Forest management should be seen as a long term capital investment.  Your land is a fixed asset and standing trees are a variable asset that should be managed.

A wise, future oriented investor will build up an asset to it's optimum value, and then only use the interest, saving the principle intact to insure the future.

In sustainable forest management, a fully stocked stand of trees is the principal, and you can harvest the annual growth as interest on your investment.  The annual growth of a fully stocked stand is the allowable cut in sustainable management.  The forest is maintained at optimum production thoughout the future.

Here at Timbergreen Farm, our forest is made up of many different types of timber on a variety of slopes and aspects.  Full stocking levels range from 2,000 BF(board feet) per acre to 10,000 BF/acre depending on site conditions.  Allowable cut for fully stocked stands ranges from 50 BF/acre to 500 BF/ acre.

Unfortunately, none of our stands of timber are in fully stocked condition.  Past timber harvesting done in 1948, well before we bought the farm in 1973, left us with forests in a poor state of productivity.  All the good trees had been removed, and all the poor quality trees had been left to propagate for the future.  Average stocking level was about one third of optimum, and the quality of those trees was very low.

Rebuilding a forest after it has been high-graded is a long and difficult task.  We have gradually improved our timber, and today (1997) we are up to nearly 80% of full stocking on many stands and our quality is better.  Our goal is to reach full stocking levels by the year 2010, at which time we will truly reach sustainable management of our forests.  Our allowable harvest will be about 40,000 board feet per year off of our 200 acres of trees, and will produce a steadily growing income throughout the future.

Management work over the years has been concentrated on two projects:  Non-commercial Timber Stand Improvement (TSI), and commercial harvesting of low grade trees.

TSI: Many weedy and non-productive species inhabit our woods that have been high-graded, grazed and burned in the past.  These species are competitors with valuable crop trees and their offspring, so we eliminate and/or discourage these trees and vines.  Young trees that are too close together need to be thinned so the better ones can grow to maturity.  Stump sprouts need to be cut back to one or two individuals.  Grape vines in particular need to be controlled in many areas to allow crop trees to reach full size. 

TSI is hard work that needs to be done.  This costs time or money, but is essential to rebuilding a forest that has been mis-managed in the past.  After the first big TSI clean up, we constantly keep doing what is needed every time we are out working in the woods.  One of the obvious lessons in TSI is: get them when they are small!  Letting pest trees or vines get our of hand to dominate a forest is extremely costly to remedy.
                          next page