[Carl Russell]

Greetings Bob,

There is a Sustainable Ag curriculum under consideration at Vermont Technical College in Randolph Ctr. VT. Also John Hayden has been teaching Ecological Ag and related courses at UVM.

I find it interesting to consider a program dedicated to “Sustainability”. I think that technical skills associated with farming and forestry, such as husbandry, and equipment and animal operational skills, would be fundamental. I also think that ecology and earth sciences would provide a good foundation for considering the variables of “sustainability”.

Also the mentoring/internship approach would give the student opportunity to explore operations that suit their particular interests, AND it would get them out on farms and forestry operations that operate under REAL conditions.

My problem with Institutional Programs that provide the ground level experience “in-house”, is that rarely are these programs flexible enough to give experience in the wide range of opportunities, AND they are very often funded by the school.

This is not to say that “in-house” farms and forests can’t be excellent ways /places for the technical skills to be taught and practiced, but they can’t be expected to provide deep exposure. Otherwise the end results are students with a narrow understanding, and narrow experience. Carl

[Carl Russell]

One of our most treasured books is this old leather bound book that my grandparents had in their bookshelf.

The American Home and Farm Cyplopedia is 1033 pages, containing 2000 illustrations about everything you didn’t know you needed to know about in the home and farm. It was published in 1883 by W. H. Thompson of Philidelphia, PA, and authored by Horace R. Allen. It has sections on Agriculture, Improvement in Live Stock, Capital Invested, Horticulture, Gardens, Law and Business, Architecture, Outdoor Pastimes, The Household, and Medicine.

There is some timeless information such as the introduction to the chapter on Manures; When a farmer comes to know that a ton of farm-yard manure properly applied to his soil represents dollars and cents in his pocket, then he is fit to be a farmer, and not before.

There is also a lot of dated information, such as the section on Diseases of Women. There is no section on the diseases of men. It is true that many women were basically enslaved and over worked, but this section shows clearly that one of the many things a man needed to be concerned about, was the health of his woman.

It is fascinating in so many ways, and if there is some way to find one, I think people would enjoy it. Carl

[Carl Russell]

Woodland Ecology would be my first recommendation. It really covers some good info about management, and choices. It may be hard to find though, I’ve had this book a long time. It was printed in 1975.

I haven’t seen Thom McEvoy’s book, but I have heard good stuff. I don’t know personally. Carl

[Carl Russell]

You know I knew a young woman once who started dating a man (married), because “he said all the right things”.

Everyone has to make their best judgment, and find the mentors and educational opportunities, but the truth of the matter is that the industry has had their claws into forestry for way too long to step back easily. They have heard “ecology” and “sustainability”, and they know that these “words” need to be incorporated into their advertising and mission statements. They also have an incredibly tenacious hold on universities as well. Just be true to your own clear vision, and use the opportunity wisely, but beware the “green-wash”, because it swirls all around us.

My admonition of institutional forestry is not a default promotion of horse-logging. As horse-loggers we have challenges to become proficient, professional, proactive, with or without the forestry community.

I personally see horse power as the only sustainable power for land-use. This is not good or bad forestry, or farming, it is just simple math. For me animal husbandry, and working with animals also bring emotional and creative fulfillment to the work I do.

These things do not mean that horse-logging is by itself economically viable, or even environmentally sound. These are objectives and strategies that individuals need to bring to their own operation.

However, trying to work with the institutional/industrial forestry community to bring about an embrace of these principles will not be nearly as effective as encouraging educated, capable, creative, self assured, self motivated, community-minded people to follow their own initiative and instinct about sustainable forestry and timber harvest using draft animals.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

Yellow birch is excellent as it is very strong. Other hardwoods such as white oak, and sugar maple, or even elm, are also good. You must have yellow birch up there. The stem should be large enough so that the blank can be cut without pith, in other words log should be twice to three times as large as the blank.

Weight is really not an issue as cattle can carry plenty of weight on the shoulder. Weight is more of a personal concern in terms of how much you want to lift when mature cattle are fitted with 11″-12″ yokes, which can be quite a hunk of wood. Cattle that large are probably 2500 lbs+ each, so even a large yoke will be insignificant to them. You can yoke by lifting one end at a time anyway.

I got a couple of head yokes made in Nova Scotia by Gordon Lohnes out of yellow birch. Head yokes are typically made out of smaller blanks.

For light work I suppose softwood might be ok, but I would expect them to crack easily if the load jerked up against an unexpected obstacle. Carl

[Carl Russell]

Shoogs is short for sugar maples. Sorry about that!! Carl

[Carl Russell]

From a purely silvicultural view, sugar-bushes should be managed as even aged pure stands of sugar maple with stocking below the C-line. Below the C-line for ultimate crown development, as crown=roots=sap volume. This management typically precludes timber as 6-8 feet need to be bucked off for taps and stain, and if crown development is as described above, form class goes out the window. Even aged to maximize taps/ac.. Sounds a lot like agriculture to me, especially since stocking, diameter distribution, and species composition are not even close to the natural forest condition.

That being said, most people in our area have a hard time meeting those standards. Most sugar-makers know a good log when they see it, and they know that they can get multiple uses out of their bush if they manage the form class a little differently. Even-aged is pretty much the standard though, and most people will try to grow mono-culture. On a farm with 50+/- ac. in sugar-woods that’s not a huge problem, as we all manage our lands with some areas under more intensive strategies than others.

On our farm we have an area about 35 acres designated as sugar-bush. It was established during the early 1900’s. There are many large sugar maples. Because there was nearly 70 years hiatus before I started to reclaim it, there are many other species established there including yellow birch, white ash, hemlock, beech, red maple, and red spruce saplings and small poles. Some of the original shoogs were tapped so heavily as 8-10″ trees that they are in decline. From growth rings, it shows that during the depression era the trees had the crap tapped out of them (sugar was a valuable commodity). Tapped too small and over-tapped. I’ve cut trees with spout holes in my felling cut, and I cut low. So low they must have leaned the bucket against the tree.

I like to see an overstocked forest with a diversity of species, so that is how I manage this bush. In areas of decline, or in other areas where the site is suitable, I select groups to create openings for regeneration. The associated hardwoods that I grow in amongst have good form, and shorter rotation than the shoogs. I am less inclined to look for sawtimber in a sugar tree, and my objective is 120-150 rotation, in other words mortality. I don’t push my milk cow, so I don’t manage the sugar-bush to maximize tap numbers, or sap production, just a healthy multi-aged multi-species, multiple-use forest that provides another seasonal product.

My sugaring operation is designed for 500-700 buckets. I have invested small amounts of money over many years so it is not something that we are leveraged into every year in order to make pay-back. Because it is a bucket system, gathering is contingent on access, so some years, like the last three relatively open winters, we don’t tap because we would be in mud up to our ears. This year the snow added up so fast, and I had work elsewhere, that my trails are not broken out, and probably won’t be.

This is the time that I would be tapping out though, and many of my neighbors are right now. The sugaring can be very financially profitable, but it can also be ridiculous. There are a lot of variables, so my strategy is one of low investment, and putting in the time and labor when the best situation presents itself. Carl

[Carl Russell]

Biological Woodsman;952 wrote:

….Also you may go to our web site and read all of the material there in the documents section, media section (atricles0 and the Forest Understory section that shares several exchanges with other folks getting started in this lifestyle/business. Read everything on this site too. ……. I think our web site address will come up in the signature on this message. ……

Jason, make sure you post a link to your website in Etcetera under the new forum I just created for Associations & Links etc. Hope the Eco Jam goes well. Wish we could make it, Carl

[Carl Russell]

Hey Aaron, below are some good books that I recommend to landowners I work with (because I focus more on landowner forestry education than acting as a hired manager). They are written for the lay-person and landowner, promoting the information necessary for someone to take responsibility for stewarding their own forestland.

Common Sense Forestry by Hans Morsbach. Chelsea Green Publishing Co., POB 428, WR Jct., VT 05001 800-639-4099

Low Impact Forestry by Mitch Lansky. I don’t have the book in front of me so I can’t tell you who publishes it

Woodland Ecology;Environmental Forestry for the Small Owner by Leon S. Minckler.Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, NY 13210. If this book is out of print, I’ll lend it to you, it’s good.

A Natural History of TREES of Eastern and Central North America by Donald Culross Peattie.Houghton Mifflin Co. 2 Park St., Boston MA 02108.
This book is not a forestry book per se, but an especially wonderful book of description of all of the trees natural to our forests. I love not only the style of prose, but that these species are introduced in a way that allows you to understand them for the contributions they make to the forest and to humans.

[Carl Russell]

Small Farmers Journal is a small family-held company doing business in agricultural periodical and book publishing, natural farming and stock raising, alternative farm research/inquiry, horse-drawn implement research and development, horse-drawn equipment sales, and related eduction.

http://www.smallfarmersjournal.com

[Carl Russell]

Rural Vermont is a non-profit farm advocacy group, with a vision for a Vermont local food system which is self-reliant and based on reverence for Earth, and committed to supporting and cultivating a vital and healthy rural economy and community. ACTIVATE, EDUCATE, ADVOCATE.

http://www.ruralvermont.org

[Carl Russell]

NOFA-VT is a non-profit association of farmers, gardeners, and consumers working to promote an economically viable, and ecologically sound Vermont food system for the benefit of current and future generations.

http://www.nofavt.org

[Carl Russell]

Sanborn Mills Farm is a traditional NH working farm with agricultural fields and managed forests, timber framed barns and outbuildings still in use for animals, and a sawmill, a grist mill (both water powered), and a blacksmith shop, all dating fro the 1830’s. The farm buildings are all clustered around two dams at the outlet of Sanborn Pond, and are suurounded by almost 2000 acres of open space conservation.

Our Purpose; A century and more ago, Sanborn Mills Farm was a bustling, thriving center of agricultural activities that supported an extended family and served the community. Today we have gathered a group of instructors, farmers, craftspeople and historians dedicated to teaching the traditional skills that were commonplace then. We provide opportunities for people to learn old-fashioned ways, and explore how they can be integrated into modern life. We believe that these skills and a vital connection to the land continue to be important and relevant.

Come join us in this endeavor to preserve and build upon the legacy of those who came before us.

Colin and Paula Cabot
7097 Sanborn Rd.
Loudon, NH 03307
603-435-7314
e-mail; Colin@Sanbornmills.org

Website; http://www.sanbornmills.org

[Carl Russell]

I found a good photo from the field days of the Yard Hitch moving a round bale, but its too large to load as an attachment, so I’ll upload it into Equipment Photos on Gallery. Can move logs too!

[Carl Russell]

Yard Hitch developed an electric hydraulic 3 pth cart, using deep cell battery like golf carts and an electric motor as on snowplows to run the hydraulics. It works great, and can lift anytime you want as long as battery capacity. Beside forks, it will also take any category one 3pth implement. See pix in gallery under Events (NEAPFD). This is pretty expensive, but the concept could be modified by a handy innovator. Carl

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