Sustainable Management - page 2
Traditional Oak management has attempted to force the forest to produce a specific product for the needs of the timber industry.  Managing the forest for immediate demands of the industry has resulted in widespread degradation of the forests in this region.  Sustainable management on the other hand works to maximize the long term natural production of the forest.  Markets for all sustainably harvested products  need to be developed by the industry to support future oriented management.

Oak regeneration harvests are very wasteful, both of current growing stock and future growth potential of many trees.  Regeneration harvests are very distasteful aesthetically to private forest owners.  Oak wilt, Gypsy Moth preference, and damage from windstorms makes red oak a very high risk crop.  Investing only in a single tree species is foolish.  Timber is a slowly growing crop that has quickly changing markets, so diversity in species, sizes, and ages offers many advantages to the forest owner. 

High value stands of primarily oak timber or central hardwoods will be managed to maximize the production of the current inventory of the best crop trees.  In stands where oak wilt is active, often crop trees will be allowed to grow as large as possible, until they die, and then promptly salvage the trees.  Annual salvage and "taking the next live tree also harvest" has been found to greatly slow the spread of oak wilt patches.  Crop tree release harvests are currently producing a good variety of natural regeneration, including a significant percentage of oak.  These stands will be allowed to gradually succeed to climax species.  North slopes will convert to climax forest more quickly than flat or south slope land where oak will regenerate more readily.  Some large oak trees would be very desirable in nearly all stands throughout the future.

The Future Goal:  A fully stocked forest.
A future vision of what a mature fully stocked stand of valuable timber must  be developed for each major forest area.  This will be our goal to work for over the years.  Habitat Type Classification will be used to know what type of forest would best use the site.  Natural succession of native species will be encouraged as time progresses. 

Each forest area will be developed into a fully stocked stand of high quality trees that are appropriate to local site conditions.  A fully stocked stand will have a variety of naturally occurring tree species, ages, and sizes that together occupy the site to fully use the available water, light and nutrients.  All aged management will be used for the forest as a whole, though small groups of trees or limited areas may be managed with even aged treatment for specific purposes (i.e. disease control or regeneration on North slope)

Valuable crop trees will be managed to grow in diameter between 1/4" and 1/2" per year with a 1/8" and 1/4" annual growth ring.  Crop trees will be grown to economic and biologic maturity based on their risk of surviving until the next harvest cycle and individual tree vigor, though many large wolf trees or prairie remnant trees will be allowed to grow naturally through the rest of their lifecycle.  High quality hardwood and pine trees may be grown to 30"-36" or larger if individual tree risk and vigor allows.  The Timbergreen Crop Tree Spacing Guide is used as a general rule for crop tree spacing.  This gives suggested spacing between crop trees of the same size, though smaller trees and regeneration would be common between crop trees.      next page