Clear cut about 4000 tons of pine this year

[hendi_alex]

The pay check coming in was certainly very nice, but was not nearly the highlight of this timber sale for me or my wife. About 40 years ago, my wife's father clear cut approximately 80 acres of mixed hardwood forest on what is now a part of our 130 acre property, half of which is owned by my wife's sister. I have the pleasure of managing the full 130 acres which is 95% or more in timber. When removing this batch of pines (80 acres), we didn't allow the timber company to harvest any hardwood trees. For all of these years that the pines have been growing, a nice mix of oaks and many other hardwood species have been growing under the pine canopy and were actually dominant in the wetter areas So now at long last we are able to watch the mixed hardwood forest begin to re-establish itself. I am now 60 years old, and will devote the rest of my life toward helping this forest become re-established with a broad mix of indigenous trees. The area ranges from sandy, dry land to swampy, clay/silt land. Over the next few years I'll be collecting varous seeds and seedlings and planting them throughout the property. Hopefully, the wife and I will live long enough to see our little parcel covered in the large, graceful trees that naturally dominated this area fifty years ago and earlier. At any rate, it is quite exciting to be stewards of our land and to participate in this very personal project.

[Ozark Lady]

Clear cut, ouch!

We only clear cut, the areas needed for the house, parking, gardens and barns. In this hilly country clear cut, is set up for erosion.

There are beautiful pine trees, all up and down this highway, except on my land, mine is all hardwoods. I keep digging up baby pines, and transplanting them, and they keep dying.

I don't want a pine forest per se, I do want some pine for the deer to have for winter bedding, etc. I am shying away from attempting cedar due to having peach trees, I don't need 'rust' getting going here.

So, I move to get pine, and you support hardwoods.. funny!
But, really we both want a mix... not bald land.
So, we only clear cut, what we must, and try to thin the others for optimum growth.

[hendi_alex]

We clear cut the pines, not the land. When driving buy our property, you don't see clear cut. What you see is a wide mix of young hardwood trees, with the only bare areas being the logging dock areas and the access roads. About 40-50 acreas of our property is still in tree farm planted pines. There are also four swampy areas of perhaps 30 acres that contain mostly mature hardwoods with a scattering of large pine trees. What I expect will happen is that lots of pines, but in a more haphazard mix, will sprout from seed and will fill in the bare areas very quickly. The hardwoods that are left will have a head start on the pines. So in 10-20 years, the forest will revert to primarily an oak/pine mix. Longer term, if left to grow naturally, the pines will die out to be replaced by oaks and hardwood trees.

We have a pipeline that runs at least a half mile across our property, and we also have lots of paved road areas dominated by transitional growth. Finally, approximately five acres transition type of land surrounds our house. Part of our project will be to bring native transition shrubs into those treeless boundaries. We are simply trying to re-establish the forest to its condition prior to the orginal clear cut and coversion to a pine stand. Pines only get established following a fire or other clearing incident. Probably 80-90% of our natural forest here in central S.C. have been either cleared for agriculture or clear cut and planted in monocrop pines. So from my point of view, we don't need any more pines. Animals that rely on that kind of forest have plenty of support. On the other hand, those that rely primarily on a hardwood mix are suffering serious habitat destruction. Our property will be a small haven for those critters, and our property contains swamps that connect to a swampy hardwood corridor that runs for many miles, so the benefit should be fairly significant.

[Ozark Lady]

Swamps?

We have swamps down in southern Arkansas, and gators. I recall having lots of willows and cypress trees there, with the knees sticking up out of the water. Humid, mosquitos, and snakes... but beautiful countryside.

So, do you have gators roaming around?

[rainbowgardener]

What a wonderful project! I also read your clear-cutting title and cringed a little, but then when I read the post, I understood what you are doing. And with a 130 acres to do it on, you can really have an impact.

[hendi_alex]

During my childhood through young adult years, gators had mostly been exterminated in the S.C. mildlands areas. They have made a big come back over the past 20-30 years, but are still limited to ponds, lakes, and the biggest swamps. Our swamps are not swamps in the low land sense. They are more boggy areas, with small creeks moving through during the wet season, and staying somewhat damp or boggy during the dry season. Lots of critters rely on these important areas however. Our wet areas on this property do not contain cypress, but they connect to many other wet areas that do. The wet areas do support a large cast of critters including many isect species, various birds, small and mid sized mamals, reptiles and amphibians. Boggy areas also support many plants that grow nowhere else. IMO, from a naturists point of view, the boggs, swamps, and various wetlands are the most ecologically important land areas on the planet.

[Ozark Lady]

In another forum, a gentleman is trying to get locally grown food to support the island that he lives on. And it was determined that 600 acres could support 13,000 people. This was all organic, and healthy foods.

If 600 acres can support 13,000 people, just imagine how much wildlife 130 acres can support! Also your forestland is being a belt to stop dust bowls from even beginning to happen, so you are impacting a much larger range than your acreage.

How well do hardwoods grow there? I am on the Texas border, and we grow them huge. But, down south in Texas, the trees are wide and short. They just don't get the size and shape that we get. I am not sure if it is the zone, and less winter rest for them, or the heat, or drought, but their trees are just so different from ours.

I recall that you garden pretty much year round with zone 8. So is the less winter there hard on your deciduous trees?

[hendi_alex]

Our average temperatures for December through February are generally upper twenties/lower thirties for low and mid fifties to lower sixties for highs. Given the chance our oaks grow very large, both wide and tall. In a mature forest the trees are so large that it takes at least three or four people to reach around. There are very few of those trees left on our property. We have couple of very old pine trees, that we didn't let the loggers touch. We have just a few oaks that may be over 100 years old. There were quite a few of those old trees in the bog areas until Hugo came through in 1989. Most of those trees went down from the winds, and the wet areas are still recovering from that storm. The result of Hugo was hard to believe, it looked like a nuclear blast had simply blown all of the big trees, especially in wet areas, down.

Rainbowgardener, I chose the title on purpose. Thought that the contrast between the title and the content would be interesting. Plus the clear cutting title (inflammatory IMO) might cause the post to get a few more readers.

[Ozark Lady]

You hate to see the destruction in the wake of storms.

But, those trees were valiant soldiers. With every tree that the storm encountered it lost some force. They did their job, without the trees and other obstacles storms just keep building in intensity, sometimes.

When Louisiana got hit, was it Rita? Anyhow, we got it here too. Not the damage, per se... but the hot, humid air, and strong winds hit us pretty good. I don't know if our temperatures were record breaking, but you noticed a change. It was like we were in Louisiana and never left home! Then Houston got hit, and we got some Texas weather! Very interesting.

I have trees down in a line, right towards my house, and then it just bounced or something, and missed us. And only got one more tree... my barn.. and then it was done for. Sad to see the trees are down, but they did save my house!

[The Helpful Gardener]

Your tactics worked ALex; I came bombing in here to see what capitalistic tree murderer was inciting dissent. Nice to find it was hardly the case...

We need curb our knee jerk reactions to..., well lately it seems like everything. The hard truth of studied and calm assessment is becoming a lost art these days...

HG

[Sage Hermit]

A tree of mine Finally split.
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