Small woodlot question ?

[richardg40]

We had a large woodlot 100 acres but moved away from it . The new property has a 27 acres woodlot included BUT it has been cut I would say 10 to 15 years ago . There is still some good size trees but not many . Maybe enough for 5 years of firewood for us . The rest of the trees are 4 to 6 inch in diameter . Most trees on this property are Maple and birch .. I am worried that in year 6 we will have very few trees to cut . We burn about 4 cords a winter as this house is much smaller . We live in NB Canada . What is your experience with your own woodlot ?

 

[peakbagger]

If the woodlot has not been thinned then you are in good shape but you will be burning a lot of small diameter wood. The general approach for managing a piece of property is to end up with a far lower volume of larger high quality trees rather then a large volume of low grade trees. Ideally you would manage for the maples as they are the highest value tree. White birch generally grows faster but its not as long lived as maple. Thus your firewood will be coming from thinning the birches to try to encourage the maples.

BTW, its highly likely the lot was high graded and the large trees mostly likely have defects that made them not worth cutting. If the large trees have defects like crooks, rot or splits and they are shading out better quality smaller trees than they are best used as firewood.

As an amateur woodlot owner myself I have been advised to just put a ribbon on the best tree I can find (straight with no defect or forks within the first 20 feet of trunk) of the species I want to keep and then cut all the undesirable species and even poor qualtiy maples in a radius around the good tree that corresponds with the crown diameter of the good tree. You did not mention what type of maple. Red maples like to grow in clumps of multiple stems, pick the best stem and cut all the other ones in clump being very careful not to cut the bark of the remaining tree. In time the remaining stem will grow and hopefully the cut stems will rot away.

The good trees crown in theory will leaf out to keep the ground shaded to keep out undesirable growth from moving in to the newly opened up space. As the "ribbon" trees grown you can expand the radius until hopefully the entire canopy is filled out with the maples. Depending on what you start with this is decades long process. You may never see the end of it but it does ultimately improve the woods.

The bummer with this small thining wood is its more work. White Birch rots unless its split so you need to split the rounds quickly after cutting . The stuff that is too small to reasonably split can be scored the length of the tree down through the bark with the chainsaw before bucking. FYI never wait for white birch to loose its crown leaves, they rot on the stump. The standing ones with the dead crowns can be widow makers. Ideally you cut your wood before it leafs out as dealing with all the brush is even more of a PITA with leaves on.

The other hassle with small wood is the saw tends to grab it and pull it towards you compared to a heavy log. Must folks make a sawbuck to elevate the wood and some patient people rig up a strap or something to keep the wood from moving.

The good thing with white birch is once its split it dries quick.

 

[kennyp2339]

@peakbagger I've been very impressed with a lot of your posts here, I use to just scan through them, but after really reading and comprehending them, I've realized how sophisticated and intellectual you are, now I get worried when you say "As an amateur woodlot owner myself" that could be a humble 1000 acres of land you manage?

 

[jebatty]

A rule of thumb is that an actively managed woodlot in a good environment will add one cord of volume per acre per year. As peakbagger says, much of this will be of smaller diameter. And active thinning as he says will produce the strongest growth to healthy trees. In my area of north central MN, deer browsing on new, young growth is a problem with the species the deer prefer in their habitat. You are very fortunate to have good acreage.

 

[peakbagger]

@peakbagger I've been very impressed with a lot of your posts here, I use to just scan through them, but after really reading and comprehending them, I've realized how sophisticated and intellectual you are, now I get worried when you say "As an amateur woodlot owner myself" that could be a humble 1000 acres of land you manage?

Nope, I just have 83 acres to play on, and i only bought that 4 years ago. 20 years in the pulp and paper industry with most of it working for firm that at one time had several hundred thousand acres under their control helps.

 

[kennyp2339]

I just have 83 acres to play on

Growing up our next door neighbor bought 90 acres behind our houses (good size mountain for our area) myself, my dad, neighbor and land surveyors walked the property when he was closing on it to set the boundary markers, I have a very good idea of what the size looks like, plenty of land for a family.
My neighbor was awesome, after he closed on the land he bought his kids atv's and encouraged my dad to do the same for me, then gave us kids exclusive permission to ride anytime we wanted to, it was a way to keep us out of trouble I guess. Great guy for that.

 

[EODMSgt]

One other recommendation is to walk the lot and cull the dead trees first (standing dead or dead and down). I got access to a woodlot last season with somewhere over 125 acres (might be up to 180). It's been in a friend's family for decades but he is relatively new to the woodlot management scene (the family just used the area for a couple trees a year but mostly for recreation). A lot of it is hill/mountainside so not practical for logging without major equipment so he has been focusing on the easy areas for now. The guy loves to cut trees down and has felled quite a few nice oak and ash. It's not my place to tell him what to do however I think I finally talked him into just walking through the woods and clearing dead and down that are still good for firewood, and then concentrating on standing dead (or almost dead) to clear unhealthy trees and nurture the good ones (in line with what Peakbagger was saying). It's amazing how many people see the shiny object of a nice, healthy tree and cut it down when there are countless dead or dying trees that are perfect for firewood that get left to rot.

 

[maple1]

Some pics might help. There should be a lot of wood in 27 acres of 4-6" trees. More than you'd need at 4 cords/year.

 

[peakbagger]

My propery is quite steep in spots, since land surveys are based on horizontal distances I actually have more surface area of land and trees than on a flat lot. The down side is much of the lot is not easy to access.

 

[Prof]

I live on 15 acres, 14 of which are wooded. It was timbered about a decade ago, so very little timber value if any. It has mostly birch, hemlock, beech and maple. I haven't had to look too hard for trees to cut to get 4+ cords per year. The beech come down every time there is a good wind and finding a diseased birch or hemlock is easy enough to do. In fact, I got about a cord from a beech that came down on the road last week. I read somewhere that a properly managed 10 acre wood lot should supply enough wood indefinitely if you are burning 4-5 cords a year. I would think that 27 acres, even if timbered not long ago might be able to sustain you nicely.

 

[firefighterjake]

I currently only own a 2 acre house lot, but have never bought any firewood due to scrounging, storms and a friend with a maple syruping operation who had me come in and cut off most of the non-maples.

That said . . . it is a constant surprise to me in how on this small lot (about half of it lawn and the house) how much wood I can harvest simply from large branches falling and trees dying.