We can identify areas of young,
healthy trees ("regen"), where the stem count
is too high and thin it. This is akin to thinning out the
carrots in your garden. When you remove some of the product
you concentrate diameter growth (volume) on the remaining
crop trees. This allows the remaining product to achieve
greater diameter and volume growth over a shorter time period.
We can identify areas where
young merchantable timber is overstocked and has become
suppressed (restricted growing due to overcrowding).
A stand at this stage of development should have trees
that are dominant and co-dominant. To improve their
chance of survival and to increase diameter growth
we will remove a portion of the volume thus leaving
the dominants and co-dominants "free to grow".
This will benefit in at least 3 ways:
Crop trees will have more
room to grow and less competition for nutrients
and sunlight.
You may earn revenue through
the sales of commercial products extracted.
We will help you identify
any areas that have trees that are diseased, dead
and/or dying. We will individually mark trees that,
in our opinion, should be harvested to maintain good
forest health.
Planting
Do you have old farmland that
you wish to reclaim as forestland? Do you have open
areas within your forest that you wish to "fill-plant"?
We can prescribe and implement a
planting operation for you.
Let our experts assess your
land and if planting is needed we can suggest proper
site preparation and tree species best suited for
your site.
Site Preparation
Believe it or not there are times
when soil disturbance is the most beneficial way to do a
forest harvest. Think of it as
tilling your garden. Certain commercial species require
exposed mineral soil in order to regenerate. Red spruce
is a good example.
Although we normally do our site preparation at time of
harvest but that may not always be possible or someone else
may have done a harvest previously. We can offer you a variety of
options to help your land increase productivity.
In some locales there are government / marketing board
funding programs in place to subsidize silviculture. We
at SoftTouch are familiar with the funding process and can
help you with it. We can supply you with professional forest
people who can do any of these projects for you in a timely
manner.
