How are you managing your woodlot?

[moonwolf]

Thought this might be an interesting thread to get various experiences from homesteaders on how they manage their woodlots?
What specific woods do you choose to burn for firewood?
What you leave behind in the woodlot for regrowth?
How you manage that for wildlife, or not?
Clearcutting, or selective harvesting?
How much do you cut each year?
Seasoning your firewood?
What appliance do you use for heating or cooking with wood?

Turning woodlot to pasture, or securing a permanent woodlot to manage?
anything else you wish to contribute on how you manage (or not) your woolot?

[Obser]

Moonwolf,

Here are a few observations:

Consult foresters, consult foresters, consult foresters, State (usually no charge) or Private.
Good intentions and "common knowledge" do not necessarily result in good decisions.
Learn to make wise decisions to accomplish what you expect from your woodlot.
A multitude of considerations go into wise decisions a major one is size of woodland.
We cut for firewood only trees that are damaged, disadvantaged or undesirable.
Clear cutting is done for profit or to clear land -- neither are objectives of ours.


Any wood burns -- even softwood or "punky" wood or "junk" species. It may be hard to split or hard to start, it may make sparks or smoke, or it may take a lot of bulk to yield a given amount of heat energy -- but it burns.

[highlands]

Originally Posted by moonwolf

Thought this might be an interesting thread to get various experiences from homesteaders on how they manage their woodlots?

We do sustainable forestry as part of our farmstead.

Originally Posted by moonwolf

What specific woods do you choose to burn for firewood?

I prefer sugar maple / rock maple (hardwood maple). Primarily we burn for our own needs what ever is left over from logging. We don't burn that much wood although we 100% with wood. It just doesn't take much to heat one house.

Originally Posted by moonwolf

What you leave behind in the woodlot for regrowth?

Depends on the section. We have areas of different species. Most areas are a mix of two or more species as that is healthier for the forest.

Originally Posted by moonwolf

How you manage that for wildlife, or not?

Above.

Originally Posted by moonwolf

Clearcutting, or selective harvesting?

Selective cutting almost exclusively. Some patch cuts. Once clear cutting, after the ice storm of 1998 that destroyed hundreds of acres of hardwood maples on our property. We did it in two cuts, an initial salvage, waited five years for regen development from the seed trees we left and then did an over story removal. Heart rending view but in 30 years it will be prime forest again. The deer and moose appreciate it for now.

Originally Posted by moonwolf

How much do you cut each year?

Varies greatly, some years over a thousand cord and tens of thousands of board feet of lumber, other years less.

Originally Posted by moonwolf

Seasoning your firewood?

Dry it for a year or longer.

Originally Posted by moonwolf

What appliance do you use for heating or cooking with wood?

Sam Daniels wood furnace in our basement. In our new tiny cottage that we're building we'll have a much smaller wood stove. Eventually I plan to build a masonry stove.

[QUOTE=moonwolf]Turning woodlot to pasture, or securing a permanent woodlot to manage?

I'm not quite sure what you are asking there. To turn woods to pasture we clear cut, fence and graze animals. I don't bother removing stumps. Time, animals and natural decay will do the job retaining the nutrients.

Originally Posted by moonwolf

anything else you wish to contribute on how you manage (or not) your wood lot?

It takes time. Plan very long range.

[ricky]

started a plan today. we have a small wood lot less than 10 acres. the plan is to keep us in fire wood for the rest of the time we live here. starting today i am cutting all bad trees with damage and trees that are growing side ways . next step is to cut trees that are on top of each other. leaving the brush in piles for the rabbits. in some areas it will be clean of trees in hope that new seedlings will take off. i am starting simple for now it is only costing me gas, oil and some time time in the woods is great time spent.

[big rockpile]

Our place has been mostly Oak and Hickory.But I've been planting Pines,Walnuts and Cedar.

Out biggest problem is fire,it has damage the older Trees where they are no good for Lumber.So anything that is cut goes for Firewood.

big rockpile

[hillsidedigger]

Being a forester turned surveyor with two, 10 or so acre tracts of land, I can honestly say I have not done much with them except for small parts. Might, someday soon.

Rule of thumb, most places, thin from below for firewood or whatever concentrating the growth on the remaining desirable trees and then ultimately nearly clearcut.

[Ravenlost]

We have a small woodlot (about three acres) and it is the lowest area of our property so not any good for anything else. It's mostly Sycamores, Elms. Water Oaks and a few Cypress trees. We clean up downed trees for firewood and that's pretty much the extent of our management. We seem to have enough downed trees every year to keep us in firewood, although hubby hates to cut up the Elms since they are so hard!

I do have to add that hubby spent most of the summer fighting kudzu. It was planted along the diversion ditch and is spreading into our woodlot. He made good progress this year and is very close to having the kudzu under control.

[DaleK]

We have a forester mark a parcel every year. We have about 200 acres in total. Generally try to selectively cut about 15 acres a year but we usually don't get all the marked trees in a plot done in a year so we're working on two parcels per winter. Then depending what we get out we'll have a log auction, sell the shaver logs separately, then veneer, then depending what prices are like either sell pulpwood, process it to sell as firewood, or get some sawed up for lumber to put in the barn. We burn the tops and whatever else can't be sold. Right now I'm burning poplar tops from some logs we used for lumber, got hickory and ash tops to cut up soon. Got some maple/basswood/mixed hardwoods to cut this winter and hopefully next year we'll thin a 15 acre pine plantation. Don't always assume you want to cut out the crooked trees, sometimes they're the exact ones you need to leave to seed an area. Biggest mistake people make is leaving the trees too long before they cut them and losing the value on hollow/rotten logs.

[CowboyBunny]

What specific woods do you choose to burn for firewood?
From our woodlot (56 Acres) it is mostly red and white oak with a little cherry and soft maple thrown in.

What you leave behind in the woodlot for regrowth?
At this time we only cut dead standing trees for firewood. As the mature oaks are slowly dying off the soft maples are coming up behind. Do have plans to select cut live oaks this winter.

How do you manage that for wildlife, or not?
We concentrate on deer populations. Have plans to clear out some food plot areas and plant around those areas with pines. We also want to leave enough oaks for acorn production, two of three border properties have been clear cut within the last 5 years so ours is the only acorn source.

Clearcutting, or selective harvesting?
We plan to select harvest about 100 or so oak trees this winter to make room for food plots, plan to have the logging work done with horses.

How much do you cut each year?
6-7 cords

Seasoning your firewood?
No need with the dead standing but we are usually a year ahead so it does season for a year.

What appliance do you use for heating or cooking with wood?
Currently heat whole house with a quadra fire woodstove, are getting ready to add a wood furnace in the basement to heat the basement with.

Have to add that I don't think I could ever go back to living without wood heat!
Tami - Heritage Corner Poultry

[Ole Man Legrand]

I have had a lot of oaks and pines blow over in the past few years. WE cut them up for fire wood. I would like to replant the 10 acres with some thing that grows fast and would be good fire wood. Help would be appreciated. Jay

[minnikin1]

Our woodlots were logged heavily before we bought them.
One woodlot was logged around 12 years ago. The other was logged closer to 3 years ago.

The one that was most recently logged has so many tops lying around that we've been cutting seasoned wood from there for the past several years. Finally, this year, the tops are flattened to the ground and are rotting - no longer good for burning.
We're taking standing dead and diseased trees, but we make sure to leave a few dead trees for the wildlife.

Our ultimate aim is to have a mixture of old and new growth, and although we have mostly hardwoods, we are encouraging several pine stands for turkey habitat and for future lumber.

We like ash best for burning and so we like to clear around good healthy ash trees, making space for them to seed the next generations.

We are reworking the sugar bush area to allow more light for better sap runs.

Several sections were reserved to keep as purely recreational areas - one around a small pond, and another along a field edge. We will mow beneath those trees to keep it "park-like".

We are adding nuts for us, and we want to increase the beech and oaks for wildlife.

[BeckyW]

Great thread. Thanks for your wise counsel everyone!
BW