? Free Trees ?

Without trees · February 14, 2005, 07:31:24 PM

I have lucked into a 10 acre piece of land that was a hay feild for years. My question is are there anywhere to get trees to plant for free? I would like to plant pine trees , Love the look of white pine trees.
Thanks

redpowerd · February 14, 2005, 08:02:44 PM

see if your local extention office has a program for tree planting.
they may tell you to go to an fsa office, crp programs paid for 50% of trees and planting crews on a ripiarian border along a few miles of our creek, the government rents the land from you untill the stand is established(10 yrs)

Phorester · February 14, 2005, 08:10:35 PM

Probably not. If you could get them for free, you might not have good results anyway. I work for the VA Dept. of Forestry. We sell tree seedlings every year. Occasionally we have some left over at the end of the planting season. (March - April in my end of the state). We give those away.

But..., they are ones we've had for several weeks, and it is when planting season is over. These two facts mean that these leftover trees will be more likely to die than live since they have been out of the ground so long, and they will be planted outside of planting season, meaning a time of the year when the weather is not good for bare root seedling survival (which is why it's no longer tree planting season!)

I'd suggest you contact your local State Forester and see if your State sells seedlings. Bare rooted seedlings are cheap. For example in VA this year we're selling 1,000 white pine for $72.50. And you're guaranteed you will get fresh seedlings, and at a time for planting when survival will be best. The local forester can also advise you on any preparation needed before planting. Trees can't just be planted in a field and left to fend for themselves. Proper site preparation is 90% of whether the trees will survive or not.

Fraxinus · February 14, 2005, 09:55:07 PM

I'd rather have a field :'( :'(

Mark M · February 14, 2005, 10:03:45 PM

Around here the soil conservation district plants windbreak trees for a very reasonable price. They also sell them for less than a dollar with many species offered. Good luck.

redpowerd · February 15, 2005, 07:27:28 AM

i forgot to mention root cuttings are dirt cheap, or if you got a buddy with a white pine stand, you could implement some transplanting skills. i think the cost of planting trees here was 50% the total cost of the trees alone.

id rather have the hayfeild too. we have a 6 acre hayfeild in the middle of a woodlot thats getting harder and harder to get to every year. been thinking of mabie planting apples in there, all id need to get in there would be the bushhog, and the feild dosent yeild much hay, or good quality hay at that. id let the outsides of the feild grow up native and trim around the apple trees.

sawguy21 · February 15, 2005, 08:24:26 AM

Where are you? Is your climate and soil suitable for pine? Pine thrives in warm semi-arid areas with light soil, basically where little else except grass and rattle snakes will survive.

Without trees · February 15, 2005, 06:42:25 PM

Thanks everyone for the info. I'm in central NC and I have contacted the local extention of the forestry service and they can hook me up rather cheap. Thanks again.

redpowerd · February 15, 2005, 06:45:38 PM

glad we could help, welcome to the forum, stick around and have fun with them trees! its also fun to grow them under your name and in the member map!
good luck!

Corley5 · February 15, 2005, 06:52:34 PM

Quote from: sawguy21 on February 15, 2005, 08:24:26 AM
Where are you? Is your climate and soil suitable for pine? Pine thrives in warm semi-arid areas with light soil, basically where little else except grass and rattle snakes will survive.

But if planted on a good hardwood soil it will really grow ;) ;D

Ianab · February 16, 2005, 05:21:56 AM

QuoteBut if planted on a good hardwood soil it will really grow

Plant them in good farmland in NZ and thats how you get 2" dia per year growth

In spite of that a pine forest here wont normally regenerate itself, 90% of the time the native broadleafs will smother the pine seedlings.
0nly exception is on the

Quotewarm semi-arid areas with light soil, basically where little else except grass and rattle snakes will survive.

The pines will grow there, maybe not grow well, but better than anything else. In tough conditions they just are able to out survive anything else.

Fraxinus · February 16, 2005, 05:41:08 AM

Before the Civil War, NH was only about 20 or 30% woods. Today it is almost 90% forested. In my lifetime, thousands of acres of fields and pastures have reverted to woods. Fields I helped to hay as a kid can now be logged in some cases.
I just hate to see a perfectly good field put back into woods. The old timers worked real hard to clear them and we lazy bums of today don't even care. :'(

Ianab · February 16, 2005, 06:01:55 AM

QuoteBefore the Civil War, NH was only about 20 or 30% woods.

Maybe.. but 200 years before that it was probably 95% woods. I think trees will basically try and grow anywhere they can unless people actually stop them. If someone isn't going to farm the land properly, it may as well be growing trees, at least it's producing something usefull plus all the ecological benefits.

Ian

redpowerd · February 16, 2005, 06:53:15 AM

succession!

Fraxinus · February 16, 2005, 07:37:05 AM

I guess I must be a farmer first and a forester second. Trees are definitely what grows best here. Well, rocks do pretty well, too. :D :D :D
Last winter, my brother cut some Red Pines that I had planted as a 4H project in 1962.

Corley5 · February 16, 2005, 09:15:37 AM

One of the neighbors, he's long gone now :(, grew up in the logging camps here in Northern Mi. and in his later years worked as a farm manager at a couple of the last large cattle operations in the area. When he retired he moved back to his 80 acres next to my Grandpa's where he grew a little corn and hay for his team. Bob always had a team of horses. He cut firewood, logs and pallet wood from his woodlot. I can still see him saying that at one time he wished the whole 80 had been cleared but that now he wished the whole thing was still woods as there was more money in trees ;).

palmerstreeservice · February 16, 2005, 08:49:08 PM

Check with your local Department of Natural Resources (DNR). A friend of mine got some free trees from them. It was somekind of program.

SwampDonkey · February 21, 2005, 03:42:24 PM

I know of lotsa sites that were farmed, then abandoned, grew up, logged, grew up again and logged again. No, I'm not that old, just that I know the history of the area. Typically, most farms regrow with poplar, white birch, white ash, fir, spruce and maple species. Oh, and some cases they just regrow with apple, hawthorn, red osier, sumac, white spruce, tamarack, white pine and poplar.

sigidi · February 21, 2005, 06:26:09 PM

Geese Swamp, are you trying too hard to hide your age there?

SwampDonkey · February 21, 2005, 06:36:08 PM

ermm.......noPe

Furby · February 21, 2005, 11:19:43 PM

The old corn field next to my Grandma's was abandoned oh.........15 years ago maybe.
It's now overgrown with elm, I think some white pine as well as another pine, and one or two cedar. There are tons of briars and a bushy tree, both of which I'd have to try to ID. The past couple of years a couple of small cherries have taken root and some red maple.
It's fun to watch, and lots of wildlife cover, but I don't really see much timber coming from the lot.
Of course this is all natural regrowth, nothing has been planted.