Pa. Forestry Association executive director, Robert Clark
addresses a group of 60 landowners during the Southeasterr
Pa. Forest Landowners' Conference held last Saturday a
Eohrata’s Holiday inn.
At S.E . Forest Landowner 9 s Con
Timber is Pa.’s ‘biggest’ crop
BY JACKHUBLEY
EPHRATA Timber, from
management to marketing, was
the subject of the Southeastern Pa.
Landowners’ Conference held at
the Ephrata Holiday Inn on Sept.
29.
Co-sponsored by the Pa
Forestry Association and the
Conservation Districts of
southeastern Pa., the conference
featured speakers from the Pa,-
Bureau of Forestry and Penn
State, as well as private en
terprise.
The event was moderated by Pa.
Forestry Association executive
director, Robert Clark, who,
following opening remarks, turned
the program over to extension
forest resources specialist, Dr.
James Grace.
Opening with some forestry
facts, Dr. Grace pointed out that
Pennsylvania leads the nation in
the number of forest landowners,
with the state’s one-half million
owners accounting for 73 percent
of it 15.8 million acres of forests.
In the years immediately
following a clearcutting, as many
as 20,000 trees per square acre will
sprout, he said. But by the time the
stand is 100 years old, the density
will have dropped to 60 to 100 trees
per acre whether or not the stand is
actively managed
“The purpose of management,
then, is to select those trees that
will live and those that will die,”
Grace said, adding that cutting is
the landowner’s primary
management tool.
Grace urged landowners to
familiarize themselves with the
types of stands located on their
grounds, and to develop a
management plan contingent on
specific goals, be they maximum
timber or firewood production, or
wildlife management.
The specialist briefly reviewed
the current timber market, stating
that, while the red and white oaks,
cherry and white ash, may be
currently in demand, the market
will undoubtedly fluctuate in years
to come. Just as important as
species, is the form of the tree, he
said. The most valuable trees of
any species will be those tall,
straight specimens, free of
branches and defects in the lower
area.
Dr. Grace then recommmended
management techniques favoring
erence
the more desirable individuals. His
recommendations included
marking one “good” tree for every
20 feet, then removing competing
trees on two sides of the desirable
one.
“Remember that the total
growth of a stand is fixed. You can
either grow a lot of small trees or
fewer large trees,” he said, adding
that the secret to maximum timber
revenues is growing large trees as
fast as possible.
Dr. Grace divided harvest
techniques into even-age and
uneven-age cuttings, with even
age techniques including clear
cutting, seed tree and shelterwood
methods. Grace advised that
regeneration should be underway
prior to clearcutting. The seed tree
method is much the same as
clearcutting, he said, except that a
scattering of mature timber is
allowed to stand to i eseed the cut
areas. In shelterwood
management, some timber is
permitted to stand in a series of
shelter strips.
Uneven age management in
volves the selective removal of
mature trees, a strategy that
Grace could not recommend to the
landowner due to its complexity.
When harvests are based on this
technique, he said, the result may
be a woodlot populated with low
value species such as beech, sugar
maple and hemlock.
About 65 percent of the timber
harvested in Pennsylvania is
suitable for saw logs and veneer,
according to extension forest
resources specialist, James
Finley, who advised landowners to
know what types of logs they were
selling and what the current
market was for their wood.
Finley said that landowners
normally had the option to sell
their timber for a lump sum or by
single tree units. The lump sum
agreement was preferable for
most owners selling at infrequent
intervals, he said. He also
cautioned owners to expect some
damage to their land and
remaining trees, and added that
prices will vary depending on the
difficulty of timber removal.
Speaking on the erosion
problems associated with timber
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