Managing a Forest, is like Managing a Relationship

Be kind to your forest! Just like in a relationship, you want to treat your forest in the same manner. You would like to be caring, considerate, and manage your forest in a healthy and fruitful way.

Several ways we can accomplish managing a forest just like a relationship. For example, placement of roadways and trails in your woodlot can be done through minimal impact, and erosion control measures such as rock and fabric placement, proper culvert installations and seeding and mulching where appropriate. A wildlife seed mix would be ideal within your roadway and trail locations to enhance wildlife habitat. Stay on your roads and trails with equipment, trucks, vehicles, ATV's and snowmobiles to help prevent regeneration damage to seedlings, saplings, miscellaneous ground flora and forest hydrology contact sources. Of course, logging equipment would be necessary to access your forest tract throughout to harvest your timber resource.

When conducting a timber sale, conduct that sale with very careful and appropriate forest management considerations. Select only those trees for harvest that are mature, deformed, insect or disease attack, and that your tree stand is left in a proper spacing, age level and basal area density level, dependent on the tree species that you are managing. In a clearcut timber harvest prescription, do not leave defective trees or undesirable tree species. Always harvest during good weather conditions, dependent on the soils present, and when to harvest should be in your forest management plan. If you are rutting, soil or weather conditions are not suitable for harvesting at that time or season.

Have a forest management plan in place. The plan will outline your future timber harvests, when to complete them, your personal goals and objectives and professional forest management recommendations. It is hard for your physician to complete a physical on you without knowing your past condition. Of course, the forest prescription can look forward into the future for 40-120 years, a little longer than a human relationship.

So, manage your forest like you would a relationship. The outcome is much better when we are kind and considerate to both our forests and relationships.