Do you plant trees?

[Jstpssng]

Here is an excellent article about why we don't plant many trees after a timber harvest.

Oh, You’re a Forester…Do You Plant Trees?

While planting trees after logging is common practice in other parts of the country and the world, here in New England tree planting as a part of forestry is unusual. Instead of planting, we typically rely on natural regeneration of trees.

extension.unh.edu

 

[oosik]

I have never replanted when a pine goes down. Five years afterwards I will be aggressively thinning the stand where the pine fell. Thinning from "hair on the dog" to twenty foot spacing.

 

[kenmbz]

Good article, but invasives and introduced insects are throwing the forests out of balance.

I am planting some common area trees to replace all the dead ash from EAB. The new ash coming up will not survive and repopulate with EAB still in the area.

Wish I could save some Ash seed for 20 years down the road when maybe they will have a chance. But we won't be a predominately ash forest again, maybe ever.

 

[Jstpssng]

Good article, but invasives and introduced insects are throwing the forests out of balance.

I am planting some common area trees to replace all the dead ash from EAB. The new ash coming up will not survive and repopulate with EAB still in the area.

Wish I could save some Ash seed for 20 years down the road when maybe they will have a chance. But we won't be a predominately ash forest again, maybe ever.

I know what you mean. I was just reading an article about the southern pine beetle, which was just discovered in the southern tip of the state. The EAB is just starting to work it's way in here but eventually will do to ash what blight did to the Chestnut 100 years ago.

Invasives are something we'll have to learn to deal with. Sometimes it's a lost cause, like when honeysuckle gets established near a stream. Once they start dropping berries into flowing water it's almost impossible to get rid of it.

 

[Oaktree]

I have never replanted when a pine goes down. Five years afterwards I will be aggressively thinning the stand where the pine fell. Thinning from "hair on the dog" to twenty foot spacing.

Pines (and other evergreens) around here don't come back from a stump like most hardwoods do. Still, they do re-establish rather quickly.

I know what you mean. I was just reading an article about the southern pine beetle, which was just discovered in the southern tip of the state. The EAB is just starting to work it's way in here but eventually will do to ash what blight did to the Chestnut 100 years ago.

Invasives are something we'll have to learn to deal with. Sometimes it's a lost cause, like when honeysuckle gets established near a stream. Once they start dropping berries into flowing water it's almost impossible to get rid of it.

Yeah, ask any southerner about kudzu. Yet home & garden shows/magazines still promote non-native shrubbery.

Elms are another tree that mostly got wiped out in the early 20th century. I have a few on my property, they get to a certain size, and go from apparently healthy to dead in a matter of months.

 

[Jstpssng]

Elms are another tree that mostly got wiped out in the early 20th century. I have a few on my property, they get to a certain size, and go from apparently healthy to dead in a matter of months.

I have a few also, but they never get to log size. I would like to saw one, just to see what it's like.

 

[TractorTYMe]

We've had some many old growth trees come down on our houses and vehicles the last 2+ years due to high winds, we will not plant ANY tree within 120 feet of a structure.

 

[newbury]

I started planting trees for pay about 1965 in Essex Jct., Vt. A bunch of us high schoolers would get dropped off by our parents at a local tree farm and put bare rooted Christmas tree seedlings in dirt. Pay was minimal, maybe $1/hr. My back would not let me do it today and just THINKING about it hurts.
About 1978 I bought 75 acres in Vermont and planted about 2 acres of seedlings. Now I tend to just let the trees grow.
We have about 400 acres of forest in Mississippi. Most obtained after about 10 years of growth after clearing-cutting and obtained about 10 years ago. It's a lot easier to just let it regenerate naturally.

 

[Bill Guenthner]

Here is an excellent article about why we don't plant many trees after a timber harvest.

Oh, You’re a Forester…Do You Plant Trees?

While planting trees after logging is common practice in other parts of the country and the world, here in New England tree planting as a part of forestry is unusual. Instead of planting, we typically rely on natural regeneration of trees.

extension.unh.edu

Natural regeneration works if they leave some mature trees, and ideally enough mature trees to support a sustainable squirrel population. Unfortunately what I see is people cutting everything the mill will buy.

 

[Jstpssng]

Natural regeneration works if they leave some mature trees, and ideally enough mature trees to support a sustainable squirrel population. Unfortunately what I see is people cutting everything the mill will buy.

That's a landowner's choice... often because they waited too long before cutting anything. Trees need light to grow. Most forestland here has been cut before at some point; supposedly 100 years ago 90% of the state was cleared.