Jay Heinrichs - Woodlot Management

By Jay Heinrichs

As the demand for renewable resources such as trees escalates, and as rules for taking wood out of government land get stricter, the forest industry predicts that it is going to turn more to the smallwoodlot owner for forest products. That will mean higher prices for wood, and more intensive lobbying for woodlot tax relief.

If you own less than ten acres of forest, you may not find it practical to manage your woods for timber production. But you can produce healthier, faster-growing trees and supply more wood for your stove. In addition, a few exceptionally valuable old hardwood trees might be worth a loggers trouble to remove them individually and could bring you a tidy sum.

Most woodlots are overcrowded, with competition among the trees so intense that the wood grows about half as fast as it could. Without careful management, opportunities for recreation are diminished, and the forest does not support the wildlife that it could.

There are people who say you should walk softly on the land and take care not to disturb the natural balance of the forest. These same people will tell you to cut only what you need from your forests and let nature take care of itself. Well, if humans had never walked the earth, this system of forest management would work just fine. But in most wooded tracts in the United States, the natural balance has been seriously upset, and a great deal of work is necessary to set it right.

There is a real temptation to avoid the long wait for trees to grow valuable. But using your woodlot just for burning or selling firewood for a fast buck can be like burning your dining room furniture to cook dinner. It pays to plan ahead. That is what this bulletin is for: to offer advice on how to have your woodland home and heat it, too. We will outline sound forestry practices for managing your woodlands for fuel wood, timber, maple sugaring, or recreational uses. Finally, we will point you in the direction of some additional help available to you, the owner of a woodlot.

Even with a relatively small woodlot, you can produce enough wood to heat your home forever. Exactly how small it can be depends on the energy efficiency and size of your home, and the efficiency of your stove. In the old days, when wood was there for the taking, inefficient stoves and fireplaces burned wood in large, drafty houses at the rate of ten to fifteen cords per year. But the average modern house in a northern climate can now be heated year-round with only three to eight cords.

The growth rate per acre in most forests is between one-quarter and three-quarters of a cord per year, depending in part on the climate, soil, kinds of trees, and the degree of management. In much of the East, for example, the volume of wood in the forests doubles every ten to twenty years. If it is harvested under intensive-management techniques, a good crop of trees can be obtained on the same woodlot every twelve to fifteen years. Most foresters say that a vast majority of woodlots in this country could double the amount of wood they produce if cared for properly. Some of the management techniques include thinning, selective cutting, planting faster-growing species of trees, and harvesting trees before they become overmature and slow their growth rate. Many trees send out shoots from stumps, which develop into fast-growing trees whose root systems are already established. Usually, these sprouted trees do not grow straight and tall for timber production, but they make perfectly good firewood.

In short, a carefully managed woodlot need be only five acres or more to give you year-round fuel for heating and cooking. If your woodlot is larger, you might have enough wood left over to sell some firewood. If it is larger than ten acres, you should get professional or governmental help and consider managing it for timber. But before you do anything to your woods, you should go see what you have.

Part of a good forest inventory involves making sure the trees you cut are yours. So, if you have not done so already, get your neighbors to walk along the borders of your lot with you. In many woodlots, boundary corners are marked with metal rods or small piles of rocks. Mark the boundaries themselves by painting boundary trees; but if you do, use quick-drying enamel or a caulking compound. Aerosol paint can lead to decay in trees. Use aerosol spray only to mark trees that are about to be cut. Be especially careful to mark the points where the boundary lines change direction.

The Soil Conservation Service in the U.S. Department of Agriculture can supply you with a map or aerial photos that can give you a general idea of the shape of your woodland, and should tell something about the kinds of trees on it. Soil maps can tell you how good the land is for growing trees. The agricultural extension agent for your county should be listed in the phone book; he or she can tell you how to get maps and photos.

Now for inventory itself. The most important expertise you need to carry into the woods with you is the ability to distinguish between different species of trees. A good tree guide is indispensable. You cannot beat the Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Trees by Elbert L. Little. It comes in both eastern and western region editions.

The best wood for burning is hardwood, found in most braodleaf (decidous) trees. Most of these trees lose their leaves in the winter. Softwood, found in needleleaf (evergreen) and some decidous trees, can also be burned, although the burning qualities of softwood are inferior to those of hardwood. But in some parts of the country, you have no choice you may not have any hardwood.

Although you will do most of your firewood cutting in the late fall and early winter, it is a good idea to take inventory in the spring or summer. That is when the leaves and fruit are on most of the trees, making them easy to identify. You can distinguish a tree by the color, texture, and the smell of its bark; by the characteristics of its leaves, fruit, and twigs; and by the shape and size of the whole tree.

In the spring and summer, you can identify trees by their seeds and leaves. Here is a sampling of some good timber trees.

Here a black walnut is identified. Notice the scaly bark, the compound leaves, the alternate buds on the twig, the characteristic fruit and flowers.

It is very important to be able to identify your trees. If you fail to recognize an enormous black walnut and burn it for firewood, for example, you could put yourself out of several thousand dollars. If you are considering managing your woods for timber or pulp production, choice species include white ash, basswood, yellow birch, black cherry, cucumber tree, the southern cypresses, Douglas fir, white and northern oak, white and red pines, many of the southern pines, sugar maple, sweet gum, and yellow poplar. In the Pacific Northwest, western red cedar is prized for making shingles and shakes.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said that a weed is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered. Many trees that are not valuable today may bring good prices a few decades from now, so it helps to be cagey and to consult a good forester. But some species probably will never sell well among the timber and pulp industries. Species that do not have much of a market as timber, but make excellent firewood, include beech, sweet birch, box elder, the buckeyes, butternut, cottonwood, the elms, hackberry, tupelo, and others. If you dont mind taking down some beautiful trees, you can cut quaking aspen, grey birch, pin cherry, flowering dogwood, American holly, ironwood (eastern hop hornbeam), American hornbeam, and rose-bay rhododendron for firewood.