We have many gardens at our house in Sandgate. While my wife grows a large variety of beautiful flowers in sun, shade and rock gardens, I tend to the vegetable and the wood gardens. That's right, I've always thought of our woodlot as a garden for growing wood. Just as any other garden, a woodlot should be managed to grow desirable products with high value. When managed properly, most woodlots can produce large amounts of fuel wood as well as other products, including marketable veneer and saw logs.
Good wood lot management should be based on the following three objectives:
One of the first priorities of good woodlot management is to remove defective or damaged trees that do not have the potential of developing into high quality wood products. Quite often these trees are big and contain large amounts of excellent fuel wood.
Thinning shouldn't stop there. The next step is to thin to favor crop trees, those trees of desirable species that are in good heath and form. These crop trees will be left to develop into high value products. The following guidelines should be used in selecting your crop trees:
Once you've identified your crop trees, the remaining stems (4 inches or larger in diameter) should be marked for fuel wood harvest. Many of these trees might be 10 inches or more in diameter and will make excellent fuel wood. After carefully felling the required number of trees, you should cut them into logs that will fit your heating unit. Don't forget that the tops of all the harvested trees will also contain large amounts of fuel wood. Immediately splitting and stacking the logs will permit rapid drying. Most wood should be allowed to dry for 6 months or more depending upon the species and the season of cutting. It is best to stack the wood off the ground in a location exposed to the sun. It is also advisable to cover the top of the stack to prevent exposure to rain or snow.
I learned these basic principles of woodlot management, as well as the enjoyment you can derive from managing a wood lot, from my county foresters Jim White and Nathan Fice. County foresters work for the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation and are, in my opinion, one of the most valuable groups of state employees out there working the trenches. They consult with woodland owners, free of charge, on all aspects of wood lot management.
Another valuable wood garden resource is a program called Game of Logging. GOL is a hands-on training program where one instructor works with eight to ten participants on chain saw safety and maintenance, basic tree felling, limbing and bucking techniques. This two-day course costs about $150 depending on how many students are enrolled. I would like to host a GOL course this fall on my wood lot so, if you are interested, give me a call for more information. Until then I'll be splitting wood, the most productive and cost effective therapy I know of.
Jim Henderson is the GIS-Senior Planner for the Bennington County Regional Commision, and the vice-chair of the Bennington County Conservation District. The district's mission is promoting rural livelihoods and protecting natural resources in southwestern Vermont.
This column appeared in the Bennington Banner in July 2008, as one of the BCCD's Conservation Currents pieces, a bi-weekly feature written by BCCD board and staff members since August 2006.