FARMING YOUR FOREST
TIMBER HARVESTING OPTIONS FOR HARDWOODS B Y B I L LY RY E
INTRODUCTION Many landowners absolutely love their hardwoods. These trees provide their owners with beautiful landscapes, habitat for various forms of wildlife, and timber sale revenue to assist with future forest management. Some of these landowners are willing to forego the higher return on investment that pine plantations yield just to enjoy the benefits provided by hardwoods. However, most landowners also want to manage their hardwoods in a responsible manner to encourage sustainability. To help landowners reach their objectives for the property, all timber harvests should be orchestrated by the overall forest management plan prepared by a Registered Forester. Before describing the different types of harvests implemented by foresters, it is important for landowners to have a basic knowledge of how forests work and some of the criteria used to compare timber investments. Below is a brief explanation of forest ecology and timber investment analysis.
to reach the ground which freed the sprouts, seeds, and seedlings already in place to race each other to occupy the canopy of the next forest. Over time, the forests would improve in both the quality and quantity of wood as the trees with the best genetics would out-compete the others for valuable sunlight, water, and nutrients.
FOREST ECOLOGY Forests in the South tend to occur naturally in even-age stands. An even-age stand is one where most of the trees in the upper canopy are of the same or nearly the same age. Prior to the arrival of man, even-aged stands were established when natural disturbances such as wildfires, tornadoes, floods, or hurricanes would destroy the trees in the upper canopy. These disturbances allowed sunlight 34
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The EF5 tornado that hit Hackleburg in 2011 removed the canopy of this forest and allowed the next generation to become established.
