Billy wrote in

ct.net.au:

You may want to avail yourself of what ecologically
oriented foresters do. http://www.fscus.org/
There is more to forestry that clear cutting.

indeed! i just had my woods (@ 40 acres) harvested. it worked
like this:
i called one company. the guy comes in, looks at the woods
from the driveway & says: "I can get you $10,000. from that"
i call a second company. they send out their forester he & i
take a walk through the woods. i point out some things i see.
he points out some overcrowding & disease issues. we talk
about wildlife habitat & interesting species of trees &
animals/birds we would like to encourage. he goes back to his
office & writes up a detailed proposal, explaining three
different methods of harvest & their enviromental impact,
which says somewhere near the end that timber value is likely
to be between $7,000 to $9,000.
i hire him & his logger to do the harvest, using the proposal
with the least impact but the most advantage for wildlife
habitat. then i wait for the ground to freeze or snow to fall.
can't cut in my woods unless it's frozen, as i have very wet
soil & it would damage the tree roots except when frozen &
preferably with a good foot or more of snow cover.
i wait over one whole open warm winter, through the summer, &
in December this year (just before my EPA & state permits
expired) it snowed. a lot. and they came & cut the trees.
several times during the process the forester came out & we
went through the woods so he could show me & explain what was
going on. i added a few trees i thought should go (white
pine!) even though they were useless even as pulp. we
discussed leaving a few dead snags as bird/bug hotels, a very
old maple that's just a really cool looking huge old tree,
etc.
i'm very pleased with the results. i have a large number of
veneer maple that will be ready to harvest in 12 more years
(marked so i don't tap them for syrup) & an ideal habitat for
turkey, deer & my endangered Blanding's turtles.
*that* is what a forester does.
lee

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