Thinning trees is a common practice in forest management that removes full rows of trees. We take you into the forest to show you how, much like weeding a garden, this operation has important benefits for our crop trees. Once the buncher is at capacity with a large bundle of pines, it lowers them to the ground and drags them out of the forest in one trip, careful to leave neighboring rows of trees unharmed; what remains will be growing for years to come.
Believe it or not, thinning trees is one of the healthiest activities that can be done for a growing forest. Full rows of trees are removed, allowing the remaining pines to grow to their full potential over the next six to eight years. In addition to removing full rows, a thinning operation will pick off less desirable trees from the remaining rows. What remains to grow in the forest are the healthiest, strongest trees with the highest potential to become the products future generations will need, from poles for docks and utilities, to lumber for homes, to the wood used in furniture and countless other products.
It allows the crop trees to grow and expand into the solid wood product that we want when we clear cut that stand. After growing for about 10 to 14 years, the trees removed in a thinning have an important role to play.
The regular growth form and shape of conifers such as spruces, larches and pines allows the use of specially designed mechanized harvesters to select, fell, de-branch and cut trees into lengths required for the mills. Broadleaves, unless they have straight stems are usually felled by chainsaws. Thinning of conifers is a relatively straight-forward due to their regular and predictable growth rate.
The number of trees and volume to be removed in any one year is determined by reference to detailed management tables and charts. Thinning broadleaves, however, requires the forester to rely on intuition and judgment and depends on the quality of the crop as much as on management tables.
Windthrow is an important factor that the forester must take into account when planning thinning operations in Ireland, particularly on more exposed water-logged sites. Each tree within a forest is protected from the wind by neighbouring trees, and its root system develops just enough to provide adequate anchorage in these sheltered conditions. It also has a positive effect on forest production capacity and makes the forest ecosystem better resistant to natural damages.
Rare tree species are not harvested because of their biodiversity value. Valuable habitats, buffer zones around waters and other protected areas are left untouched. During thinning, it is already possible to leave future retention tree groups and dense thickets where game species can find shelter.
Forestry planning has a long-term perspective and supporting biodiversity fits into this mindset very well. After a forest stand reaches maturity—after around 60 to years—its growth slows and it is ready for felling. Planting is the starting point for new forest growth. Seedling stand management is important for good forests growth.
Native tree species grow well and maintain biodiversity. Home Path. Fuels reduction efforts like this are especially effective in areas where historic management practices, including fire suppression, grazing and harvesting, caused extensive changes in forest vegetation. This year, as part of our Majestic Methow Treasured Landscapes campaign, the NFF and Forest Service are teaming up to thin dense tree stands near the Upper Methow river in Mazama and the private residences that line it.
The multi-year Lost Driveway Hazard Fuels Reduction project will return the forest to a more natural state by removing, hand-piling and eventually burning smaller trees that were able to take root during decades of fire exclusion. The smaller trees compete for water and nutrients with large ponderosa pines and other conifers that provide important habitat for wildlife both in their crowns and on the open, plant-covered forest floor that typically surrounds their trunks.
On the Idaho Panhandle National Forest, as part of our Lightning Creek Treasured Landscapes work , the NFF is teaming up with the Forest Service on a project to benefit whitebark pine, a keystone species, by combining selective thinning with prescribed burning.
Due to invasive white pine blister rust and pine bark beetles, whitebark pine has suffered a severe and alarming decline throughout its western territory.
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