WOODLOT MANAGEMENT by Robbo Holleran

1 • Sawmill & Woodlot

Most of the private forestmanagement aroundthe Northeast involvesa full range of selective

harvesting options, along with rela-tively small clear-cuts, and sub-stantial reserve areas, in irregularpatterns. The mosaic of owner-ship, with different goals on eachproperty, helps create this pattern.We work with the native species,rarely planting anything. Theresult is rich habitat diversity.

The Parameters of DiversityThe three major types of habitatdiversity provide a full range offood, cover, and conditions for allflora and fauna. First, we have along list of tree and plant species,mostly native (species diversity).Second, we have a range of treediameters, ages, and heights inmany stands (vertical structuraldiversity). And last, we have adja-cent stands with varying ages andcharacters (horizontal structuraldiversity). Also consider that the well-

managed forest will have a mix ofhardwoods and softwoods, withnut-bearing species like oak orbeech, winter cover in hemlock or

spruce, along with both short- andlong-lived species. It will haveregeneration, young trees, middle-aged, and mature stands. It willhave large, old legacy trees withcavities along with some perma-nent openings. And there is alwayssome water nearby—wetlands,seeps, or streams. If we could everfind things to be just right, howcould we keep it that way? Forestsare always changing.Overall, today’s forests fall short

of the ideal. We have only about2% early successional habitat inmost of the Northeast. These arethe areas of young forest, “brush,”raspberries, and prolific herba-ceous plants, created by pastureabandonment, heavy logging, andrare natural disturbances like tor-nadoes. With sunlight nearly hit-ting the ground, these areas arevery productive. Plants and youngtrees in daylight have more nutri-tion for the “plant eaters.” Theplants provide for a range ofinsects for the “bug eaters,” andall these critters benefit the preda-tors, so the whole “food web” ben-efits. We have had more brush-habitat in the past. Since the CivilWar, each generation has been

abandoning substantial portions offarmland to grow into young forest.The last great shot against agricul-ture was the requirement forrefrigerated bulk tanks in the1960s, when thousands of hillfarms in New England gave upmilking, and left their small pas-tures to grow up into ideal habitatin the ’70s and ’80s. These arenow 40- to 50-year-old forests, andthere is not much farmland beingabandoned to grow into youngtrees today.

Room for ImprovementBut since most wildlife biologistsagree that 5% to15% early succes-sional habitat is ideal, there isroom for improvement. The realityis that this habitat has to comefrom aggressive timber harvesting,like clear-cutting, heavy shelter-wood cuts, and large-group selec-tion. With the exception of thelarge industrial tracts in the NorthCountry, clear-cutting is relativelyscarce. According to the VermontDepartment of Forests and Parks,heavy cuts over 40 acres havedropped to about 3,500 acres peryear. This is less than 1/10th of 1%of Vermont’s forestland. Andregeneration cutting is less com-mon in New York andMassachusetts. If these heavy cutsprovide suitable brushy habitat for10 years, they amount to less than1% of the area.

HabitatDiversityThe managed forest is a better place for wildlife.That’s a pretty bold statement with today’s debates

about nature, wilderness, sprawl, and fragmentation.

What happens during theregrowth of these heavy cuts? Theygo through various stages. The firstfew years see herbaceous plants,raspberries, and very small treesgetting started. Then it will bedominated by tree seedlings,sprouts, and saplings, with as manyas 20,000 small trees per acre. Asthe trees grow to about 6 inches indiameter, many stems drop out bycompetition. The density drops toabout 1,000 stems per acre. As thetrees develop into sawlog sizes, 100trees per acre will make up the finalstand—just a tiny percent of theoriginal seedlings. Somewherealong the timeline, daylight comingthrough the main canopy allows anew understory to begin growing onthe forest floor. As the initial over-story meets some kind of demise,the understory can begin to replaceit. If the stand progresses naturally,this may take 200 years or more.Active thinning, release of croptrees, and final harvest can shortenthat to half the time, and recoverwood from trees that were destinedto perish and rot. Active manage-ment also directs this processtoward desirable ends of speciescomposition, stand structure, andvaluable wood products. Each year, throughout these

stages, every species of wildlife willseek the habitat it needs duringthat month. For example, a wholelist of warblers and sparrows nest inthe dense thickets of seedlings oryoung saplings, and young ruffedgrouse chicks hunt for insects inthese thickets in the late spring.After a decade or so, these thicketsgrow into the next stage, so thespecies will migrate to find replace-ment habitat.

Even-aged, Uneven-aged Even-aged is easily explained withthe example of a pine plantation.All the trees are started togetherand grown for a period of time, usu-ally 60 to 100 years. They may bethinned out several times, buteventually they are all cut andreplaced with a new forest. Thefinal removal may be a clear-cut, orless drastically removed in severalcuts over 10 to 30 years. Most ofour post-pasture forests are even-aged. Proper application of even-aged forestry on a landscape levelwould have a balance of age classeswith young, middle-aged, andmature portions.Since many small woodlot own-

ers do not accept the heavy cutsthat end the rotation and start thenext generation of trees, uneven-

aged forestry is preferred—creatinga mixture of several age classesthroughout the stand. Some of thishas happened by accident, but it isa common forestry goal today.Irregular, diverse, even-aged forestsoften have groups of trees that growfaster, or mature earlier, mixed withlonger-lived or slower-growingtrees. When partial cuts are done toremove these groups, such as whitepine, fir, or poplar, and there isenough light to create newseedlings, a new age class isformed. Later, another cut removesgroups of mature or marketabletrees creating a third age class, andso on. This is how uneven-agedforests have been created.How does this allow for diverse

wildlife? Once you have a multi-aged forest, the theory is that thereare always groups of trees that aremature and ready for the next har-vest, along with immature groups inseveral stages. These stands areoften diverse in species compositionand forest structure: large and smalltrees in groups, areas with overstoryand understory conditions, mast andden trees—a complicated forest.These stands are aesthetically pleas-ant, and can produce excellentwildlife habitat, all on a relativelysmall woodlot. There is never a

Young spruce and hardwoods released from a shel-terwood cut provide dense cover for snowshoehare, grouse, and many other species.

As the stand develops, natural mortality reduces density and little sunlightpenetrates to the ground. This no longer provides berries, browse, groundplants or dense cover and most wildlife simply move to new areas.

drastic cut on the whole stand, andthere is an income-producing cutevery 15 years or so, a model of sus-tainability.

Where Do You Start?Begin with a map of your property.Since wildlife are not too con-cerned with your stone walls andred-painted blazes, look beyond

your borders to see what habitat isavailable in the neighborhood. Ilike to use topographic maps andair photos for this. Pretty good aeri-al photography is availableonline—such as Google Earth, butstate foresters and farm serviceagencies are also helpful. By look-ing over your region, you can seethe elements of habitat that are

abundant and scarce. By talkingwith your neighbors, you might getan idea of their forest managementplans and how the habitat is likelyto change. And a careful review ofyour own property will show howyour lot fits into the big picture.There may be special elementsthat your lot provides. Large, oldlegacy trees, beaver wetlands, orledgy den sites would just be notedand maintained. If you have wildfruit or nut trees, then releasingthem from competing trees willhelp their fruit crops. But if yourneighbor has an orchard, your fewapple trees might not be thatimportant. These fruits will benefitboth birds and mammals thatdepend on them in the fall.Looking at the forest structure is

a bit more complicated, and it willbe helpful to have the advice of aprofessional forester. Forest standsare usually areas of 5 to 100 acresthat are consistent, with a similarmix of tree species, similar soils

3 • Sawmill & Woodlot

A good example of an uneven-aged stand with large, medium, and small hard-woods and softwoods. This shows a lot of structural diversity on one acre, but ifevery acre looks like this, we lose horizontal diversity.

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and drainage, and the same land-use history, such as farm abandon-ment or style of logging. Theforester will map out the young,middle-aged and mature forests,hardwoods, softwoods and mixes,even-aged and multiple-agedstands. Each stand may have spe-cial features to note, such as vernalpools or legacy trees.Bill Leak and Mariko Yamasaki et

al. published a book titledLandowner’s Guide to Wildlife Habitatfor New England. This is an excellentresource, very practical and easy toread, with photographs and comput-er images of forest changes overtime that are very helpful. They rec-ommend (on relatively large areas) amix of forest cover as follows:

This mix will provide a fullrange of habitat diversity, maximiz-ing the number of species that willbenefit. Unmanaged forests, suchas the Adirondack Park, and mostof the National Forests, tendtoward long rotation sawtimber orovermature stands, lacking manystages of all three types of diversity.If you compare your forest withthis list, you can see where youhave excess or shortage. If youhave less than 100 acres, it isimportant to consider the neighbor-ing lands. A square mile, 640 acres,is plenty of habitat to cover thehome ranges of almost all of ourspecies. The species that range far-ther, such as moose and bear, willcertainly be found passing throughareas with this mix. Let’s try an example for a 200-

acre woodlot. Your forest mapdetermines the following mix:

Good NeighborsThe neighboring parcels have asimilar mix with one exception, a30-acre clear-cut done 15 years agoafter the big ice storm. Right now,your region enjoys a pretty goodmix. But as the neighbor’s clear-cutgrows out of the sapling stage intoyoung poles, a whole list of speciesloses one element of habitat. Yourown forest is a little short on soft-

woods and seedling-sapling stages.A plan that focuses on timber man-agement might harvest some of thesawtimber softwood and hardwoodstands, but for wildlife you mightretain the softwood another 10years and then regenerate it byshelterwood or small group selec-tion to retain elements of softwoodcover over a longer period. But youcan also increase your softwoodcomponent by harvesting hard-woods from the mixed-woodstands. Group selections, retaininglong-lived softwoods like hemlockor white pine, will open up regen-eration patches that will provideyoung forest habitat in mixturewith older softwoods—good verti-cal structure. If some of the hardwood sawtim-

ber is mature, a 10- to 20-acre clear-cut or several large group selectioncuts will begin to provide the

seedling cover that will be lackingas your neighbor’s clear-cut regrows.These heavy cuts should focus onthe most mature timber, especiallywith signs of risk, disease, or decay,along with areas of poor qualitytrees. It is not wrong to focus onmarketable species, as the incomefrom this sale may help you to makeother improvements like access,boundary work, or just to keep own-ing the land for another decade. Youmight also harvest groups withshorter-lived species, especiallyaspen. Aspen roots will resprout intobeautiful thickets of prime wildlifehabitat, and aspen is increasinglymarketable with rapid growth tocommercial size. Thinning some ofthe remaining hardwood stands willimprove the growth rate and speciescomposition, provide some incomeand firewood, and begin to initiatesome understory development.Look to retain areas with a high pro-portion of smooth, high-qualitystems of species with good valuepotential like oak, sugar maple, andyellow birch.The warblers, ruffed grouse,

sparrows, and rabbits that haveenjoyed your neighbor’s clear-cutwill move into your cut areas as theberries and young trees fill in. Youstill have a mix of pole and sawtim-ber stands providing horizontalstructural diversity, with maturetrees providing nut crops and soft-wood cover. Your log landing can belimed and seeded to clover for apermanent opening of perhaps anacre. This could be a mating site forwoodcock, or a summer feeding areafor bats, deer, and whippoorwill.

Plan for CyclesIf you develop a written plan, itwill make you eligible for favorable

Regeneration ..............................................................................5–15%Sapling to pole-sized ................................................................30–40%Sawtimber ...............................................................................40–50%Old/Overmature ...........................................................................<10%

And—Short-rotation hardwoods ...........................................................5–15%Long-rotation hardwoods..........................................................20–35%Oak-Hickory-Beech........................................................................1–5%Conifers ....................................................................................35–50%Upland openings ........................................................................3–10%Wetlands ......................................................................................1–5%

Pole-sized hardwoods.......................................................................30%Sawtimber hardwoods .....................................................................20%Sawtimber softwoods.......................................................................10%Mixed-age, mixed woods .................................................................30%Overmature mixed woods..................................................................5%Beaver pond/wetlands .......................................................................4%Open ledge .......................................................................................1%

5 • Sawmill & Woodlot

property tax treatment in all thenortheastern states. It is likely thatimplementing this first phasewould take place over 3–10 years.You might use several differenttypes of harvesting crews, andwatch for changes in the log mar-kets for each section. If there areroad-building costs, you might havea full-service contractor with exca-vating equipment build the roadand do the first cut, concentratingon some higher-value wood or thelarger patch cuts. If there are sec-tions with a high percentage oflow-quality trees, you might prefera biomass-chip harvesting operationthat can “eat up” truckloads of oth-erwise unmerchantable material.Then you might have a crew withsmaller equipment do the thin-nings. This will spread out yourincome and expenses, and will cre-ate new stages in seedling habitatwhen new groups are cut. Also, youcould get a fresh supply of fire-wood every few years.

Let’s look ahead 10 years. Yourforest is closer to that ideal mix.The overall quality and species mixof the trees in your woods isimproved. Some of the pole-sizedtrees are growing into sawlog size.The sawtimber hardwoods thatwere retained are growing intomature sizes. The cut patches aregrowing into saplings, and the soft-wood crowns in the mixed-wood

stand are expanding into qualitysoftwood cover. But you are losingthe seedling stage, and hopefullyone of your neighbors is ready foranother heavy cut, so you don’t losethe species that depend on this.The sections that were not enteredwill be ready for thinning and somegroup selection cuts to providesome income and new, young habi-tat. And the areas thinned early in

Harvesting trees for lumber, firewood and pulp is the main tool to manipulateforest vegetation and wildlife habitat.

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the first cycle will be ready foranother trim in five years or so. Allthis brings you closer to that idealmix of habitat, maintains the threetypes of diversity, and produces afull range of flora and fauna.You can see that if circumstances

warrant it, a large heavy cut will notbe a bad thing for the wildlife inyour region. For example, ice andwind storm events sometimes

change the best forest plans unex-pectedly and require a salvage cut.A forest can be a family’s mainasset and withdrawing someincome may be a necessity. Or ifyou have a large area of poor quali-ty or overmature timber, there isnothing wrong with letting somedaylight in. This should also giveyou some appreciation for the fewheavy cuts you may notice as you

travel around, as they are essentialto many species of wildlife by pro-viding habitat diversity in themosaic of the forest. •

Robbo Holleran is a private consultingforester helping landowners meet theirgoals in Vermont and adjacent states.His work has him outdoors about 150days each year plus play time. He andhis wife homeschool their children. Theyhave a home office, a big garden, and alarge bonsai collection.

Deer have a home range of about one square mile. In this area, they need ampleyoung forest for browse, older forest for cover and nuts, open areas for summerfeeding and dense softwoods for winter cover. Deer make a fine example of theimportance of habitat diversity.