FEATURE STORY: HEALD TRACT HAPPENINGS, PART 2

From left: A forwarder brings cut logs to the landing during a harvest on the Heald Tract in July 2019. Consulting forester Jeremy Turner of Meadowsend Timberlands (second from right) leads a timber harvest tour for 50 people at the Heald Tract in February 2019.

By Gabe Roxby

The Heald Tract is one of the Forest Society’s most spectacular properties, and one where landscape-level habitat management is a central focus of our work. Spreading across four towns—Wilton, Temple, Greenville, and Mason—the Heald family’s donation of nearly 1,500 acres to the Forest Society between 1986 and 2016 was one of the most generous gifts of land in our history. Cellar holes and old barn foundations can be found scattered among the property’s tremendously diverse natural features, which include beaver dams, vernal pools, a great blue heron rookery, and a 65-acre pond. An extensive trail network for hiking, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing makes Heald an ideal recreation location throughout the year. Part 1 of this article, published in the spring 2021 issue of Forest Notes, highlighted the wildlife habitat and invasive species control project that we began in February 2021 in one of the property’s old apple orchards. Part 2 focuses on the three timber harvests that we have conducted since the completion of the Heald Tract management plan in 2016.

The Forest Society has long believed in the benefit of carefully planned, responsible timber harvesting. A thoughtful timber harvest allows us to maintain a diverse mixture of forest types and ages that function as wildlife habitat and are more resilient to a rapidly changing climate. Harvesting also produces a variety of renewable forest products—dimensional lumber, flooring, and paper—that we rely on in some manner every day. Additionally, some of the wood products used in buildings and furniture can store carbon for many decades and reduce the demand for products made from non-renewable resources. After a harvest is complete, our forests here in the Northeast regrow quickly, sequestering carbon at a rapid rate.

A forest managed through periodic timber harvesting can provide a multitude of benefits, but we don’t believe that cutting trees is appropriate everywhere. Some areas are too wet, too steep, or too rocky to allow for safe and responsible harvesting. Some forests that contain rare plants, exemplary natural communities, or places of special scenic or recreational beauty are best left alone. We also believe that there is an inherent value in wilderness itself and in leaving some areas unmanaged and free to develop naturally. Approximately one-third of the land that the Forest Society owns is considered off-limits to timber harvesting due to a mixture of the aforementioned reasons.

When a timber harvest begins, it can seem like it occurred suddenly and without warning. But the start of a project is often the culmination of years of planning, thought, and coordination. The inherent beauty of a tree can sometimes make it difficult to explain why anyone would ever want to cut one down. We try to address these questions head-on through a variety of educational programs, including guided timber tours on active harvests. During these outings, participants learn how every harvest begins with a comprehensive natural resource inventory.

To develop our plan for how we would conduct the recent harvests on the Heald Tract, Forest Society forester Steve Junkin and I inventoried the property in the fall of 2016. We spent 15 days measuring trees, mapping wetlands, assessing wildlife

habitat, and photographing cultural and ecologically sensitive sites. This information was analyzed and provided the basis for a 133-page management plan, a document that outlines how the Heald Tract will be managed for the next 15 years. Approximately 250 acres were deemed not suitable for timber harvesting, including wetlands, unique uplands, and rugged terrain. The remaining 1,234 acres of Heald was split into 19 different stands, each with its own recommendation on what type of timber harvesting (if any) would be appropriate over the course of the next 15 years. Currently, we have carried out three of the harvests on five stands as recommended in the management plan.

Research Harvest

The first harvest had an unusual research objective. Conducted in February 2019 in partnership with the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the goal was to better understand how landowners could manage for oak trees and dense understory mountain laurel to promote wildlife habitat. If landowners could do both effectively, it could help region-wide efforts to create shrubland habitat for imperiled species such as the New England cottontail rabbit. During this harvest, three treatments were conducted: 1) a cut in which about 80 percent of the trees were removed; 2) a cut in which about 50 percent of the trees were removed; and 3) a control area which was left uncut. The first treatment mimicked a common type of cutting known as a seed tree harvest, which is often performed in oak stands when the goal is to initiate a new young forest from the acorns dropped by the 20 percent of trees that remain. The second treatment mimicked another common type of cutting that aims to remove poorer quality trees to benefit the better quality trees left uncut. Monitoring of how each of these areas responds, especially the success of the oak trees and the mountain laurel, will be ongoing for the next 5–15 years. While this harvest was taking place, the Forest Society led more than 50 people on a tour of the research areas where foresters explained all aspects of the project’s planning and execution.

Harvesting for Wildlife and Forest Health

As part of the February 2019 harvest, and also in a follow-up cut done in July 2019, the Forest Society conducted forestry operations with the goals of harvesting mature timber, improving growing conditions for trees of intermediate size, and establishing new young growth. Several patch cuts were created, where all the trees are removed within an area a few acres in size. Patch cuts re-allocate the light energy hitting the top of the forest canopy to the forest floor, resulting in a flush of new growth, including shrubs, grasses, flowers, and tree seedlings. These areas are often havens for a variety of birds—prairie warblers, goldenwinged warblers, willow flycatchers—who use the dense growth as a refuge from predators and a place to nest. Even for wildlife that are more commonly found in mature forests, vigorous young forests function as food sources for these animals due to their high abundance of caterpillars and wild berries. Areas not yet suitable for a patch cut were thinned, a much lighter harvest technique that removes poorer quality trees to benefit healthier and more vigorous trees with a better growth form.

Oak Regeneration Harvest

In fall 2020, the Forest Society conducted another timber harvest in the southwest corner of the Heald Tract. The goal of this harvest was to start a new forest of young oak trees by cutting down the existing oak and pine trees that had reached a size that made them ready to harvest. Regeneration of oak trees can be tricky, but the best available forestry research points to one method that is more likely to succeed than others. The recommendation is to cut perhaps three-quarters of the trees in the forest canopy, leaving strong, healthy trees of good form uncut and evenly spaced throughout the harvest area. The harvest should be conducted in the fall of an oak mast year after trees laden with acorns have dropped them. As heavy harvest machinery moves throughout the harvest, some of these acorns are run over and driven into the ground, thus greatly improving their germination rate over acorns that remain on the soil’s surface. The ample sunlight that reaches the ground thanks to the newly opened canopy can result in the germination of a new forest of young oaks growing beneath the dappled shade of the uncut trees, which are retained for continued seed production. The Forest Society used this technique in this harvest after a strong seed year for both red oak and white pine. We are hopeful about the results, but probably won’t know for 10 or more years if we were successful. An early check of the site in spring 2021 revealed a sea of young oak seedlings growing in the tilled soil. These nutritious little trees are often favorite foods for deer and other wildlife, so only time will tell how many of them will develop.

Some of the beautiful oak trees that were harvested will be used to provide timbers for a pavilion at the new Forest Society North building at The Rocks in Bethlehem, N.H.

Responsible Forest Management

We manage the Heald Tract with the knowledge that the Forest Society will own this land forever—and a lot will change during that time! Maintaining the property’s tremendous vegetative diversity will not only benefit the greatest number of wildlife species, but also give it the best opportunity to continue to thrive in the face of a rapidly changing climate. If the climate of the future is no longer suitable for the growth of a certain tree species, or if an invasive pest or disease rolls through, having many different tree species in a variety of sizes allows the forest the best chance to continue to function. The Heald Tract is a forest we’re proud to manage for habitat, forest products, carbon, and recreation. Stop by some day, take a walk, and see what we’ve been up to!