Clearcutting as a Silvicultural Option in Family Forests of N.E. U.S.A. - Chapter 4 The Next Forest

Two full growing seasons following our February 2019 clearcut harvest, we are able to examine what nature has provided for natural regeneration and make decisions to fill the gaps.

[@jneidlinger]

Vincent, I some how missed this video when you pubished it a few months ago. I just wanted to drop you a message and let you know that I (and I'm sure others) appreciate you taking the time to make these videos and pass on knowledge to less knowledgeable people like myself. Looking forward to your next video. Stay safe and in good health! -Justin

[@bombadiltreefarms314]

Justin, You are very welcome! Vince

[@mathieujean3749]

Wow! Thank you for sharing this valuable information! Looking forward for the next video!

[@bombadiltreefarms314]

You are very welcome! Vince

[@jessenelson5769]

Thanks for more videos. I look forward to them

[@bombadiltreefarms314]

You are very welcome, and I hope that you find them useful. Vince

[@mr_regenerative]

Love the videos, hope to see more in the future on forestry & management. Will be putting what I have learned here into management practices on my farm to be.

[@bombadiltreefarms314]

I am glad that you find them useful. As you can see, none are produced for entertainment or for a mass audience but rather for a select group of forestland owners who want to learn and avoid the fallout of poorly informed decisions. I wish you a long and loving relationship with your farm to be. Vince

[@denislosieroutdoors]

Awesome video there eh! I agree with your decisions, on management of your woodlot, and like how you got confirmation from different experts... thanks for sharing

[@bombadiltreefarms314]

And I thank you for your encouraging feedback. Vince

[@aleciapacheco5338]

Thank you for the interesting and informative video. I love it

[@bombadiltreefarms314]

You are very welcome! Vince

[@michelfrechette3430]

Nice to see you back Vincent le professeur!! How are you doing ?

[@bombadiltreefarms314]

Awe, Michel, c'est encore mieux de t'entendre ! Cela me permet de tricher avec Google Translate et de faire semblant d'être bilingue. J'ai terminé ma récolte d'hiver fin janvier juste avant la chute des fortes neiges et j'ai tout pour planter 4 000 plants d'épinette plus tard ce printemps. Très agréable d'avoir de vos nouvelles, et j'espère que tout va bien pour vous. Vincent

[@LilRaslan]

Can’t wait for the next viseo

[@bombadiltreefarms314]

I must apologize because I have the footage shot for the next follow-up year but have been too busy, as I usually am except in the late winter, to do the editing and build a completed video. The harvested blocks look great with their young forests well established. Thanks! Vince

[@sebastienweisser4839]

So nice to see another great video Vince! Thanks a lot for sharing! Very interesting as always! Your valuable inputs will be well used here too! Always good to hear from you! Keep up the great work!

[@bombadiltreefarms314]

Sebastien, it's even better to hear from you! I've been watching the daily weather in Dawson and it appears the Yukon has turned tropical with daily highs this winter usually above -20 centigrade. How can you tolerate such sweltering heat? Stay cool! Vince

[@FromSteelToWood]

Thanks for taking the time to share this with us! Very interesting to see all the points of view involved in that decision-making. It was very amazing to see the aspen growing so fast. Thanks! Joe.

[@bombadiltreefarms314]

Joe, it's always good to hear from you, and thanks for your comment. Yes, the decisions made in forestry carry long-term consequences so careful thought and planning that involves knowledgeable people is essential. Vince

[@yvesjolicoeur747]

Awesome video. Thanks Vince for taking the time to assemble this multi point of view of the impact and planning following a clear cut. So many good lessons to take out of it. I'll keep in mind that nature likes messy. Might help the forest and save me some work too...lol....always enjoy the lessons by ''Le professeur'' cheers

[@bombadiltreefarms314]

Yves, it is always a joy to hear from you, and am glad you found this video, aimed at a narrow target audience of woodlot owners, informative. Mud season has begun. Yuck! Vince

[@yvesjolicoeur747]

@@bombadiltreefarms314 just want you to know that your videos are already having an impact. Instead of trying to tidy everything up, I welcome critter's condos under brush piles. My brother-in-law also watches and corrected me from cutting a dead standing yesterday by pointing out how useful they can be to some birds. Constantly learning and trying to improve. Thanks again

[@bombadiltreefarms314]

@@yvesjolicoeur747 Yves, just this morning I sent the following email to my friend, Joe, the wildlife biologist whose signature line is, "Wildlife like it messy." As you can see from my email, much said in jest, his impact upon me has been a two edged sword. "Hey Joe, First, I must tell you how many times over the past three days I have had to fight off the need to call you to make a confession, a confession for sins that I didn't know were of such egregious magnitude much less even knew I was committing if not for your teachings. I had four red oak windthrows in our woodlot here in Georgia. Now I have two because I salvaged two for 18-foot tie-logs and firewood, and soon the remaining two will join the pile all to the disadvantage of wildlife. Having been born and raised a Roman Catholic, sin and guilt are entrenched and inescapable elements of my psyche, and your teachings haven't helped matters in the least. I have attached three photos of a tie-log being winched to my little 21-hp tractor. The winch is the one I had in Maine that I replaced this past May with a Tajfun. It suits my little Kubota in Georgia very well. As a high priest of the Congregation of Woodlot Critters, will you absolve me of my sin?" Yves, the woodland critters thank you and your brother-in-law for following Joe's teachings! Be safe! Vince

[@yvesjolicoeur747]

@@bombadiltreefarms314 too funny. We are lucky that our woodlot critters have voted to share the wealth. If there is good wood to recover from a dead tree, they agreed to let us use the good part and they'll take care of the rest.

[@bombadiltreefarms314]

@@yvesjolicoeur747 Now that is a sound compromise from very understanding woodland critters!

[@silverleapers]

If you want to understand trees in a forest....learn about how they are simply solar panels for what is keeping them alive...the mushrooms in the soils. Prof. Susanne Simard (start there).

[@Windsor1492]

As always you provide an interesting video. What commercial value for you get out of aspen tree? Unfortunately there's not really a market for them here.

[@bombadiltreefarms314]

We have had a reliable market demand for aspen in our area for over 40 years from both Huber Engineered Wood Products and Louisiana Pacific oriented strand board (OSB) mills. Although the market demand is reliable the prices are not. My January 2022 harvest of 100-inch (2.5 meters) bolts brought me $34.00 USD per ton at my landing, the lowest in a decade despite high prices for the finished OSB product. The mill delivered price, accounting for trucking, was probably in the $45 to $48 USD range. Considering how fast aspen grows here and how easy it is to harvest, I still did well at the current low price. There is also a small demand by private sawmills for quality logs, especially bigtooth aspen logs. Hope this answer helps. Vince

[@carlandrews5810]

Vince, did you ever plant any trees since the clear cuts? Did I hear you talk about funds for purchasing seedlings being available for reforestry?

[@bombadiltreefarms314]

Hi Carl. Yes, I planted 2,760 in 2021 and another 3,252 in 2022. NRCS approved funds for the 2022 planting and I have received payment. In November I began building the next KZbin video in this series covering site prep and have shot the footage for the one after that covering the first planting. We were very busy all 2022 including preparing for a wonderful Forestry Field Day event held here in September to celebrate our receipt of the Maine Outstanding Tree Farmer of the Year Award for 2022. That explains my delay in getting out those next videos. Right now I am involved in this winter's timber harvest but hope to have both of those videos posted on KZbin by the end of February. Thank you for your inquiry, and I would be happy to provide more details if you'd like. Vince

[@silverleapers]

"So where did all this aspen growth come from" Ans....mycelium from ectomyco mushrooms. Something the RPF has no clue about.

[@adammoggysawmilling5164]

Any new logging videos coming soon ?

[@bombadiltreefarms314]

Hi Adam. I have already shot all the footage for the next video in this series, a series that I plan to continue for however many years of life I have left in order to follow the growth of the new forest. The next video will cover the October 2020 disk-trenching, June 2021 herbicide application, and planting of the first 3,000 seedlings also accomplished in June 2021. It will probably take me about a week to construct the video, something that I have to do as a focused effort from start to finish. My brain just can't work any other way. Normally, I use the free time that I have after completing each winter's harvest to construct a new video from footage already shot. That's what I did with this Chapter 4 video and, although I hope very much to find time this April to construct Chapter 5, might not get to it until next winter. Thanks for your interest and be safe! Vince