, then followed by crop tree releases, prunings and alot of reclaimation work...sure planted alot and I hope to go back and visit and see how they are now.

But one thing I have noticed around here, and this may go for other parts of the country...private landowners are not looking to the future, they want the $$$ NOW.  They don't seem to understand the benefits of proper forestry practices, and in alot of cases think its a waste of money.  They can't see how $10 dollars now, will turn a profit 35-50 yrs down the road, or longer.  You try to explain it, and they look at ya like you're crazy.

Being predominatly hardwoods around here, that does put a damper on return vs time.  But there is so much that can be done, even by the landowner.  Easy stuff too.  I dunno, its all back to the buck.  They mostly seem to want to cut it all NOW and screw the next generations.  When it should be "Leave the best, Cut the rest."  IMHO  We all gotta eat.

I have had the pleasure of doing several private stands, and its amazing if you take before and after pictures...Landowners are shocked and it sure makes ya proud to know ya had a hand in it!