One Approach to Tending the Young Hardwood Forest

by David Smallwood of Marlbank, ON

In Eastern Ontario the farm woodlots are part of the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Forest Region (sometimes referred to as the northern hardwoods). This region takes in parts of the northeastern United States, parts of the Great Lake States and southern portions of eastern Canada from New Brunswick in the east through to southeastern Manitoba.

Hard (sugar) maple, basswood, yellow birch, red maple, red oak, white birch, eastern white pine, eastern white cedar, and red pine are some of the species commonly found in this region.

It is important to understand the history of a woodlot in order to properly maintain it today. The general history of the forests of Eastern Ontario begins with their first commercial exploitation in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Britain’s traditional Baltic supply of timber had been cut off by Napoleon. Britain looked west to her colonies in Canada to supply her needs. White pine for masts and oak for ships hulls were the earliest targets of the lumberjack.

After that initial harvest came the square timber trade. White pine were cut down, hand hewn with axes into squares (long timbers) where they were felled, transported by horse and sleigh or oxen to waterways where they were driven downstream in the spring to larger rivers. The squared timbers or sticks would be assembled into rafts. Rafts on the Ottawa and St. Lawrence rivers would contain 1500 sticks of timber and be crewed by 50 men. The rafts were taken to Quebec City where they were disassembled and loaded on to ships for Europe.

In the mid 1800’s, the westward expansion of the United States saw unprecedented amounts of sawn timber and roundwood being sent south from Eastern Ontario to assist with the associated building boom.

People thought that forests would last forever. By the 1920’s it was reported that so little of the original forest cover remained that many farmers had difficulty obtaining enough fuelwood for cooking and heating. Some parts of the country suffered terrible erosion due to the depletion of forest cover. It is not uncommon to dig through up to two metres of blow sand to find the original A horizon of soil in some locations in Eastern Ontario.

Also, up until the 1930’s, large and repeated forest fires were reported throughout the region. In some cases this depleted soil nutrients and added to erosion problems. Fire also assisted with the establishment of pine and oak by exposing mineral soil and eliminating vegetative competition.

My own woodlot has suffered from past “poor practices.” My neighbour told me that he had purchased the property in the early 1940’s. The winter he acquired the land he also bought a truck. He proceeded to cut enough trees off the property to pay for both. His next plan of action was to pasture cattle in the woodlot. The woodlot was pastured into the 1970’s.

Pasturing livestock has an extremely negative impact on the forest. Soil compaction, trampling and grazing of seedlings and damage to older trees all result. It is claimed by the USDA that one acre of improved pasture is worth from 5-25 acres of woodland pasture.

When I first purchased the 95 acre woodlot in 1992, I visualized a never ending supply of fuelwood and potential sawlog production in the future. As a forest professional, I liken my woodlot to the “mechanics car.” It is a “fixer upper” that gets me where I need to go.

Because the cattle had been allowed in the woodlot for such a long time the overstory is predominantly ironwood (Ostrya virginiana) with scattered mature hard maple. Ironwood is about the only tree here that a cow won’t eat. The other result of the pasturing is a heavy grass cover. Ironwood and hard maple are capable of seeding through the grass, but oak, basswood, black cherry, white pine and other species require exposed mineral soil or a combination of humus and soil as well as greater light conditions to establish and grow.

Ironwood is a slow growing tree with very dense wood. It is unusual to see an ironwood tree greater than 10 inches in diameter and 30 feet tall here. Ironwood makes excellent fuelwood, once it is seasoned, due to its density. The buds provide food for rutted grouse and deer will occasionally browse seedlings. The wood is used for tool handles.

A healthy woodlot in this neighbourhood should have a variety of tree species and a variety of size/age classes present.

Wildlife requirements should also be taken into account. We try to retain on average 2-3 mast trees (any tree that will produce nuts or berries that wildlife use as food) per acre and 2 cavity trees per acre. It is also important to retain downed woody debris in various stages of decomposition on the forest floor. This provides nesting and feeding opportunities for a variety of wildlife. Decaying wood returns nutrients to the soil and provides seedbeds for a number of tree species.

Removing the livestock eliminated the first problem that was impeding the development of the forest.

To overcome the grass problems, I try to cut my fuelwood in the fall after the trees have stopped growing and before the frost gets in the ground. I ground skid with horses and on the smaller logs I leave the chain long (only where there is no chance of the butt catching a rock or stump) to allow the butts to scarify and expose soil. The larger logs are hooked short to allow some lift and make things easier for the team.

The trees growing season here is from late March to mid/late July. It is important to cease forest operations during this period for two reasons. The trees are considered to have “loose bark” at this time. If you should scrape a tree while felling or skidding another tree at this time the damage will be far greater than in the fall or winter when the sap is not travelling in the tree. Also, by staying out of the forest until late August you are less likely to disturb sensitive wildlife that are nesting/breeding at this time. Besides, there is plenty of farm work to do at that time of the year.

Another problem for us to deal with is an overabundant white tailed deer population. We live close to a winter deeryard. This is an area where large numbers of deer naturally congregate. Winter food is abundant, there is safety in numbers, (there is a greater chance that a predator may get your neighbour and leave you alone) and some protection from the elements is provided. The large blocks of eastern white cedar provide a thermal advantage by providing a windbreak and maintaining a higher ambient temperature due to the evergreen canopy acting as a solar collector. White cedar also provides browsing opportunities. The canopy will actually hold snow, allowing it to sublimate before it has a chance to get to the ground. Less snow on the ground means less energy expended by the deer when moving. Before the snow gets too deep, the deer browse maple seedlings in our woodlot. We don’t mind to see some browsing, everyone has a right to live. Unfortunately, in spots, the browse damage is so heavy it appears as though cattle are still pasturing.

The trick is to get the seedlings up past four feet in height. Where there is abundant good quality hard maple regeneration under the ironwood, we remove four out of five or five out of six ironwood. This sounds aggressive, but it allows maple regeneration to grow up to 20 inches a year in height and be out of danger from browsing within three years. This operation provides us with an average of 4 cord (128 cubic feet per cord) of firewood per acre.

Those areas in the woodlot that are currently showing more species diversity are managed differently. Where the average diameters at breast height are 6’ 8” we apply crop tree selection.

About every 20’–30’ feet the best quality trees are selected and provided with a four sided release. Those trees that are dominant (in or above the main part of the canopy), tall and straight, exhibiting high vigour characteristics, free of disease and have at least one third the total height of the tree as live crown are selected to retain as crop trees. Those neighbouring trees whose crowns touch the crop tree are removed. Trees, like most plants, basically eat sunshine. The more they are allowed to expand their crowns, the more leaves they produce, and more energy will be created to increase diameter growth on the stem.

Once again we skid with the horses. The terrain here is fairly rough and does not lend itself to wheeled skidding arches and forecarts. In order to minimize residual damage we lay out the main skid trails and try to fall the trees at an angle of 45 degrees or less to the trail. The trees are topped in the bush and the tops are lopped down to within three feet of the ground. This helps speed up decomposition and maintains some downed woody debris on the forest floor. We use cables and self-releasing snatch blocks to reach into the bush and get the felled timber out to the main skid trail. Once the trees are on the main skid trail we hook short with chains or tongs and move the logs to a landing where they are processed into fuelwood.

The system of using snatch blocks and cables takes a little more time but the residual damage is minimized. The idea is that this is a tending operation in a young, relatively crowded stand. We hope to improve the productivity and quality of the woodlot and the fuelwood is a welcome by-product of the operation.

The cable and snatch blocks also work well on steep topography where footing for horse and teamster may be a little treacherous.

We will return every ten years to these areas to repeat the process until average diameters increase to 12” at breast height. At that time the management approach will change to increase diversity in size classes and species and the forest will begin to yield a variety of higher value products as opposed to just fuelwood.

The diameter limit cut is an approach that harvests all the trees over a certain diameter. The misguided thought being this will allow the smaller trees a chance to grow. The fact that some of us end up short and bald and others tall and muscular is not all the result of good feed and exercise. Certain genetic traits have been passed down to us. It is the same with maple trees or any species of tree. I once heard the diameter limit cut described as taking the last three place horses of the Kentucky Derby and putting them out to stud and taking win, place and show out and turning them into dog food. It doesn’t make sense. You want to retain those good performers in the woodlot to ensure that they will produce future good performers.

The majority of farm woodlots in this area are used to supplement farm incomes. Maple syrup, sawlogs, veneer, pulp and fuelwood are all products that can be harvested on a sustainable basis. I have seen some farm woodlots liquidated for short-term gain. I guess if it’s a choice between losing the farm or liquidating the woodlot, who am I to judge? If managed properly, the farm woodlot can be relied upon to provide annual revenues.

We do all of the work with horses. My reasons for the equine approach are far from altruistic. I like my horses. I enjoy working with them. Working with horses forces me to concentrate on what I’m doing which gets all the day to day clutter out of my mind. I work with horses because I like working with horses.

This is just one approach to tending a young hardwood stand that fits our circumstances. Different techniques may be required depending on past practices/woodlot history, site conditions, species represented, and long-term goals of the woodlot owner.