Property
Description -
The property lies on the greater ___ area.
It was once an operating farm and consists of open land, pasture, former
pasture that has reverted to brush and woodland plus more mature woodlands. The
Landowner Goal - Primarily it is the management of wildlife and fisheries habitat. Other recreational uses and the production of forest products on the property are included.
General
Recommendations :
1. RARE & ENDANGERED
SPECIES - None known to exist on the property.
2. SOIL & WATER PROTECTION
- All recommendations are according to ___ Best Management Practices to protect
the soils and water quality. The ___
River is classifies as a protected stream plus all the surrounding wetlands are
also classified. None of the following
recommendations will adversely affect the quality of these waters.
3. WILDLIFE & FISHERIES -
Habitats are considered in the following recommendations. Usually timber harvesting and thinning
operations benefit wildlife populations by providing more available food and
cover through new plant regeneration which occurs when
the forest canopy is opened to allow sunlight to reach the forest floor. Tree planting of any type also provides
additional cover areas for wildlife populations. More specific recommendations will follow if
the owner is directly interested in specific projects.
4. RECREATION & ASTHETICS -
The owner is generally interested in maintaining and improving the recreational
and aesthetic aspects of the property and any of the following recommendations
have taken those into consideration. If
any specific projects are recommended, they are included below.
5.
6. TIMBER RESOURCES BY STAND
AND ASSOCIATED EFFECTS:
SPECIFIC MANAGEMENT
RECOMMENDATIONS
See attached map
STAND
#1 Acres
- 33
Description - Northern hardwood stand
on gentle terrain
Species - Hard maple, red maple,
beech, yellow birch, black cherry and other hardwoods
History
& Growing Site - This stand was harvested quite heavily not too many years ago. Much of this stand lies on ___ soils, which
will produce some quality trees.
Diameter
Class -
Large pole to small sawtimber (9-15" diameter)
Stocking - Variable due to past
harvesting; partly under-stocked and partly well stocked
Recommendation - None at this time, allow
area to recover from harvest; check again in 5 years for possible cull removal
or spot thinning. This stand would be
worth doing some thinning in the future to encourage better quality trees.
STAND
#2 Acres
- 45
Description - Softwood/hardwood stand
that lies on flat to gentle terrain.
Part of this has been flooded by beaver activity
Species - Hemlock, red maple, red
spruce, black cherry, white pine, yellow birch and others
History
& Growing Site - This area was also harvested at this time of Stand 1 (probably prior
to some of the flooding). The growing
site is fairly marginal with little hope of growing valuable trees.
Diameter
Class -
Large pole to sawtimber
Stocking - Same as Stand 1
Recommendation - None at this time; check
in 10 years. The next activity would be
harvesting work, as it will not produce the tree quality to make thinning
worthwhile.
STAND
#3 Acres-95
Description River, drainages and
surrounding wetlands.
Species N/A
History
& Growing Site These are flooded or flooded part of the year the
Diameter
Class N/A
Stocking N/A
Recommendation None, leave as protected
area. The river and large wetland acreage makes excellent habitat for a variety
of water related species.
STAND
#4 Acres
24
Description Hardwood stand on flat to
gentle terrain.
Species Mostly black cherry with
smaller amounts of red maple and other species.
History
& Growing Site This was more than likely old pasture land that has reverted back to
woodland through natural succession. The growing site is relatively good for
the species, but a majority of the black cherry has poor form, as they were the
colonizing trees. Many of the original trees are prone to excessive branching
and crooked stems due to lack of competition as they were growing. Some of
these will be good stems as will a good percentage of the succeeding
generations.
Diameter
Class- Pole
(6-12diameter)
Stocking- Well stocked
Recommendation- None at this time. Normally an untouched stand in this diameter
range would be overstocked, but most of this stand is not as it was fairly
sparsely populated during the seedling development. Check in 5 years for some possible
thinning. There are a few spots where
too much would cause even more excessive branching.
Note- The fruit of the black
cherry is used as a food source for many types of wildlife.
STAND
#5 Acres-10
Description- Softwood hardwood stand on mostly flat terrain.
Species- Hemlock, red spruce, white pine, black cherry, red
maple, yellow birch and others.
History
& Growing Site- Part of this area was formerly old pasture that has reverted to
woodland as in Stand 4. The primary
difference is the more limited drainage in these areas.
Diameter
Class-
Large pole to some small sawtimber.
Stocking- Well stocked.
Recommendation- None at this time. In places stocking levels would indicate some
thinning work, but the species content and growing site does not warrant
it. Primarily check for possible
harvesting work in 10 years.
Note- The softwoods make good
winter cover areas for wildlife.
Maintaining a certain percentage of this in any future management
actions would be beneficial for the wildlife.
STAND
#6 Acres-
23
Description- Ponds, surrounding wet
areas plus higher ridges that were partially planted with softwoods and
hardwood sections that naturally seeded in.
Species- The ridges contain some planted red pine, white pine and other softwoods. The hardwoods are a mix of black cherry, red maple and yellow birch.
History
& Growing Site- Most of the area is wet with limited drainage, but the ridges are a
deep, very well drained soil capable of growing various species of pine quite
well.
Diameter
Class- N/A
Stocking- N/A
Recommendation- The pond areas are used
for fishing and other recreation. I
would pretty much leave the red and white pine alone for aesthetic purposes. Red pine does have a tendency to choke one
another out in an overstocked situation, but the planted area is quite narrow
which gives most of the trees adequate sunlight and room to grow. It would therefore not be a necessity to thin
this unless the landowner wishes some trees removed. The white pine and other species are more
self-dominating (the stronger ones take over by themselves and are not overly
affected by crowding).
STAND
#7 Acres-
61
Description- Open field areas.
Species- N/A
History
& Growing Site- Former agricultural fields that lie on ______soils. These soils are classified as deep, well too
excessively drained with low to medium lime content.
Diameter
Class- N/A
Stocking- N/A
Recommendation- For wildlife management
and viewing the open fields provide a fairly complete habitat considering the
mix of wetlands, brush, hardwood and softwood cover. These provide habitat necessary for grazing
animals and many others that demand open spaces.
I would maintain the smaller field
areas, as they are present. Since many
of the wildlife species that do utilize the open areas are more content along
the edge of the field with available cover nearby, you may wish to break up
some of the larger portions with some rows of cover. Ideally these would be broke up in irregular
shaped pieces by cover rows of varying widths.
I would probably keep the individual field areas down to 5 acres or so,
but the size and shape is more of a landowner decision on what is practical.
Some species you may wish to consider
for row of cover and food source are:
1. Softwoods for cover: The
soil types are quite good for growing pine.
White pine would be the best
choice, as it will stay at a denser stage longer than other pines. One drawback of the white pine is the white
pine weevil. This insect bores into the
main leader of the tree and kills the leader.
It rarely causes mortality, but does cause deformity in the form of
crooked and multiple stems. This is not
a problem and may be a benefit if these are being used for wildlife cover. The Norway spruce is another choice. Since they stay fairly dense, they usually
make the better cover species. They should
grow OK, but the soils are a little more suitable for the pine. You could plant a row of each without problems,
but if many rows are planted the pine will often get off to a faster growth
start than the spruce. In that case they
will overtop adjacent spruce before they are able to start their faster growth.
2. For hardwoods I would plant
red oak for a future food source. The
soils are very good for this species and the red oak should grow decent in this
area as it has the most Northern range.
You already have abundant black cherry plus a number of beech trees on
the property. Most other nut bearing
species are out of their normal growth range and probably will not have much
luck with. The bitternut hickory and
butternut should be able to grow here, but you would probably have trouble
trying to find a hickory seedling source and the butternut has been suffering mortality
from the butternut canker. You could try
some white oak or even bur oak (if you can find them). I cannot foresee having much luck at all with
the black walnut or other hickories, but here again you can try some. For any larger scale planting, I would go
with the red oak. You can probably mix
these in with the softwoods at 10 to 20%.
3. Groups of apple trees in
locations near the cover areas would be an excellent food source for
wildlife. You should keep these a
certain distance from the larger trees so they will not get overtopped by
them. If the larger trees are too close,
the apple trees will eventually be shaded out and killed.
Note- We highly recommend the
use of tree shelters (at least 4 high) when planting hardwoods or apple trees
to help protect them from browsing and gnawing animals (especially with the
volume of deer present).
STAND
#8 Acres-
10
Description- Brush areas adjacent to
drainages.
Species- Assorted brush, berry
bushes, younger hardwoods and others.
History
& Growing Site- Mostly overgrown pasture areas.
Diameter
Class- N/A
Stocking- N/A
Recommendation- Let areas develop by
themselves as they make good spots for wildlife at present.
STAND
#9 Acres-
55
Description- Mix of hardwoods and
softwoods on flat to gentle terrain.
Species- Hemlock, red maple, red
spruce, black cherry, yellow birch and others.
History
& Growing Site- Much of these lie on the more poorly drained _____and _____
soils. These sections have been
harvested in the not too distant past.
Diameter
Class-
Large pole to sawtimber.
Stocking- Well stocked.
Recommendation- None at this time, check
again in 10 years.
STAND
#10 Acres-
28
Description - Hardwood - softwood stand
on flat to gentle terrain.
Species
- Red
maple, black cherry, hemlock, yellow birch and other hardwoods.
History
& Growing Site - This stand was also harvested at a similar time as the others. The growing site is variable with drainage
ranging from below average to better than average. There is some nice quality black cherry developing
in sections of the stand.
Diameter
Class -
Large pole to sawtimber
Stocking - Variable, but basically
well stocked
Recommendation - None at this time, check
in 10 years.
STAND
#11 Acres-
20
Description - Ridges (probably eskers)
separating low lying poorly drained sections.
Species - Aspen, black cherry, red
maple, hemlock, and red spruce in the natural stands. On the section that was planted there are
Scotch pine, red pine and spruce.
History
and Growing Site - One long section was planted to softwoods probably 50 or so years
ago. The remaining sections have
naturally regenerated probably from old pasture. The growing site on these ridges is average
or better.
Diameter
Class -
Large pole to sawtimber
Stocking - Variable from a little
understocked to a little overstocked in the planted area.
Recommendation - Basically none at this
time. Being the plantation area is so
narrow and on steeper terrain, it has far more value as variable wildlife cover
than it ever will for timber value so thinning is not recommended. The natural stands are not ready for work at
this time. They could be inspected when
harvesting some other areas for some possible harvesting, but again they
probably serve more use as a wildlife corridor than as potential timber producing
areas.
STAND
#12 Acres-
23
Description - Primarily low lying
wetland areas.
Species - N/A
History
and Growing Sites - Poorly drained sections, suitable for wetland wildlife habitat.
Diameter
Class - N/A
Recommendation - None, leave for wildlife
habitat.
RECOMMENDED
PRACTICES:
0-5
years - Possible establishment of fence rows for wildlife cover and food source
to break up large open sections. Stand 7
5
years - Check Stands 1 and 4 for some possible thinning.
10
years - Check Stands 2, 5 and 9 for potential harvesting. Possibly sections of Stand 10
As owner, I (we) agree that this
management plan reflects my goals and intentions for management of this
property.
X______________________________________________________
Landowner