Low Impact Sustainable Forestry – By Ryan Willock
What is Low Impact Sustainable Forestry? To me that means maintaining an intact canopy with an uneven aged stand of mixed tree species that is beneficial to both wildlife and humans. In my opinion if it is not both economically sustainable as well as environmentally sustainable then it’s not going to be either for long. By that I mean if the timber is not giving a monetary return, then eventually someone will convert it to another use.
So how do we manage timber land for long term sustainability? What I believe to be the best way in most cases is “individual selection” where we evaluate each tree as to determine health, maturity and form, as well as species. The idea is to go into the timber stand and look at the overall health of the stand and its species composition to see what you have. You need to think about what your long-term goals are. Is it to strictly maximize profit? Is it to bring maximum benefit to wildlife? How about over all biodiversity? In my case it is to try and achieve a good balance between the two.
PRE-HARVEST PLANNING
Pre-harvest planning is essential to low impact harvest. The steeper the terrain the more important the planning. I like to lay out as few permanent roads as possible. If done properly they can also benefit wildlife by creating travel corridors and possibly even different food sources by planting them into a mix of grasses and forbs as a food plot if you will. It also creates edge habitat in the woods which wildlife love. Logging with my farm tractor and winch allows me to build fewer and smaller roads than when I used to log with conventional skidders. A proper road layout reduces my soil compaction and increases my water quality, both of which I’m very picky about. I do not want sediment reaching a stream. The tractor winch (depending on the model, ours is a Tajfun EGV 55 AHK SG) holds more cable than a regular skidder, which allows me to build fewer roads. The one we use hold almost twice as much cable, so I basically cut my road building by half or a little more.
I will usually walk and mark a stand with paint before starting the harvest. I like to go in and take out the mature trees that are on the way out so to speak. The ones that are just starting to show signs of decline as well as some of the deformed trees and just downright unhealthy ones. However, I feel it is important to try to avoid having a large hole in the canopy as this can allow too much light to reach the forest floor. This is especially important when managing for white oak as it can allow other species to out compete it such as soft maple and poplar.
SAFE AND EFFICIENT LOGGING
I will fell each tree with a chainsaw using directional felling with the open face and bore cut. This is the safest method to fell a tree and also allows me to retain the most control over the tree as it falls thereby minimizing the damage to other trees. At this point I will usually limb and top the tree at the last merchantable log (currently, 10” diameter in my market) and buck it into log length if needed to either reduce stand damage or to make it easier on the tractor/winch in the case of large timber. When I can I prefer to skid tree length as that increases production for the day. All trees skidded tree length will then be bucked (cut into logs) on the landing which is the area that they will be loaded on to a truck to go to the mill. The smaller logs and otherwise non merchantable wood over four inches in diameter we run through our Tajfun RCA 480 firewood processor to add value to an otherwise low to no value item. We will run the processor on days when it is too wet to log.
One of the big benefits of this style of logging is that over the long run I feel that we come out better financially as well. One reason for this is that if one specie is down in price, such as red oak at the moment, I don’t have to harvest it. I can get it later when prices improve. This is not cost effective in a conventional system due to equipment and labor costs with a crew. Where my wife and I log together we just have one tractor to move and possibly my 14,000lbs excavator that we use for road building. We move these with a one ton dually pick up. If you are managing your own land you can harvest on an as needed basis much easier. Meaning if you lose a couple of trees in a storm or a few die you can just cut them and log them out. A crew can’t move for those few trees.
If done right, the timber stand will increase in both quality and volume as time goes by. It will also attract and hold more wildlife than a stand that has not been managed or has been poorly managed. The stand will also increase its aesthetic value as well. What’s the downside? It can be very difficult to find a logger that practices these methods. The good news? You can do it yourself with a comparatively minimal investment assuming you already have a farm tractor.
This is something that most farmers and landowners can learn to do themselves like the Europeans do. This would allow for a much better cash flow and equipment utilization for small farms as this work could be done in winter. Log prices also tend to be better in the winter months as well. If you are unsure where to start reach out to your local state forestry department, they have local foresters that can help you get started.