Beech tree Culling

[reelman65]

My place was select cut about 15 years ago. Good news is the left the Walnuts, bad news is they also left the beech trees. Some of the Beech trees are pretty big. I hesitate to cut the big ones down until i talk to a forester. But is it a no brainer to cull the little ones?  less than 6"DBH?

thanks

[nativewolf]

What's the goal with your property?  How many acres?  Sounds like maybe a high grade rather than select cut.  Middle TN should have some oak, poplar, ash, hickory mixed in there.  If Beech you probably have cooler good soils facing north/east.  Same sort of site a Walnut likes. 

Beech are great for wildlife, maybe the best.  They suppress undregrowth so  the forest looks pretty but can be tough to get regeneration.

Any fire at all will kill a beech, so a  prescribed burn can do wonders.  However....it can also harm other hardwoods.

Cutting Beech without anything to take the place is asking for unwanted invasive exotic species like Alianthus, kudzu, etc to take over.