This John Deere 490 harvester quickly thins a pine plantation with great efficiency.  Here we take two rows and leave two rows, because the trees were originally planted too closely.  This 35 year old stand had about quit growing in diameter due to the over crowded conditions.  This thinning was 15 years late, and it will take a while for the trees to get growing again.

This machine cuts one to three trees, tips them over, strips the branchs off, cuts the tree into logs and leaves them in piles throughout the stand.  A pre-hauler then comes through the woods, picks up the piles of logs, carries them out to the road, and stacks the logs onto a waiting semi-trailer for the trip to the mill.  Pulpwood for paper and sawbolts for pallet lumber are sorted.

After the first row thinning, it is essential that the next thinning will be made in about 5 years to take the smaller and poorly formed trees from the remaining rows of trees.  The goal is to produce the best big trees as quickly as possible.  We watch how the tree crowns grow together to use the available light, as well as how quickly the trees grow in diameter, to determine how many trees to cut each harvest.  A crop tree spacing of 30 feet apart should be attained as soon as possible, with each tree growing in diameter about 1/2 inch per year.  Veneer quality logs  on final crop trees is anticipated.

Many plantations have volunteer hardwood trees that are now mixed in  with the pine.  We love to save a good oak or cherry whenever possible.  Here an oak tree is marked green for protection and all surrounding pine are marked orange for cutting.  Variety is very beneficial in every forest, and should be fostered.  Insect and disease problems can wipe out a one species forest, so diversity can be good insurance against catastrophe.  Despite the man-made origin of this stand, we will soon develop a natural forest here.

Always save the good big trees when thinning a forest - they are the best producers.  Our pine harvester understands this and cooperates with us as we work to grow large high value crop trees.  These pine will reach 30" diameter in about 40 more years with proper harvesting.  more      home