Howard Land & Forestry Consultants

We say it all the time "There is no set price for standing timber and the difference the high and low bid can range over 100% on any given sale" We recently proved it to one landowner, we thought you would like to see the results as well: High Bid: $15,126.52 2nd Bid: $11,567.00 3rd Bid: $ 9,720.00... 4th Bid: $ 7,500.00 Low Bid: $ 7,400.00 Four out of the five bidders had bid on our sales before. The top three bidders had bought timber from us before, often by bidding against one another in other sales. We can't guarantee results like these on every sale, but it happens more often than you would think!

WHAT'S NEXT: We are conducting a "first thinning" in an even-aged northern hardwood stand. We are removing the remaining and overmature aspen along with most of the larger and poor quality hardwoods typically found in stands which were established following agricultural abandonment. The residual stand will consist of mostly sugar and red maple with some black cherry and other hardwoods mixed in. It is about a 60 to 70 year old stand with an average tree diameter of 8" to ...10". So what is next for this stand? If managed properly we would likely do another thinning in 15 to 20 years. Following that would come a shelterwood cutting in another 20 years to begin the regeneration process. This would be followed in 10 years with either a complete removal of the overstory or partial removal with a final cutting in another 10 to 20 years. In total it could be another 60 to 70 years before the landowner sees the big payoff. Yeah, it takes that long! Most landowners never wait for a stand to mature. More often than not they will be high-graded at the next cutting removing the dominant and co-dominant crop trees, leaving the runts to take their place. This particular property is under New York's forest tax law 480-a and the landowner receives a significant tax break for managing his timber to maturity and in the process provides the public with clean water, aesthetic quality, and diverse wildlife habitat. So if we can grow a stand to maturity we all win

CONFLICTING INFORMATION! Reading a trade magazine there was a blurb about the cutting of dead trees. Under OSHA regulations you must first take down dead trees within two tree heights of the tree you wish to cut. But one reader pointed out that in Massachusetts (and everywhere else for that matter) it is recommended snags should not be cut unless they present a risk so that animals that use snags will not be significantly impacted. If you are in a northern hardwood forest..., stand in one spot and look around. I'd bet you would see a dead tree. In fact you may see several as there is typically 40 to 50 dead trees per acre. So if you went with the OSHA regulation you would need to take every tree down in the woodlot, going against recommendations by others to maintain wildlife habitat. The difference between the two is that one is a recommendation and the other is a rule and it could cost the employer big bucks if they do not follow the rule,especially if someone gets hurt or killed. So if you are concerned in maintaining wildlife habitat, how do we be safe and provide for the animals that live there. One way is to take down all the dead trees, then when done with the harvest, cut the tops out of some live trees creating new snags (I have seen pictures of them doing this out west). However, I believe the most efficient way is to cut in patches or keep some pockets of timber in reserve to provide an undisturbed area, this will keep the logger safe and provide the habitat requirements of a working forest. Of course this is all theory as I have never seen a logger follow these rules in the first place!

We’re only getting $2,500 for nearly 800 trees, why bother asked the landowner? The stand in question was in the top 10 of the worst stands I ever marked. Looking at the old stumps it looked as if there was a good stand of black cherry originally but was cut off some 20 odd years ago. What was left behind was the poor quality hard and soft maple underneath it and as it turns out poor quality trees do not improve in quality as they get bigger. Surprise, surprise! So my answer to the owner was Because we’re only getting $2,500 for nearly 800 trees!

6 Wheel Skidder! The four wheels in the back allow for lower pounds per square inch to reduce rutting on wet soils while taking a large hitch of wood out to the landing. On wet ground you can add tracks around the rear tires for greater flotation. The wood in the grapple is debris from the landing being hauled back to a soft spot in the trail.

Even when you chip wood, you may still get a lot of woody debris on the landing, especially with softwoods. A lot of loggers just carry back into the woods and use it in their trails, but when you have good ground conditions there is no need to do that, so it just continues to pile up on the landing. When this happens some loggers bring in a wood grinder to clean things up after the job is done. Unlike a chipper which uses knives to chip the wood, the grinder has a large rotating drum which grinds the wood down into usable chips. It is a pretty rugged machine as there was just as much dirt (and probably stones) going in as there was wood.

Before and After Photos of an Overstory Removal Harvest.

The porcupines were hungry!

Sand Dunes in St. Lawrence County? I know when I think of sand dunes, I picture piles of wind blown sands in an ancient desert. But there are some here in the North Country which formed on ancient river deltas. To this day they support little or no plant cover and in most areas are actively eroding away. In my post last week I had mentioned how Scotch pine was often planted because it was a specie which grew about anywhere and was able to stabilize the soil. But it not on...ly stabilizes the soil, it also builds the nutrients within the soil to begin new life. Below is a picture of the neighboring property looking down the boundary line of our client. Walking across this area is like walking along a beach. In fact, if you look closely enough you can see some footprints in the sand. Our clients property was planted with Scotch and some red pine 50+ years ago. The second picture is the forest floor just within the treeline where moss is beginning to take hold. See more

We are currently harvesting a Scotch Pine stand which showed high mortality due to a blight which seems to be infecting many of these stands in the North Country. While we normally don't try and regenerate Scotch Pine, this site has a very sterile soil so we decided to try and regenerate it. The reason Scotch pine was planted here was the fact it is one of the few species which can grow about anywhere, even if it does not grow well, it provides a cover crop to stabilize the soil. There were far fewer good trees than bad ones, so we marked the trees to leave which had a good form and a good crown. The picture below shows an area exhibiting a seed tree harvest, a harvest where only 5 to 10 trees per acre are left to regenerate the stand.

COVID-19 Update. While some businesses in New York have been either forced to close or curtail operations, it is still business as usual for us as the forest industry has been deemed an essential service. The forest industry in this region provides wood to heat our homes and businesses, it keeps the lights on at Ft. Drum, it provides the raw material to produce for various paper products and lumber to build new infrastructure to fight this disease. It even provides the ma...terial for animal bedding to local farms. The only change to our operation is we are avoiding meeting with clients until this crisis has passed. We will still be marking and selling timber, overseeing logging operations, and looking at new tracts for their value and potential. We hope everyone remains safe and stays healthy!

One forest stand that we are currently harvesting was high-graded (take the best, leave the rest) years ago. When we entered the stand it had an overstory of large poor poor quality stems, mostly soft maple, with black cherry poletimber (6" to 10" diameter) in small groups and individual stems scattered throughout the stand. By the book forestry would call for removing these poor quality stems and retaining all of the better quality sawtimber size stems for the next cuttin...g. A sale of this type would have been difficult to sell and the income received would have barely covered the cost of management. In stands such as this, it is often possible to make the harvest pay for the owner by removing one or more species through a diameter limit cutting and retaining the one or two species which have the most desirable attributes for the site regardless of their size. In this case our focus was to remove all of the soft maple larger than 14" and only the high risk black cherry. By doing so we have improved stand quality and specie composition as well as providing additional income for the landowner by cutting sawtimber quality stems of the least desirable specie. Had we not done it this way, the landowner would not have harvested do to the lack of income, and the stand would have remained in an unproductive state for years to come. By the book forestry is great, until you try to practice it under real world conditions.

I was asked the other day if I liked winter or summer logging better? The way this winter has been going, definitely summer logging. With the freeze, thaw, rain, and snow cycle we have had so far, it has provided very poor logging conditions. About the time the logger has his trails frozen in, it rains and he needs to start over. This has resulted in a lot of time waiting on better weather conditions. But even after he starts back up, since the rain always turns to snow,... the ground doesn't freeze and he needs to skid through soft ground to allow the water to freeze underneath. The results of this weather pattern has meant lost wages, slow production, rutting of trails and a lot of post harvest clean-up at the end of the job. Many of the loggers have turned to the excavator for this clean-up as it can push the berms back into the ruts and can open up half frozen stream crossings and blocked drainage. Clean-up at the end of the job is expensive, but not as expensive as sitting idle waiting for perfect conditions!

WHITE PINE is one of the most common forest types in the region, second only to northern hardwoods. The price per unit for sawtimber isn't as high as many of our hardwoods, but in fully stocked stands it is the most valuable type, due to the amount of volume which can produced an an acre of ground. Unlike hardwoods, where much of the better grade lumber is shipped overseas, much of the white pine lumber is used locally, which maintains a relatively stable market. White pine will grow on most upland sites, but will eventually succeed to hardwoods on better sites. It can be easily maintained on sandy or shallow to bedrock soils. A multistage shelterwood or small group/patch cuttings is recommended to regenerate these sites.