What to do with weaveled pine

[Anonymous]

I wanted to hear what some of you do with weaveled pine trees? There is an old pasture on the land Im buying and I can’t think of what to do with the pines that need to be thinned out because of weavel damage. Can I just girdle them? That might be less messier than dropping them and letting them rot on the ground.

any input is appreciated

Jared

[Carl Russell]

Girdling is always a cost effective way to remove poorly formed, declining, and competing trees. Are you interested in improving the stand for timber production, or are you clearing to return it to pasture? Only that in the case of clearing, it will probably be easier to clean up if the trees are directionally felled and delimbed, even if not harvested.

Some people don’t like to see lots of standing dead trees, or large amounts of dead unharvested material, but I think it is a good way to get the necessary work done (reducing competition from low grade trees) without adding the cost and impact of harvesting material that barely covers the investment.

Carl

[Baystatetom]

I have girdled a lot of trees and believe it is a fast effective way to do forest improvement work, however a lot of loggers hate the practice as there will be a good number of standing dead snags for years to come. If you do not plan on using that acreage for much go for it, if you are going to do firewood harvesting, pasture animals, or put numerous trails in there you might be better off felling the trees and dicing up the parts real small so they rot fast. Also pines die pretty hard by girdling, cut them a solid inch deep and put 3 rings all the way around the stem. Some will still heal over and keep growing. I have seen some that continued to grow above the girdle but not below it. Makes for a unique tree!
~Tom

[Ethan Tapper]

I would add that if you are interested in regenerating some pine, the “good” thing about weevil damage is that it represents a mechanical source of damage— not genetic. You can go in there and do a harvest of most of the better stems, and not have to worry about leaving a poor genetic legacy for future generations (provided the weeviled trees are of high vigor and disease-free). You can easily go back and girdle those trees to release subsequent generations. And big ‘cabbage pines’ are dynamite snags for wildlife and general ecosystem benefits.

I don’t know where you are, but if you are in most parts of the northeast I would advocate, in general, for trying to steer your land away from monocrop pine. On some sites it can do really well, but its predominance on the landscape is largely due to planting and its strength as an old-field colonizer. I have found that weeviled pine, blister rust, low vigor and invasive species are ubiquitous in these monocrop pine stands. If they are doing well, by all means stick with it, but you might think about as you are girdling those weevil-pines or deciding what else to do, trying to create small openings to encourage natural successional dynamics to occur.

[Anonymous]

Those are all good advice. I have been a wildlife biologist for the last eight years so Im not foreign to ecology. Im now trying to blend my ecology with paying the taxes on my land. This stand of pine has some nice replacement trees that are straight and already mixing in with the canopy. I was hoping to release some of the pressure around these trees as well as create some gaps and more diversity. I do want to drop some of the trees to decompose on the ground, but I dont want to have to drop all of the trees that need to be thinned.
It is funny how some loggers hate seeing dead trees. I have a family friend who is a logger who refers to big old oaks as a “waste”. Based on ideas like this I stayed away from logging most of my life but now Im learning there is another side, and it helps justify having a heavy horse 😉
I have been trying to buy this land since I was a teenager and we are negotiating the contract right now. This land was a portion of my families farm 5 generations ago, the road is still named after my grandmothers maiden name. It borders the land that I grew up on and my father managed throughout my life.

thanks again

Jared

[mitchmaine]

hi jared,
i used to cut wood fulltime. hated snags just like everyone said. i cut each one as i passed it and maybe cut it in three peices. they rot pretty fast and are almost gone when you cut them.
i don’t know how big this pine is where you are, but i always remember how fast pine pulp added up. better than any other northeast tree. and if you aren’t chasing logs and have nothing else to thinlk about but a pulp pile, i might be tempted to cut it. we all know that the mills aren’t paying anything for pulp, but in fact, they actually are. you won’t get rich, but mixed softwood up here is $21 a ton, or(4300 lb.) or $45.15 per cord.
you could utilize the wood, use your horse, clean up you woodlot, have some fun, that must be killing a bunch of birds with one stone yet. just a thought, mitch

[Anonymous]

Thats not a bad idea mitch. I am still learning logging and I havent learned how to sell wood yet. It is a short downhill drag from the woodlot to a road where a log truck could pick up, Ill ask around to some of the loggers I know (even though they think horse logging is a joke) to see what pulp is bringing and if I can sell it.

thanks
Jared

[dominiquer60]

Jared there is a logger in Hoosick that uses his horses from time to time, Barry Bonesteel, he may be of some help when it comes to selling some pulp.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Ill look him up.

[Author]

Posts