Thinner

Spent a good bit of time this week "overseeing " the thinning of our "Pine Plantation"

Went from this:


To something "thinner"



Crew used something like this: John Deere Forestry: 1070D Wheeled Harvester : John Deere

Pretty damn slick.
I timed it as one min from cut at the base (nice, only a couple of inches off the ground) to tipping, cutting into 10 and 8 foot logs, stripped of branches and chopping the "bush" at the top.
Most were about 40-50ft tall.
All was computer controled, with the system gauging the average diameter, taper and deciding where to make the best cuts for 10's&8's.

We likely won't make much $$$ on all of this, the goal was to thin the stand. It was obvious from the rings that growth the last decade or so has been constrained by crowding.



Now we'll (make that I'll) go back through the stand, taking down dead standing stuff (aka Beetle Food) to protect the rest of the stand. Another few years, a selective cut of the remaining runts, and we should have an awesome stand.

My guess is that this is 20-25% of the cut



All of this on just a portion of our "property" and just within the portion planted with redpine. The rest will end up in Conservation Easement, wetlands & hillsides, pine & hardwoods.