Have you ever heard of someone getting
taken advantage of when they sell their timber?

Because of their past experiences with indiscriminate logging, some landowners incorrectly assume that forest management only involves removing the best of the trees in their woods...

...and there are others who have overlooked or are not aware of the potential production of an ongoing forest crop on a continuing basis.

In the past forested land was sporadically logged - with little concern for respecting the condition of the remaining tree stand.

Usually only the best of trees were removed... leaving only the defective and low-value trees to inhabit an increasingly greater percentage of wooded land.

Today a majority of  Michigan timberlands still are not managed for renewable crops.

Reasons include the failure of owners to view their forest as a resource that needs to be managed; the belief that leaving a forest alone will benefit it the most; ignorance of the necessary procedures and a general mistrust of loggers and timber harvesting companies.

A vast amount of Michigan woodlots are now overstocked and need a proper thinning cut to maintain rapid growth rates.

This also encourages additional reproduction and establishes a healthy multi-aged stand.

Woodlot Management

Woodlot management is the care and maintenance given to a tree stand to encourage continuing yields of all products.

Management practices that allow each acre of forest to produce at a maximum, in intangible benefits, such as aesthetics and environmental enhancement, or in actual tangible products, like various wildlife species, fuelwood, pulpwood, sawlogs or veneer.

Woodlot Management is concerned with providing an adequate number of trees of good form and quality, spaced to maximize both tree growth and use of available growing space.

It's also concerned with the regeneration of the stand to replace harvested trees. This can be done through planting or natural sprouting or seeding; essential for these continued benefits.

Most woodlots require periodic thinning to obtain the best tree spacing. The amount of thinning necessary will vary depending on the species, the size and distribution of the trees in the stand.

In a properly thinned stand, growth of remaining trees may double or triple. As trees increase in size, their growing space requirements likewise increase making these periodic thinnings necessary.

Improvement Harvest

Due to a long history of neglect, mismanagement, and abuse, many Michigan forests need some rehabilitation work to reverse their decline and bring them into a productive, healthy condition.

In forests that contain trees of harvestable size, the first practice often applied is a timber harvest called an improvement harvest. Trees that are declining in health or are damaged, diseased, or of poor quality are harvested to make room for more vigorous, superior trees of better quality, species, or value.

The remaining crop trees are then allowed to grow to maturity before being harvested. Harvesting timber, when done according to sound forest management principles, improves the health and In Michigan, sustainable forest management should favor managing our forests for a mixture of species, encouraging those best adapted to a given site. This is the natural pattern.

Monocultures, forests composed primarily of one tree species, are at higher risk for catastrophic insect  threats and infestations of disease. They lack the complexity and structure needed to achieve a diverse habitat, capable of supporting a large variety of plant and animal life.

Regenerating a forest refers to its renewal with new, young trees. The term “regeneration” is used to refer to both new trees, seedlings, and young sprouts and to the management activity that promotes the growth and development of those new trees.

Ironically, the ongoing regeneration of a forest necessarily involves this crucial step: the death or cutting of larger, mature trees. 

Planting Trees or Natural Regeneration? 

Many people think new trees must be planted following timber cutting.  In fact, the overwhelming majority of Michigan’s forests regenerate naturally.

They grow from seeds that drop to the ground or are buried by squirrels, that blow on the wind or that float on river currents to eventually land on suitable soil, germinate, and compete for their place in the forest.

Some trees originate as sprouts growing on the stump of a cut or fire-killed tree. Michigan’s hardwood forests regenerate naturally.

Natural regeneration is almost always preferred over the gamble of human-planted trees in a native forest.   Occasionally your plans might call for “enrichment plantings” or planting much-desired species of trees or shrubs to augment natural regeneration. This can be done to ensure that a particular species maintains its representation in the forest.

Tree planting in native forests can also be done to increase species diversity, so long as the species being introduced are adapted to the site and are native in the area. It can be used to reintroduce a species that once grew in the area, but, through disease or over cutting, has since disappeared.

Tree planting can also be a means to improve and diversify the gene pool of the forest.

Trees grown from parents possessing desirable traits, such as faster growth, good form, or disease resistance can be introduced into forests that have been degraded over the years through poor logging practices

Regeneration Methods

There are five generally recognized methods of regenerating the forest, each with a number of variations.

A) Single-tree selection harvests carefully select individual trees that are widely scattered throughout the forest. This is generally our preferred method of keeping woods vibrant and continually healthy.

B) A seed tree cut removes all but a few scattered trees to provide desired seed for regeneration.

C) A shelterwood cut leaves between 50% and 60% of the trees as a source of desirable seed. It also provides partial shade, which favors the establishment of certain species of regeneration, like the oaks. Once desired regeneration is well established, the shelterwood trees are harvested.

 E) Group selection removes groups of trees, resulting in small openings in the forest that range in size from one-half acre to five acres.

D) Clearcutting removes all trees within an area five acres or more in size. Generally here in Michigan, we believe that for most private timber landowners, this should be avoided, just like pulling a fire alarm - to be used as a last resort, and only in an emergency.

Confused as to where to start? That's alright.

We offer a free initial consultation to Michigan timber landowners with 10 or more acres of woods.

For a Responsible

Balance of Sustainability,

and Greater Woodland Productivity,

Contact Us

 About Responsible Timber  Harvesting.