Traditional oak management has been even aged: grow oak until  the trees are merchantable, clear cut, and regenerate more oak.
This approach has never worked well on small private woodlots;  1.  Even aged harvesting is very wasteful.  2. Oak is prone to die from oak wilt.  3.  Oak is easily damaged by windstorms.  4.  Oak regenerates poorly in the forest.  5.  Oak harvests - clear cuts or shelterwood (two step clear cut) are very messy and visually distasteful.  6.  Even age harvests are too long between sales for creating needed landowner income.

SUMMARY:  Red Oak is not a good long term investment due to oak wilt, wind damage, changing markets etc.  It is not a sustainable crop as a single species stand on private forest land.    Natural succession marches on regardless of man's efforts. 
Red Oak is a good tree to grow in a diverse stand of hardwood trees on a Sustainable basis.    It should be managed on an individual tree basis to maximize the benefits as long as possible.  Often we grow a red oak crop tree until it dies of some cause, and then promptly salvage the wood on a regular basis. 
Diversity and Flexibility is the key to long term management of a woodlot.  Make the best of each opportunity.  Manage every tree to produce many benefits over the years.  Manage by monitoring the diameter growth rates of the best crop trees.  See good timber as money in the bank.  Keep an eye on global market trends to harvest during optimum price and demand conditions.  Always manage for the future.    New Sustainable Management info on Oak                    home