Crop-Tree Release

[Carl Russell]

Today I was working on the wood pile and just off the edge of the landing was a white pine sapling that I had released a few years ago. It is a good example of how even the smallest trees can be the focus of forest improvement. In the first picture you can see the red spruce stump, 12″D just in front of this sapling. When I cut the tree, it was specifically to release that sapling, and I took measures to protect it.
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This is a mixed stand of red spruce and white pine that I have been managing in an all-aged manner for over twenty years. In the second picture you can see the dense red spruce regeneration in the background, and if you look closely (it was taken with a cell phone), you can make out another white pine about 6″D and 35′ tall reaching above the spruces. That was another sapling that I released about 15 years ago when it was the same size as the one in the foreground.
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The red spruce in the over story, just to the right in the second picture are going to be cut soon. I have been removing the overstory bit by bit over the last twenty years, releasing established regeneration in small groups. You can also see some yellow birch saplings. Additional associates are paper birch, hemlock, and red maple, but red spruce and white pine predominate.

Carl

[Scott G]

Gee Carl…

Doesn’t it kinda make you feel like old growth when you’re still around to see your silvicultural prescription theory turn into reality? Just remember my friend, someday you will qualify as an overstory removal! 😉

I’m am so happy that the focus here is shifting away from always thinning from below and complete understory removal. People have finally come back full circle realizing that an uneven-aged stand is a good thing in every forest cover type except lodgepole. Now they don’t dismiss me as the crazy one who has always thought it appropriate to focus on the individual, ditching the strata concerns, even when treating on a landscape scale…

[Carl Russell]

Yes Scott I know that. I have grown into an adult along with all these trees. Not only have I seen the results of my own work, I have also watched stumps rot into the earth where I watched my dad cut down trees when I was 5-6.

In the first picture you can see the red spruce stump, 12″D just in front of this sapling. When I cut the tree, it was specifically to release that sapling, and I took measures to protect it.

It just occurred to me that this is also a good example of the type of value that I add to properties through my timber harvesting. Look at those good young white pine saplings, given plenty of room at opportune times. Think of the value that thinning like that will bring to me, or other landowners, in the future.

There is no doubt in my mind that the forest improvement harvesting that I do is worth more than the typical mechanized, high volume, even aged, leave it and check back in 30 years type harvest. That is just one aspect of why those of us practicing forestry like this should not be bashful about explaining why we can’t log for the same rate as mechanical loggers.

Carl

[Gabe Ayers]

We have definitely used the Perkins USFS USDA Crop Tree Release research papers to justify the cost of our services for private landowners. This approach has often been questioned about if the investment by landowners would pay for itself from the shear timber value improvement compared to if you put that money in a bank for 30 years or several many age harvest rotations. We also have used the http://www.karldavies.com site for years to project increased income from enhanced cultural practices to grow the best trees to the highest value. Karl has been gone (deceased) for several years now, but the site is somehow still there when I last checked. It is not about animal power, but silviculture.

I would submit that if the value of the ecological services that the forest provides for the public good were computed into the equation it would more than out yield the interest collected by simply putting the money in the bank.
Those questions of investment into TSI – by the way – are always raised by conventional foresters that promote the even aged management cut it all down and come back in 75 years approach – including a bidding system that pits everyone against each other for who will do the work the cheapest, manifesting the classic divide and conquer approach…. We don’t bid on timber or contract services. We negotiate with private landowners that are open to our educational offerings.

That we woodsmen want to wander about and enjoy our office is an opportunity cost that we personally afford ourselves. Priceless in my opinion.
During the mushroom time of year we tend to come back from the occasional
wanderings with a hat full of food from the forest. It is a “new age” logger deal included in the definition of what a biological woodsman is. It is ginseng time here now and eyes are scanning the understory for those red berries and leaf patterns hiding among the Va. creeper. I’m not sure where the dumb native trout are, but there are some pretty wild ones in the small streams of the Appalachians that can be had for dinner with some real patience and skill using a mepps spinner and an earthworm. If there is better eating from game I have not discovered it.

Meanwhile the intensity of SDAD is mounting and we are about to launch a new cultural vessel into the waters of this community of interest. I am just very thankful for the current friends I have to help put it on and act as life preservers for my tired old self. I really look forward to making new friends at this event and growing the community of interest to include any new folks wanting a quality of life unequaled in modern times…. It is a matter of taking the best of the past – to make a better future. Ok, I admit it, I like much about the old ways too….

[OldKat]

I enjoy reading the stuff you logger types post, though honestly two thirds of the technical terms you use go right over my head. No big deal, because I’m not likely to ever actually use any of the info you guys talk about …still, interesting to read. One question; what does this term “TSI” that some of you have mentioned in several recent posts mean?

[Carl Russell]

TSI = Timber Stand Improvement -typically seen as non-commercial removal of poor quality trees that are in direct competition with Crop Trees. Also known to some degree as crop-tree release. [ATTACH]583.jpg” /> This photo shows a stand of paper and yellow birch that were regeneration from a clear-cut of spruce in 1973. In 1988 I did non-commercial crop-tree release in here, favoring the birch as residuals as they had better potential than the red maple, pin cherry, gray birch, and aspen that were associated species.

I actually employ crop tree release in all stages of harvest, commercial and non-commercial. Looking at the forest as a stand of trees to be grown, identifying crop trees, and rather than finding trees to harvest, I look at trees to leave, and designate trees for removal based on the degree to which they compete with my residuals. This way crop trees can be found in all age classes, and harvest need only occur where the removal will actually benefit crop trees. That is why in the above photo you can see dense patches of softwoods, and a few clumps of red maple. I only removed the trees that were in direct competition with my crop-trees.

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Another component to crop-tree management is getting adequate regeneration to produce crop-trees that will replace the older tree (overstory). In this picture you can see a small opening that I made when the regeneration was only a couple of feet tall. Within the clearing there are several good quality pole-sized white pines that have gained significantly since i made the opening. You should also be able to get some sense of how light strategic harvests can effectively maintain high stocking at the same time managing and harvesting timber.

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Here is another small opening with well established regeneration that is over-topped by some large, and very large sawtimber. This place is slated to have some of the overstory removed to release this regeneration. In this next picture you can see what this might look like in 15-20 years.[ATTACH]586.jpg” />

The next step will be to go through these growths of saplings identifying crop-trees and releasing them when they are still 1-4″DBH so that they will be able to maintain their vigor. By giving those crop trees that advantage, in another 15 or so years I will have a dense pole sized stand with well formed trees out-performing the lower quality stems.

Many stands that are not grown like this end up growing and growing without thinning because there is no timber that is harvestable, until there is, then it is harvested and the lower grade trees that have grown with equal advantage are either left as residuals, or they are also cut leaving nearly nothing of any value.

Carl

[OldKat]

Thanks Carl. I understand what you are saying. That is an interesting process. I guess I actually knew a little more about this subject than I gave myself credit for. My first cousin got his degree in Forestry; I guess technically Silvaculture about the same time I got mine in agriculture. However he actually stayed in his field.

He was the Silvaculturist for the City of San Antonio, Texas for several years before starting his own tree service. I have stayed in contact with him, sort of monitoring what he is doing. Interestingly, his company has sort of morphed over the years into something similar in its philosophy to what you have detailed in your post. Keep in mind that most of his clients are homeowners and other small landholders, so the tracts of land he works are much smaller. He does not use draft animals in his business.

His philosophy is to work with people that value his services and will pay a premium for them. He told me several years ago “There are not that many truly wealthy people in San Antonio, but I probably have 60 to 70% of them as clients. I get them usually as referrals from other satisfied clients. They listen to and accept what I propose for their place; otherwise I don’t take the job”

He once told me something that I found interesting; he asked “Do you know how you can tell if a tree has been pruned correctly and if the trees on a tract of land have been managed properly?” When I said I had no idea, he said “When you look at it and can’t tell that a tree crew has even been there then it was probably done correctly”. He focuses on removing damaged, decaying and diseased limbs & trees first. Next he deals with trees that are leaning too much, on sites that are poorly suited to their growth potential, etc. Finally, opening spaces in the canopy for younger, more valuable trees to grow. Doesn’t sound a whole lot different than what you are practicing.

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