How to Manage Woods for Fun and Profit

Image Gallery A woodlot, carefully managed, will provide generations of owners with fuel, lumber and enjoyment. Joanna Pecha

A woodlot, whether three acres or 100 acres, can provide a myriad of things: fun and recreation; a bootstrap business for firewood and lumber; and the sheer satisfaction of having trees nearby. But to get the most out of your woodlot requires some forest management.

To get started, develop a forest plan, which will enable you to get the most out of the forest for the longest period of time. First, decide what you want from your woods ? firewood, lumber, a place to hunt for mushrooms, to create hiking trails? Next, do an inventory of the kinds of trees and their sizes. This is crucial to a good and accurate forest plan. A field guide to trees is a good investment. In the East, a woodlot can double in volume every 10 to 20 years. Knowing which trees to cut for firewood and which ones to harvest for lumber can make a big difference in maximizing income from your woodlot. For instance, if you cut down a mature black walnut or Western red cedar tree for firewood, you could be cheating yourself out of thousands of dollars worth of lumber.

If you are unable to identify all of the trees in your woods, contact your local county extension office or state-run Stewardship Incentive Program. The experts from these offices can assist you in identifying your trees and in determining the next stage of the forest plan ? deciding what percentage of your forest you want to harvest, how much income you can gain and what percentage will be left to mature for future use.