How much land to sustain a forest?

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Rougement

New Member
Oct 20, 2009
54
Mn, US
I guess it's one of those, 'how long is a piece of string' questions, depending on soil type, climate, native species, etc.

We have just under 2 acres, over half is cleared. The rest is mostly pine on the top of a small hill and a little hardwood (ash, maple) at the bottom where the soil is wetter.

I really don't know if it's enough so that trees will grow fast enough to keep up with the felling, I'm having my doubts but there's plenty of standing dead to be going on with.

How about planting? What's a high growth, decent density species? I'm in Minnesota.

I guess I'm curious about how much you guys take out without slowly thinning the woods, altering the landscape and even changing the ecosystem.
 
I am in the very same boat as you. I am on 4 acres. Not a lot of woods, mostly open field. Considering planing some trees.
Don't want to be dead before my trees are ready to burn.
 
I think Honey Locust is a fast growing excellent firewood species...others will probably chime in.
 
Do a search for cordwood per acre or managing wood lots here in the forum. I believe some have stated that 1/2 a cord per year per acre (seems high to me in general) but it is definitely species oreinted. Most fast growing species tend to be lower on the btu chart so check out the btu content of the species before you plant. The higher the btu the longer the fire is the general rule of thumb. A cautionary note is though ash may grow and dry fast it is still one wood that is under attack by infestation and if you are in an area where the bugs are you just might be feeding the bugs and still not getting enough wood to supplement your usage unless you just want dead saplings for kindling.
 
Aspen is a pretty quick growing, rotation tree, and 40-50 years is typical rotation. An aspen yield should be roughly 10 cords per acre. That works out to about one cord per acre per year, if my math is right. Aspen has about 50% of the heat value per pound vs oak. So how much land/forest you need depends on how much wood you need per year and is species dependent.

If you have a wood gasification boiler, which thrives on splits less than 4-5", then planting a quick growing hybrid species (hybrid poplar, hybrid willow, for example) will produce a large volume of wood which doesn't need splitting in a short time on very small acreage (2-5 acres may be enough). To be successful at this you need to do a soil test to make sure your soil is suitable for what you are growing and that your climate and average rainfall also is suitable. I believe these quick growing species also need full sun, so any cutting will require rotational clear-cutting and allowing either natural regeneration or re-planting, depending on the species.
 
One big problem with the hybrid trees is the root system and all the limbs. A lot of roots stay half out of the ground making a mess. When you cut the trees you'll spend more time trimming than you will cutting the wood. They will also be very, very wet and stink terrible. When they dry out they will be very light so not a lot of heat from them. Popple is better than the hybrids for firewood and still are fast growing. Sassafras also grow fast.

Just remember though that anything that grows fast is generally very soft wood without a lot of btu's in it.
 
jebatty said:
Aspen has about 50% of the heat value per pound vs oak.
Click to expand...
Don't you mean per cord? Pound for pound, BTUs are about the same.
 
Rougement said:
I guess it's one of those, 'how long is a piece of string' questions, depending on soil type, climate, native species, etc.

We have just under 2 acres, over half is cleared. The rest is mostly pine on the top of a small hill and a little hardwood (ash, maple) at the bottom where the soil is wetter.

I really don't know if it's enough so that trees will grow fast enough to keep up with the felling, I'm having my doubts but there's plenty of standing dead to be going on with.

How about planting? What's a high growth, decent density species? I'm in Minnesota.

I guess I'm curious about how much you guys take out without slowly thinning the woods, altering the landscape and even changing the ecosystem.
Click to expand...

On a two acre lot you'll have several cord of down and dead-standing trees. Once the dead standing and down trees are cleared out you can pretty well count on 1 cord per acre per year. Some places do much better.

I dunno if they'll grow in MN but out here we grow a lot of Weyerhaeuser "super trees" which are a Doug Fir hybrid that grow like an oil slick in a marine sanctuary. However, if I were replanting in a firewood lot I'd go with black and/or green locust.
 
In New England, 2 cords per acre is what the oldtimers figured for forest management.
 
Don’t you mean per cord? Pound for pound, BTUs are about the same.
Click to expand...

Thanks for catching that -- pound for pound BTU's are about the same; volume for volume popple has about 1/2 the BTU's as oak.
 
I would not think about planting trees, but instead manage the native trees you already have. In most forests, there are plenty of seedlings and saplings around to replace any tree you cut. To get the best growth possible, I'd plan my firewood cutting to serve also as tree thinning, removing trees from crowded spots, giving the trees you leave behind more light to grow. I'd leave a mix of species that will give good firewood, support wildlife, and make an interesting forest - that is, a mix of species, evergreens and deciduous trees, room for shrubs on the ground, maybe a few openings, etc. I'd leave a mixture of some larger, attractive trees and some spots with smaller trees. I'd also thin the saplings if you have clumps of them, to leave the number of trees and the species of trees you want. I think trees like hybrid elms are suitable only for tree farms, and most people don't want their forest to be a tree farm, with rows of similar trees and nothing else. I also would not cut all of the dead standing wood. Lots of wildlife depends on dead standing wood and the holes in the wood for shelter, and removing it all will reduce the number and variety of wildlife you see.

You can't get all your firewood needs from an acre of forest over the long term, so plan to take some firewood, but think about managing your woods for multiple purposes, not just firewood. As others have said, a cord or two per acre is the maximum long-term yield from a forest. You might get a lot more the first couple of years, but I wouldn't strip your woods too much, since you live next door and probably want wildlife, scenery, and a nice place to walk.
 
Wood Duck said:
I would not think about planting trees, but instead manage the native trees you already have. In most forests, there are plenty of seedlings and saplings around to replace any tree you cut. To get the best growth possible, I'd plan my firewood cutting to serve also as tree thinning, removing trees from crowded spots, giving the trees you leave behind more light to grow. I'd leave a mix of species that will give good firewood, support wildlife, and make an interesting forest - that is, a mix of species, evergreens and deciduous trees, room for shrubs on the ground, maybe a few openings, etc. I'd leave a mixture of some larger, attractive trees and some spots with smaller trees. I'd also thin the saplings if you have clumps of them, to leave the number of trees and the species of trees you want. I think trees like hybrid elms are suitable only for tree farms, and most people don't want their forest to be a tree farm, with rows of similar trees and nothing else. I also would not cut all of the dead standing wood. Lots of wildlife depends on dead standing wood and the holes in the wood for shelter, and removing it all will reduce the number and variety of wildlife you see.

You can't get all your firewood needs from an acre of forest over the long term, so plan to take some firewood, but think about managing your woods for multiple purposes, not just firewood. As others have said, a cord or two per acre is the maximum long-term yield from a forest. You might get a lot more the first couple of years, but I wouldn't strip your woods too much, since you live next door and probably want wildlife, scenery, and a nice place to walk.
Click to expand...



This is a great idea, and if you really want firewood plant some black locust in the unwooded area, it is supposed to grow like a weed.
http://www.naturehills.com/product/black_locust.aspx
 
If you are going to plant trees, I agree Black Locust is the best choice. It grows fast, is more or less native (native range is small, and mostly along the west side of the appalacians, but has spread much farther since forest cutting began 200 years ago), and you'd be growing premium firewood, not low BTU pulpwood like a lot of other fast growing trees.
 
If you want to manage our woods for firewood, you can look into the European tradition of copicing. Ash would be a good species to work with.
 
Hakusan said:
If you want to manage our woods for firewood, you can look into the European tradition of copicing. Ash would be a good species to work with.
Click to expand...

That is very cool, wikipedia has plenty of info. Thanks!
 
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