Conifer Plantation Management
Conifer Plantations Module #7 Restoring Your Plantation
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Caring for Your Land Series of Workshops
Conifer Plantation Management
Disasters Disasters can take many forms Flood Drought Fire Violent storms
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Tornadoes Lightning Ice storms
Caring for Your Land Series of Workshops
Conifer Plantation Management
Restoring Your Plantation Minimizing the effects of ice damage in your young conifer stands
7-3
Caring for Your Land Series of Workshops
Conifer Plantation Management
Restoration Ice storm ‘98 — one of the greatest Canadian natural disasters Impact on some plantations was devastating Particularly 15 cm and greater in red pine Most plantations had some damage 10-100%
Looking at conifers — focus on red pine, white pine, and jack pine with a brief look at white spruce, and larch
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Caring for Your Land Series of Workshops
Conifer Plantation Management
Restoration Before doing a lot of physical work, need to review: extent of damage other problems why is the plantation there
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Caring for Your Land Series of Workshops
Conifer Plantation Management
Assessment Records Need to know
Why a plantation? What is growing? What is wrong and how much? What work done? The dynamics
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Caring for Your Land Series of Workshops
Conifer Plantation Management
Assessment Records Have to decide on: Your Goals Potential products An Action plan to address concerns
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Caring for Your Land Series of Workshops
Conifer Plantation Management
Points to Remember Originally planted 2,000+ trees/hectare Final crop will be 200-300 trees/hectare Identify potential crop trees — enough? Will pruning improve potential for sawlogs?
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Caring for Your Land Series of Workshops
Conifer Plantation Management
Points to Remember — 2 What were the silvicultural objectives for the plantation? What do you want? What other factors need to be considered? convert now Replant with conifers
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Caring for Your Land Series of Workshops
Conifer Plantation Management
Species and their Roles Red pine
“nurse crop” to provide a suitable micro site for the development of a hardwood understory provide an excellent range of forest products good return on investment usually not part of natural forest on site after the final harvest
White pine
“nurse crop” as above but will be part of future natural forest on site
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Caring for Your Land Series of Workshops
Conifer Plantation Management
Species and their Roles Jack pine
“nurse crop� for those difficult sites able to capture shallow dry sites provide site protection may provide suitable environment for invasion of hardwoods little opportunity for forest products
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Caring for Your Land Series of Workshops
Conifer Plantation Management
Red Pine — Older Plantations Damage can be total — domino effect Partial loss needs to be designed into thinning Start conversion process sooner
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Caring for Your Land Series of Workshops
Conifer Plantation Management
Red Pine — Younger Plantations Prune for leader to make 2 sawlogs Clip all branches except one in top whorl Design thinning to remove trees with broken tops
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Caring for Your Land Series of Workshops
Conifer Plantation Management
White Pine Variable damage in plantations up to 15 metres Compounded by heavy weevil damage Enough crop trees? Is pruning an option? Patience
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Caring for Your Land Series of Workshops
Conifer Plantation Management
Jack Pine Nurse crop for hardwood invasion On older sites hardwoods usually present Damage on jack pine will actually release hardwoods Clean trails and reduce fire hazard without injuring hardwoods
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Caring for Your Land Series of Workshops
Conifer Plantation Management
Tamarack/Larch clip In many cases top 1-2 metres broken off tress 10-15 metres high Original planting survival sometimes low May need clipping Broken stub could be trimmed to allow tree to “heal� sooner
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Caring for Your Land Series of Workshops
Conifer Plantation Management
White Spruce Little to no damage Where leaders broken, clip all but one lateral to ensure only one leader Consider early thinning
7-17
Caring for Your Land Series of Workshops
Conifer Plantation Management
Why Prune Broken Tops? Tree has one leader Clean stub — healing Increase log length
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Caring for Your Land Series of Workshops
Conifer Plantation Management
How to Prune Pruning cuts should be made just outside the branch collar Large branches should be removed by 3 step method Cuts in leader should be at 45 degrees or along a branch bark ridge
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Caring for Your Land Series of Workshops
Conifer Plantation Management
When to Prune Prune live branches in dormant season
Late winter or early spring before leaf formation Maximizes growth and wound closure
Remove diseased or dead branches any time
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Caring for Your Land Series of Workshops
Conifer Plantation Management
Pruning Equipment Use proper tools Clean and sharpen Comes with extension poles for pruning to 17 feet
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Caring for Your Land Series of Workshops
Conifer Plantation Management
In Summary Assess the whole health of trees and plantation Review goals Develop action plan Review annually
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Do any corrective work in dormant season Concentrate Work on crop trees Cut slash close to ground Use proper tools
Caring for Your Land Series of Workshops
Conifer Plantation Management
Conifer Plantation Management Workshops Have been funded by: Ministry of Natural Resources and
Eastern Ontario Model Forest through
The Stewardship Program Prepared by Bill Hardy, Hardy Consulting Layout and design by the LandOwner Resource Centre
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Caring for Your Land Series of Workshops