Treesearch

A sawmill in the Northeast commonly receives a number of small low-quality logs. They may be among logs purchased from independent loggers, or timber-sale specifications may require that the sawmill take them. Some mill operators confronted with logs of this kind consider handling them as part of the cost of obtaining their log supply. Others may feel that, since the logs are at the mill and paid for, they should be sawed for whatever lumber they will produce.

Maintenance standards for roads within the national forests in the East have, until recently, included annual mowing of the shoulders. One or occasionally two passes with a mower carrying a 5-foot cutter bar were made on each side of the road. Costs for this kind of operation were about $16 per road mile per year.

When stands of Virginia pine (Pinus virginiana ill.) are cut according to usual practices, and no specific action is taken to control subsequent regeneration, the pine often fails to reproduce. A common cause for failure is an unfavorable seedbed condition: logging leaves much of the seedbed undisturbed, and some areas that are disturbed are covered with slash.

Of all the trees in our forests, the beech somehow always stands out. Its clean, smooth, sculptured blending of bole and branch gives it a form that is unique. Also unique is its smooth gray bark, which does not become furrowed with old age as that of other trees, but remains smooth from ground to crown.

The cutting practices commonly recommended for spruce-fir stands in the Northeast involve uneven-aged management. The success of this type of management is predicated upon stand structures that have a range of size classes from seedlings to mature trees in intimate mixture. This kind of stand structure requires a continuous supply of reproduction of desirable species. And this reproduction must be established under an overstory.

Tree planting involves many considerations - site classification, selection of species, planting practices, and protection from fire, insects, and diseases. The information about many of these aspects of planting is scattered and fragmentary.

Tree planting involves many considerations - site classification, selection of species, planting practices, and protection from fire, insects, and diseases. The information about many of these aspects of planting is scattered and fragmentary.

Despite intensive research and zealous control efforts, the Dutch elm disease continues to kill valuable ornamental and wild elm trees over wide areas in the United States and Canada. Control of the disease at present is based on sanitation, the removal of dead and dying ornamental trees, and use of insecticides to kill the insects that carry the disease. The primary vector is the smaller European elm bark beetle, Scolytus multistriatus Marsh.

Second-growth timber occupies more than one-third of the commercial northern hardwood forest land in New England. The origin of these stands - clearcutting, or land abandonment with or without fire - determined their present characteristics; they are essentially even-aged, with a high proportion of intolerant and intermediate species and many stems of sprout origin (Fig. 1). Some stands contain a few large holdovers from earlier logging operations.

Poor hardwood land presents a problem that is only too well known: what to do with areas in hardwood country that support only stunted, slow-growing trees? This is a question that vexes foresters and landowners in many parts of West Virginia and neighboring mountainous areas of Maryland and Virginia. On these poor sites, it is doubtful whether the hardwoods can pay the taxes. Such stands usually are dominated by short-boled chestnut and scarlet oaks; and black gum, sourwood, white oak, and sassafras are the principal associates.