TSI Advice

[Jarred525]

I have a bench area that I am marking trees on for the loggers to cut. Lots of white and red oak on this bench, none of which have reached full maturity. They range from sapling size to 30 inch DBH.

In this area, my approach was going to be to cut out all of the non oak species. That will still leave me a lot of crowded areas of oak. In these crowded areas, I was going to mark the oaks that are low in timber value to be cut out (i.e. knots, low branches, crooked stems, etc...) This will still leave me with areas that are crowded with oak. Say I have a area with a 3 trees that are 5 foot apart. All are high timber value, nice looking white oak. One is 30 inch DBH, the next is 20 inch DBH, and the third is 10 inch DBH. Would I cut down both the 10 and 20 inch tree leaving the 30 incher?

 

[ROUGH COUNTRY HUNTER]

jarred525,from my experience,when i let the loggers do mine,they destroyed the trees i wanted to protect.they was good people,the equipment is some what damageing

 

[PickettSFHunter]

I would leave the oak with the best crown. Hard to know which one is actually the best producer without having watched them every Fall for quite a few years but I would take my bet on the best crown. I would also give each of them a good look over for any possible disease or pest problems before deciding.

However If I knew for sure that the 10 incher was a proportionally younger tree, then I may very well take the larger trees for more profit and allow the younger one to take up the space over the future. Im not afraid to cut some huge oaks, but I live in a very oak rich area with good oak regen, I have many oaks over 3 and even 4 feet DBH so making money on a few of those for the next land purchase can outweigh having an entire forest of large oaks for me. I think there is a fine balance, my 140 acres just isnt enough ground for me, and timber harvest where white oak veneer is valuable can help me get to a more desirable number of acres.

 

[Jarred525]

jarred525,from my experience,when i let the loggers do mine,they destroyed the trees i wanted to protect.they was good people,the equipment is some what damageing

Definitely a concern. I feel confident these guys are going to be as careful as possible. But I know some most likely will be damaged. It is not a huge area so that makes me feel a little better. probably 6 acres.

 

[Jarred525]

I would leave the oak with the best crown. Hard to know which one is actually the best producer without having watched them every Fall for quite a few years but I would take my bet on the best crown. I would also give each of them a good look over for any possible disease or pest problems before deciding.

However If I knew for sure that the 10 incher was a proportionally younger tree, then I may very well take the larger trees for more profit and allow the younger one to take up the space over the future. Im not afraid to cut some huge oaks, but I live in a very oak rich area with good oak regen, I have many oaks over 3 and even 4 feet DBH so making money on a few of those for the next land purchase can outweigh having an entire forest of large oaks for me. I think there is a fine balance, my 140 acres just isnt enough ground for me, and timber harvest where white oak veneer is valuable can help me get to a more desirable number of acres.

Good input, thanks smstone.

 

[Beekeeper]

We just had about 25 acres clear cut and got a guy from the state to come look at the area to give us some ideas on how to increase the wildlife value of the property. Some of the steep ridges were not cut and he recommended we cut or girdle the trees around the good white oaks completely from under the crown of the trees. One thing he said that stuck with me was that when you are thinning a stand of timber you should be looking up instead of at the ground.

 

[BSK]

However If I knew for sure that the 10 incher was a proportionally younger tree, then I may very well take the larger trees for more profit and allow the younger one to take up the space over the future. Im not afraid to cut some huge oaks, but I live in a very oak rich area with good oak regen, I have many oaks over 3 and even 4 feet DBH so making money on a few of those for the next land purchase can outweigh having an entire forest of large oaks for me. I think there is a fine balance, my 140 acres just isnt enough ground for me, and timber harvest where white oak veneer is valuable can help me get to a more desirable number of acres.

Excellent advice.

You might want to take the 30-incher for profit and the 10-incher for TSI, leaving the 20-incher. A 20-inch white oak is old enough to be a good acorn producer.

 

[Jarred525]

Thanks all.

Assume same example above and I have cut the 10 and 30 incher. If you have a number of oak saplings (say 3 or 4 inch DBH) very close to the 20 inch tree, what would you do? Leave them to see what potential they have or take them to lessen competition?

 

[PickettSFHunter]

I would leave the saplings

 

[Jarred525]

Thanks.