Small Woodlot Management

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Sometime within the next two to three years, I plan to clear-cut that area, leaving some of the low-branched oak trees for seed trees and wildlife food trees and cutting out the small black ash trees. I will also select-cut the mature oak and black ash trees from the rest of both woodlots, selling enough to pay for milling the rest of them. This wood will be used for remodeling projects and boardwalks over swampy areas in both woods. Any part of the trees not used for saw logs will be used for firewood.

In clear-cutting the west side, we should be able to get oak and aspen regeneration in that area, improving the biological diversity of our woodlot.

Over the next few years, as I have time, I plan to cut trails thorough my seven-acre woodlot, first along my property lines, then meandering through the woods, building boardwalks across the wet areas. I will remove dead trees for firewood, again leaving about three or four trees per acre for the wildlife. If the trees don't keep dying faster than I burn them, I will then select-cut trees for firewood.

Implementing the Plan: Timber Harvests—A Major Tool of Forest Management

Timber harvesting is probably the biggest tool you have for managing your woodlands. By choosing the methods and timing of your harvesting, you will effect the composition of your forests and their wildlife potential for many years to come.

There are four basic methods of harvesting timber. Each favors certain trees and certain wildlife and discourages others. Some trees can be managed with more than one harvesting method. Choose your harvesting method based on the trees you wish to regrow, the wildlife you wish to have regrow, and the wildlife you wish to encourage.

Clear-Cut

All my life I have heard of the evils of clear-cutting forests: nice things like erosion, destruction of wildlife habitat, etc. When I began researching how to manage my own woodlot, I was shocked to learn that not only can clear-cutting be beneficial to certain species of trees, it is essential.

Here's an example. The quaking aspen, (Populus tremuloides), is a shade intolerant pioneer species. When clear-cut before the trees are over 60 years old, aspen will sprout quickly from the roots, creating a dense stand of saplings that will grow several feet per year. If it is not clear-cut, or nearly so, about every 60 years, the aspen will die and be replaced by other species of trees.

Where present, quaking aspen can provide quality habitat for many animals such as white-tailed deer and the ruffled grouse, provided it is clear-cut in small patches on a regular basis.
Clear-cutting with proper regeneration is the necessary method of harvesting when: (1) Trees that cannot reproduce or grow well in shade and which do well as an even-aged stand, such as oak and aspen. (2) Forest openings are desired for wildlife or any other time when it is desired to replace trees with other plants.

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