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NROC1000Harvesting Theory

Unit 2 Forest Management PrescriptionsRequired Knowledge and SkillsLearning ActivitiesInformationResources

COPYRIGHT and Acknowledgements

NSCC © Copyright 2005. No part of this curriculum (or outline, learning notes, etc.) may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the Nova Scotia Community College. The Nova Scotia Community College acknowledges the contributions made by the following individuals:

1. Andrew Ross, Faculty at the Nova Scotia Community College, Lunenburg Campus for the compilation of the materials for Harvesting Theory.

NROC1000 1Harvesting Theory Unit #2

After completion of this unit, the learner will have demonstrated the ability to:

1. Describe: shelterwood harvesting, commercial thinning, seed tree harvesting, selection cutting, final felling and salvage operations used as management techniques in Nova Scotia forests.

2. Describe short wood and long wood harvesting systems including: trail cutting, full length, and full tree harvesting.


To complete this module the learner must:

Read the Natural Resources publications: shelterwood, commercial thinning (hardwood and softwood, and shelterwood)

Read the NSCC power points

Complete a 3000 word essay describing :

Shelterwood harvesting (strip and uniform) Commercial thinning (hardwood and softwood) Seed tree cutting Selection cutting Final felling/clear cutting Salvage cutting Pine pruning Longwood and short wood systems in clearcutting

Be sure to include the advantages and disadvantages for them. Include a title page, table of contents, page numbers and a bibliography. Also include the factors what can dictate these treatments. Provide a list of information of what is included in a management plan. Pictures or diagrams will be expected. This report will be sourced when you complete your management plan in the second term.

In addition read the NSCC PowerPoint presentations Seed tree, Selection, Shelterwood, Clear cutting, Shortwood Longwood and Commercial thinnings.

Complete a final unit test


Harvesting Methods

There are many harvesting methods currently employed in Nova Scotia’s forests. These options are dependant on a number of factors including:

1. Landowner objectives, required income, pension income2. The age and specie mix of a forest.3. The health and condition of your forest.4. The location (hill tops, low lying woodlot)5. Access to woodlot. (Close to main road and condition of existing woods road)6. Availability of landowner to perform work or availability of reliable

silviculture/harvesting contractor.7. Market availability of wood products.8. Even or uneven aged management choice.

So with these options in mind, a landowner has many choices and decisions how to manage their woodlot.


At this junction in your studies, it is important that you recognize the names, know a definition for each and list the advantages and disadvantages of these treatments.

The treatments you are required to know are as follows:

Shelterwood harvesting (strip and uniform) Commercial thinning (hardwood and softwood) Seed tree cutting Selection cutting Final felling/clearcutting Salvage cutting Pine pruning

You may opt to search the www for additional information on the above forest management treatments.

Other Forest Management Treatments

Seed Tree Cutting

What do you think of when we use the word seed tree? Well it is as simple as it sounds. When performing a final felling (clear cut), trees are left standing to disperse seeds in that area. Approximately 10trees/acre is a good rule. You may have witnessed seed trees in Christmas trees lots. They are there for a reason. Seeds will be scattered throughout the area (stand), in hopes of attaining regeneration (new trees) and not having to plant new trees.

Characteristics of Quality Seed Trees

High value (oak, pine spruce etc.) Windfirm (pine and hardwoods) Large crowns (living branches on the tree) Large

crowns relate to large roots and help anchor trees to the ground and help keep trees from blowing over.

Ability to resist insects and disease. Good branch angle (angle of branch points upwards not downwards). Ability to shed limbs (creates clear stem for high value products). High number of seed produced. Ability to live a long time. Height over age. Trees ability to grow fast. The faster they grow the faster we

can harvest them.


Specific gravity means the density of the wood fibers. Growing trees quickly can reduce the strength of the wood grown. It is important that trees, (wood fiber) remain strong, as they grow.

Remember the trees you leave as seed trees will pass on these characteristics to their offspring. By leaving the best trees for seed, the regeneration will also have high quality characteristics as well. A farmer keeps their best bull for breeding purposes not their worst.

A number of seed trees should be left per ha which allows for cross pollination and in case some blow down or die. These seed trees are normally left to mature and die naturally. Some will die and become cavity trees for wildlife while others will snap off in a windstorm and become fertilizer or “dead wood”. Dead wood is extremely important in the creation of the new forest. Think of dead wood as life for the new forest. Birds will often perch and/or nest in the seed trees as well.

View power point presentation Seed Tree Harvesting.

You may opt to search the www for additional information. Try searching “seed tree”.

Selection Cutting

Selection cutting means selecting a number or groups of trees, to be removed from a stand of trees, over a specified time period (ex 10 year period). Trees from various age classes are removed in each cut. A stand is defined as a group of trees, similar in age, composition and species, in a particular forested area. If you have a woodlot it is probable that your forest has many stands growing on it. A stand could be defined for example as: a spruce stand, a mixed stand or a bog. There are many combinations of what constitutes a stand but understand that there is similarity in that forest, that make it a “stand”.

Selection cutting has been practiced, in the forests of Germany, for decades. An area forester is responsible to mark the trees to be removed. Loggers will then be responsible to carefully remove these trees from the forest. Some days only 10 trees may be removed. Cutters are paid by the day, to ensure all environmental standards are met. The job is down carefully and methodically. Often the trees removed are of high value, offsetting the logging costs.

Selection cutting removes a tree or groups of trees from a particular forest stand. This allows other trees to grow, in more favorable conditions. Trees are selected to be removed because of maturity, age, form, species, value or market availability.

When these trees are removed, a whole is left in the canopy, which allows light to penetrate to the forest floor. The light will stimulate new growth. By following a cutting


schedule, a specific time period (10 years), the forest stand will develop a number of age groups. This is termed as unevenaged management. This “stand may develop 3 or more age classes.

Names of cutting methods, which create uneven aged management, are as follows:

1. Selection Cutting – removing trees or group of trees, from a forest stand, over a period of time, from various age classes.

2. High-grade – removal of only the very best trees. This destroys the best genetics in your woodlot.

3. Diameter Cut – removing trees as they reach a specific diameter, in a specified time period (10 years).

4. Patch cut – removal of groups of trees (ex 0.25 ha) throughout the woodlot, which in tern, creates a patchwork woodlot.

Disadvantages of uneven aged management are:

1. Requires very skilled labor force.2. Harvesting equipment must be moved, to the same area, many times.3. Time consuming.4. Less short term profit for landowner.

View power point presentation Selection Harvesting.

You may opt to search the www for additional information search “selection cutting.”

Final Felling (Clear cutting)

Final felling is a nice word for clear cutting. It means removal of all commercial trees, from an area. Forest companies will allow wildlife clumps, cavity trees, and wildlife corridors in their clear cuts today. Areas along water and waterways will also be protected (“Riparion Zones”).

Final fellings are normally made when a forest stand has reached its optimum age and diameter. The area could be later planted, allowed to regenerate naturally or seed trees could be left to develop regeneration.

When a final felling cut has been completed that particular area “stand” will be called even aged. That means that 85% or more of that area will be the same age.

Today final fellings are the cut of choice by most forest companies however unevenaged management techniques are being tried. Final fellings are fast and cheap and require minimal supervision.


Salvage Cutting

Salvage cutting is described as removing trees that are dead or dying from a stand. In the 1970’s the spruce bud worm killed 80% of the softwood trees in Cape Breton Island. That constituted thousands and thousands of cords of wood. A large salvage operation was carried out to remove these trees before they dried out and became unusable for news paper making. A pile of wood, 16 feet high, that could possibly stretch from North Sydney to Yarmouth and back to North Sydney was harvested in the Highlands. That’s a lot of wood!

A salvage cut assistance was paid, by the Government, per cord, depending on the degree of dead wood present and associated dangers from dead tops and height of regeneration present. These factors constituted how much was paid per cord. All these factors slowed down the speed at which wood can be harvested.

Pruning

Pruning lower limbs from trees will produce clear lumber. Various forest companies will pay per ha to remove these lower limbs. Clear stems may produce logs that are of veneer quality.

In northern New Zealand where trees grow much faster than in Nova Scotia pine trees are pruned at an early age. When these pruned trees are then harvested, Japanese buyers bid on each log, similar to the tuna fishery here in Nova Scotia. Since the grower can guarantee the diameter they were pruned and therefore the percentage of clear lumber per stem, these logs fetch a high price!


HARVESTING METHODS “SHORT WOOD AND LONG WOOD”

View power point presentation Shortwood Systems.

Short Wood Method

The short method has become the harvesting method of choice through out the world. It means cutting trees into market sized pieces, in the woods and then loaded and carried out to a woods road. Trees are cut by hand and piled or cut by mechanical harvester and piled, awaiting transport by a forwarder or forestry woods trailer, to roadside.

Longwood Method

Longwood means the tree stem is left long and hauled out to a woods road. Branches can be left on “full tree” or branches removed, in the woods, and hauled out “tree length”Trees can be hauled out by the longwood method using a skidder, tractor, horse etc. and is often referred to as skidding. Skidding is described, as the load of wood skidding along or making contact with the ground. Skid road is the trail, used by the skidder, when hauling out trees stems.

Both systems have their advantages and disadvantages.


Trail Cutting

Trail cutting is a method of harvesting trees used by “choppers/cutters”. Choppers are also referred to as “professional loggers”. Trail cutting is a systematic method of cutting trees, normally for a porter /forwarder, to carry to roadside. More information can be found in the Harvesting Skills Course.

Wood Products and Specifications

The following names are used commonly however the products, specifications and species will change according to the mill (purchaser).

Wood products are normally paid by a roadside price. The mills pay so much for your wood piled along a road. The mills will then pay the trucker a trucking price directly, however when selling firewood you will have to pay the trucking cost.

Before cutting wood for sale ensure either you or your trucker has a contract with the mill and that the mill is still purchasing these products. Get a copy of the mill specifications, as these will change, and a roadside price for these products.

Normally you will require approximately 2500 board feet of logs or 7 – 10 cord of pulp before a trucker will haul your wood. (both are tandem loads) A pulp trailer or tractor trailer normally hauls double the above amounts. The products below are what we will be cutting this year.

Pulpwood/Firewood

Approximately 8 feet Can contain up to 50% rot Used for newspaper, particle board, calendar paper

Lowest value Can be hardwood or softwood

Studwood

8’ 4” No tolerance on length or rot/stain Normally spruce and fir but normally must be separated by species Various grades according to mill Pure truckloads of sound spruce 5” and up is the highest price normally paid


Logs (Bowater) Spruce/fir

Logs are either 10’, 12’, 14’ or 16’ long Spruce or fir and they must be separated according to species 3.5” and up in diameter. Bowater also has a large diameter spruce price where logs 16’ long and over 9”

diameter will have a premium price. These logs must be kept separate.

There are also markets for:

Pine logs Hemlock logs Hardwood logs Veneer (highest value of all products) Biomass palletwood Etc

Check with a trucker to find the latest price and market for your wood before cutting.

Considerations When Purchasing or Managing a Woodlot

Goals

Each landowner should be interviewed to determine their long term and short term goals for a woodlot, before developing a management plan.

Goals will vary from woodlot owner to woodlot owner and may include:

Revenue (annual, periodic, long term, pension supplements)

Specific forest management treatments Wildlife considerations Ecosystem management Specific habitat enhancement Water quality Stream improvement Inheritance issues Education Promote specific or numerous forest products Sustainability


Boundary line clarity Enhance “species at risk” Recreation Hunting and fishing Spiritual well being Ability for landowner to perform their own work Size of extraction equipment required Family history of ownership/past work conducted

Management Plan

After interviewing a landowner, (which may include several interviews or educating them on the numerous possibilities), a management plan should be developed for the property. This plan clearly promotes forest prescriptions to develop and enhance the specific landowner’s objectives.

A management plan will:

Clearly mark the location of the property on a map. Suggest forest prescriptions to realize the landowner’s

objectives. Suggest a woodlot road location, cost and environmental

considerations. Suggest bridge and culvert location and size requirements. Produce a woodlot map, drawn to a specific scale,

delineating all the forest stands, on the property. A “stand” is defined as a specific forest type (hardwood stand, softwood stand, mixed stand etc to be general).

Produce specific volumes for all delineated forest stands and for all current marketable forest products.

Suggest a time table to conduct the forest prescriptions. Suggest specific habitat improvements Discuss liability issues Suggest contractors and royalty/stumpage values


Harvesting Technique

There are numerous ways to manage a forest, which can be developed specifically to the individual landowners desires. These techniques may include:

Even aged management vs uneven aged management Softwood management vs hardwood management Pulpwood vs logs Veneer management Winter logging vs summer logging Managing for specific habitat or ecosystems Single tree management

Location

Distance to a Department of Highways road becomes very important when logging in the winter. Plowing snow, soft and muddy roads can soon deplete anticipated revenue.

Important Questions to answer before buying the land are: Is the woodlot at the top of a large hill, which may get icy in the

winter months? Is the woodlot boarding on a #1 series highway? Will a right of way agreement be required to cross another

woodlot owners land?


Do property lines requiring surveying or re-blazing?


It should show:

What you have to work with Where you’re going to do it When it should be done Who is going to do it

and sometimes…

How it should be done


May include:

Required Resources

Robertson, R.G. and Young, R.W. Shelterwood Harvesting Manual.ISBN 0-88871-124-7Robertson, R.G. and Young, R.W. Merchantable Thinning Manual Softwoods.ISBN 0-88871-142-5Robertson, R.G. and Young, R.W. Hardwood Thinning ManualISBN 0-88871-212-x


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