1 • Sawmill & Woodlot

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Management Planning

Part 4

D o-it-yourself woodlot management is full of heartychallenges and doing it well is very rewarding. Wehave covered safety issues and personal firewood

along with harvesting sawlogs and project wood in pastinstallments. In this installment, we will look at yourforest from a management planning perspective.Discerning the distinction between culturing an imma-ture stand and regenerating a mature or low-qualityone is critical and takes a broader look at your priori-ties. We will also consider when it makes sense to hiresomeone else to perform certain tasks.If you have followed me through the maze of safely

extracting your firewood and a few sawlogs from yourwoodlot—and I know some of you have been doingthis for decades—then back out with me to 10,000 feetelevation for a look at your lot. What are you reallydoing? Why is it important? Are you actually accom-plishing something? While some of us would ratherjust go out and cut some wood, we should be workingsmarter, rather than harder.Creating a management plan for your woodlot is an

important step and should be done before you exert alot of effort. We all have a plan, though it might not bewritten down. It might be as simple as “I plan on notdoing anything” or “I can get my tractor into this sec-tion for my firewood, but not that section.” This mightbe good enough for a small woodlot. A written planoften starts with a woods-walk and a back-of-the-enve-lope sketch. But it can be much more complicated onlarge ownerships, or if the plan allows for certification

as a tree farm, or eligibility for preferred tax status. Atsome point, the advice of a professional forester maybe warranted. A forest plan is a tool. Do you buy good tools or off

the bargain shelf? Do you keep your tools clean, oiled,and sharp? A professional plan is also like architecturaldrawings. You might build a shed from a sketch on apiece of graph paper, but a whole house has to beplanned for pouring concrete, drainage, plumbing, andstructural elements along with aesthetic appeal andtraffic flow. It is the same for your forest plan. On a 10-acre woodlot for personal firewood harvesting, decidingto cut lower-value trees to grow premium hardwoodson the accessible portion might be an adequate plan touse your lot effectively. For larger properties, a forestplan will delineate different forest types and determinepriorities and practices for each area. This is like a setof blueprints for where to start, how to assemble thepieces, and what the final product will be like. It alsotakes into account the flow of traffic, things likedrainage and the order of operations just as an architectwould. A plan is like a tool in that it is used, kept sharpand ready, and assists with accomplishing your goals.

GoalsMany forest landowners have never really thoughtabout their goals. They might have vague notions thatland is a good investment or interests in a place tocamp or hunt. Sometimes land is purchased as an inci-dental part of a home or vacation place with little

D.I.Y. LoggingPart 4

W O O D L O T M A N A G E M E N T

by Robbo Holleran

D.I.Y. Logging

Oct/Nov 2019 • 2

thought to the details. Before you can really formulateforestry goals you have to have some idea of howforests work, and your options with these particularacres. And we often have very different plans for simi-lar woodlots with different owners and goals. As men-tioned in this series, you have a far wider range ofoptions if you are doing the work yourself. The basic range of goals includes aesthetics, recre-

ation, wood products, wildlife habitat, and present andfuture income, along with other ideas. These can beconflicting. And your goals might vary from one area toanother. For example, aesthetics might be most impor-tant near the house, and inconsequential “way outback.” Aesthetics and recreation are often linked, andthe trails are the way we interface with the land. Thiswill be worked out differently for snowmobiling com-pared to summer walks. And beauty is in the eye ofthe beholder: Active management is always somewhatmessy, but if you are aware of the benefits of thinningand group selection (for example), then you are goingto see the big picture instead of just the stumps andbranches.Wildlife habitat is a whole thought process. Many

owners have a vague idea that they are protecting landfor the benefit of wildlife, but we need to understandthe attributes of the forest, which species benefit, andwhich might find what they need on our land.Benefitting wildlife in general involves creating habi-tat diversity, which includes looking beyond your bor-ders to see what is abundant and what is missing. Asan example, if you live in an orchard area, planting sixapple trees will not make much difference. A crispgoal of benefitting certain species, or species groups, isfar easier to consider. Deer are a popular example.Whitetail deer have a home range of about a squaremile, or 640 acres. Ideally, all their habitat needs willbe met within this area. If you own 30 or even 300acres, you need to look around (on aerial photos) to seewhat is around. If a neighbor has a great deer winterarea with dense hemlocks, then creating winter coveris not really critical. Grouse have about a 10-acre homerange, so any owner can influence the neighborhoodfor them. So, understanding the home range and habi-tat needs of target species is the place to start withwildlife goals. Short-term cash vs. long-term value is a main

conundrum of forestry. The best trees to grow for thefuture may be the most valuable trees to cut today,especially in immature middle-aged stands. Harvestingthe lower-value trees to improve the future value doesnot provide “quick cash.” And rarely, if you cut themost valuable trees, will the remaining trees be thebest trees to grow for the future. Have you heard theexpression: “We’ll cut the big ones to let the littleones grow”? This is seldom a good idea. This is wherethe financial decisions are made. It can be boiled downto this: If the stand is mature, then the key will be to

harvest in a way that maximizes the revenue and cre-ates desired regeneration for the next forest. If thestand is immature, then the future value should bedeemed more important and the stand tended to growtoward its maximum future value. But most stands aremore complex with perhaps two or more age classes orspecies that mature at different times. Decisions needto be made on different stands around the property,and even on different components of each stand, andeventually on each tree. Each tree will have its owngrowth rate, risk factors, and expected future value. Often, we have a combination of goals with an over-

all strategy of harvesting mature and defective stems,releasing desired growing stock or regeneration, creat-ing new regeneration where none is present, and creat-ing some diversity for both wildlife value and foresthealth.

Forest StandsForest areas with different attributes are often dis-cerned on a map as an essential element of a plan. Astand is an area of fairly uniform site, species mix, andage/size distribution that can reasonably be treated as asilvicultural unit. Location and access may be a consid-eration, along with ownership size. On a small woodlot,areas of a few acres may be considered differentenough for individual treatment. On larger properties,stands may be a hundred acres or more. We have toconsider the purpose of the stand in the managementplan context. We are deciding what to do and when todo it. With that in mind, it gives some direction forwhen to “lump” and when to “split.” For example, animmature stand that will not have any treatment, eventhough it varies from hardwood on one end to soft-woods on the other, might be lumped together intoone stand. As it matures, it might be split. A middle-aged hardwood area that varies from lower-quality redmaple and beech on one end, to higher-value sugarmaple and oak on the other might be split:Regeneration-cutting the low-quality zone might be

Caption for; A nice shot of an overstocked standwith quality potential. This is a priority for thinning.

appropriate compared to thinning in the higher-qualityzone. You can see that mapping forest stands has some-

thing to do with the practices that will be applied andwill be impacted by the overall and specific goals andthe practices available to the owner. Assessing thesestands can be quite complex, especially for compliancewith current use taxation guidelines or for detailedinventory purposes. You probably need the help of aconsulting forester for this. Most states have county orextension foresters that can give you limited advice forfree. We normally assess the species composition andwhat species will be appropriate for these soils, thecondition of the overstory for age, size, total stocking,percent of acceptable vs. low-quality trees in certaincategories of size and species, and condition of theunderstory or ground cover. We have technical tools todetermine forest stocking and other detailed measure-

ments. Sometimes we are measuring for volume ofproducts and applicable values for a full inventory. Butthe basic concept of what to do could be assessed witha set of decisions. Is the stand mature, overmature, or defective? If

yes, regenerate in the appropriate manner.If no, the stand should be immature with acceptable

species and quality for the site with managementoptions. So, the next question is: Is the stand at leastadequately stocked with acceptable trees? If yes, it con-firms the stand is worth managing and perhaps can besimply left to grow. If not, then the stand is likely inthe process of regenerating and we will consider thatoption. Is the stand overstocked with a commercial vol-ume to be harvested? Here, you have to define com-mercial volume. If you are cutting firewood with a trac-tor, it does not take too much, but if you have to offer atimber sale, there are accepted requirements. If thestand is overstocked, some sort of harvesting is appro-priate to release desired trees to grow. If the stand isunderstocked and regenerating, are the young treesdesirable for the site? Are they free to grow or sufferingfrom overhead shade? Here we get into the importantdiscussion of whether the sparse overstory is a betterbet than the understory, and there are options to main-

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November 13, 2019

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Below: The Stowell photo view is big, but makes agood view for the article. It might take a full half ofa page. I could add a detailed caption to make itworthwhile xxxxxxxxxx xx xxxx xxxxxx. I could adda detailed caption to make it worthwhilexxxxxxxxxx xx xxxx xxxxxx.

3 • Sawmill & Woodlot

tain some of each. Diverse and multiple-aged stands aremore complex, and each portion is treated with thesame questions. In the big picture though, you need todecide how the expected treatments within that“stand” fit into your overall priorities. Over-mature andhigh-risk sections with disease would usually be thehighest priority. Overstocked areas with quality poten-tial would be next.All this goes into the final forest plan and map. The

map includes features such as types of boundaries,streams, main trails, forest stands, and important land-marks like wetlands or other limitations. The writtenplan includes the stand description (which may have aset of technical data) and the treatment that is pre-scribed. It should also have the year of expected treat-ment, or the priorities as high, medium, or low. You cansee that a full, technical forest plan and map might beone area where professional help might be worthwhile.In many states, a forest management plan, prepared

to certain standards, will qualify your parcel for lowerproperty taxes, and this can be considerable savingssuch as 80%–95% for the forested portion. This iscalled current use taxation or something similar, andeach state has requirements for eligible acreage (usual-ly 10 to 50 acres as a minimum) and whether farmlandor nonproductive land can be enrolled. There can besignificant strings attached, such as allowing the state aright of first refusal if you ever sell the land(Massachusetts) or penalties for withdrawing and con-verting to non-forest use. The state will have some sayover approving your plan and proposed practices, butthey are usually reasonable. With a full forest management plan, you can be sure

your efforts are directed toward specific goals and youare working your way through your highest priorities.A good plan can also point out what is reasonable foryou to accomplish, compared to opportunities to hiresome help or for a commercial sale. For example, on a50-acre woodlot, the plan indicated that most of thearea has about 10 cords per acre of excess wood, sothat is 500 cords. Further, the growth rate adds another40 cords per year, though about 25 of that is currentlyrotting. So, the landowner’s process of cutting 20 cordsper year is not going to accomplish the overall goal. Wefound the area with easy access and terrain for thetractor, near the house, to designate for personal fire-wood, and brought in a contract logger to make thefirst pass through the rest of it. After this first thinning,we still have 40 cords per year of growth for continualfirewood salvage, with reduced mortality and betteroverall quality.The next thing to hire out is access improvement

such as truck roads and logging trails. On gentle ter-rain, you can get a tractor around merely by cleaningup debris and cutting stumps low. With steep or roughground, a small tractor is just not adequate for buildingtrails. Hiring an excavator may be justified to increaseyour reach into the forest. Having a suitable log-sorting

area for big logging trucks is critical for commercialsales. Once you get beyond personal firewood, youneed to be able to accumulate and sort large truckloadquantities of wood, with a solid, level area wheretrucks can be loaded. An excavator or bulldozer will beneeded, along with gravel and culverts in many cases.On larger lots, extending a truck road back into thewoods can have many benefits. I worked on an 800-acre lot (over a square mile) where the landowner hadbuilt a truck road looping through the whole lot, soalmost every acre was within 1/4 mile of the road. Thismade forest improvement much easier with short skid-ding distances. Access improvement should also bepart of your forest plan. It is part of the order of opera-tions. You might cut some accessible wood and thenbuild a road, bridge or trails to get to the next section.There may be forestry reasons to do the back of thelot first, such as the stocking level or rate of mortality,but you can’t get there from here. Forest work is hard,so you might as well work smart! n

ROBBO HOLLERAN is a private consulting foresterhelping landowners meet their goals in Vermontand adjacent areas. His work has him outdoorsabout 150 days each year, plus play time. He is oneof the authors of the new Silvicultural Guide forNorthern Hardwoods.

Oct/Nov 2019 • 4