To Harvest or Not ?

[larry1]

 

  

  

  

  

 


Hi all , I'm in northern ont. and bought a 40 acre wood lot last winter with about 30 acres of 90% good maple . It's on average about 12 - 14 '"  hard maple and the tress are about  15 ' apart with some logs but mostly pulp or firewood . The lot was clearcut about 80- 90 years ago .  I  also bought a 230d  timberjack to skid with . The question is  to cut it and make a mess or sell it at a profit  untouched , right now it looks like a park ---thanks in advance

[beenthere]

Only way to answer that is to have a good idea what the growth of the stand is, and whether it is mature now or is in its growing stage with more potential.. Has it been cruised and you have some volume figures?

[Ron Wenrich]

If the lot was clearcut 80-90 years ago, those pulpwood trees are as old as the larger trees.  They wouldn't be worthwhile to release. 

[terry f]

   Its yours, so you have to live with the results. I'm in the same situation, with a little less of a skidder, but for me, it will be thinning the rest of my life.

[petefrom bearswamp]

Looks to me like a typical 2 aged stand

[Clark]

It sounds like you are wondering if you should just clearcut the 40 acres or leave it alone. I would suggest that there is a world of opportunity between those two extremes.

From what I can see in the picture there is a component of paper birch in the stand, maybe the occasional red oak and lots of sugar maple. It looks very similar to some of our hardwoods over here. If it were my stand I would selectively cut it taking out most of the paper birch, as many poor form sugar maple as possible and leave about 2/3rds of the stand there (actually basal area but we'll interchange those for now). Hopefully that will release some trees with good form, allow some sugar maple to grow from seedlings to saplings and leave a desirable stand on the land. In a similar stand I cruised this fall, the released sugar maple had put on 2" DBH in the 10 years following release and we have poor hardwoods.

Clark

[CJennings]

Clearcutting is not normally a good way to regenerate quality shade tolerant hardwoods. I can't really tell what to do with a stand from a few pictures but what I see in those pictures are many of the smaller trees having poor form. I can't tell too well on the larger trees from those photos. If you want to regenerate better quality trees for the future I'd look at a shelterwood approach, retaining many of the larger trees for now to provide the shelter and seed. But again I'm only basing this on the little evidence I have in those photos. I would want to know more about the soil before I decided the future of the stand.

[larry1]

Thanks for all the great ideas guys . I like the suggestion of taking all the logs even though the scale price is down and the trucking price is high . A lot of that second growth is pulp / firewood  and perhaps a clear cut is order with the exception of leaving a few stand for canopies of new growth. Our hardwood pulp is paying $ 97.00 / bush crd , firewood is  $ 90.00 / face crd . and tandem trucking is $ 100.00 / hr. . I 'll have a better idea what to do in the spring once I take a better cruise .

Thanks guys

[Tarm]

Larry1
Taking all the logs and leaving all the pulp is high grading. You would not find approval for such a practice on a forestry website. An 80 to 90 year old northern hardwood stand has about 30 more years until maturity. A thinning of poor quality trees now, with a second thinning 15 years later will put about 6 inches of diameter growth on your crop trees.  Finishing out the rotation with a shelterwood harvest 30 years from now could result in both a big haul of sawlogs and a successful regeneration.
Doing a pulp thinning in an even aged hardwood stand is difficult to accomplish with a cable skidder. Shortwood logging usually has less residual damage and that requires either hand cutting or a processor followed with a forwarder. So Larry I would suggest you flip the property for a profit and use the money to buy a job more suitable for your equipment.

[celliott]

Tap it!

What about a maple sugaring lease?

The low quality pulp\firewood trees aren't an issue. An ugly tree still produces sap.
For the sake of numbers, say, a lease figure of $1 per tap per year, on 30 acres, just figure an average 100 taps per acre (a tap tree being 8"+, or a 2 tap tree 20"+) might be higher, I doubt it's lower, that's 3000 taps, $3000 per year, every year, in your pocket and you do nothing but own the land.

And, when the lease contract is up, you still own the property, still have the trees, and could consider a harvest at that point. Doubtful the lower quality trees will have reduced in value, some may have increased if you can find a market for taphole maple.

Something to consider anyways.