 quality do those things bother you well sure I had my doubts just like you but well see for yourself cherry right clear cut eight years ago looks good Joe's my neighbor good friend though you might have thought we were having an argument there you see he's got a wood lot too with lots of nice hardwoods but he's not sure he wants to cut him says he's worried about the forest looking ugly and about the effect of logging on the land the water and wildlife Joe knows I had some of the same concerns before I looked into the matter and learned why you sometimes need to clear cut he wanted to see what I'm doing and I arranged for us to visit other places to show him different ways of harvesting timber and how to make sure he gets what he wants in his next stand of trees Joe and I had a special tour of the Monongahila National Forest and the ranger explained that some of our most valuable hardwoods were in part the result of clear cutting the Americans needed the wood and the clear cutting along with wildfires and storms and later the chestnut blight cleared large sections of forest and made possible the growth of fine stands of hardwood you see hardwoods are renewable but many of the most valuable species are intolerant of shade they won't develop in the shade of other trees to assure a future supply of black cherry walnut oak yellow poplar and other valuable hardwoods in the absence of fire or other natural means of opening up the forest we may need to clear cut Joe and I were shown an area on the Monongahila that was clear cut in 1968 or 69 when there was public concern about the impact of the cutting on wildlife and water quality and whether the forest would grow back we were shown other areas to one recently clear cut one of the major criticisms of clear cutting is that it spoils the looks of the land but the effect is temporary like that of a corn field after harvesting or a home under construction and it's minimized by making small clear cuts with irregular shapes the forest grows back quickly two years after clear cutting there's lots of trees fighting for the sun including some valuable hardwoods intolerant of shade at five years some of them are 10 feet high by 10 they're developing into sturdy saplings at 15 they stand 35 to 40 feet high and 20 years after clear cutting they measure four to five inches in diameter at breast height with some dominant trees another thing folks say about clear cutting is that it destroys the nests and feeding grounds of animals and birds but wildlife is still there making use of the forest as it changes stump sprouts and twigs and leaves from newly fell trees provide food for deer and other browsing animals and small openings add to the forest edge providing cover near the food during the first 10 years of regrowth the young forest has lots to offer and most animals and birds take advantage of it as saplings develop into pole stands there's more shelter but not as much food but when the woodlot is 40 years old seeds are abundant cavities begin to develop the understory thrives and so does the wildlife something else that Joe's concerned about lots of other folks too guess what clear cutting might do to forest soils and water erosion can occur in any type of timber harvesting it becomes a problem only if eroded soil material gets into streams but foresters who study erosion say that the major source of trouble is not the cutting of trees but poorly planned logging roads and log landings and the amount of damage depends not so much on the volume of timber removed as on when and how it's done working after rain or winter thaw is especially harmful but care in constructing and using haul and skid roads really pays off there's less soil disturbance and less mud in the creeks and wildlife can benefit from logging roads that are seeded and fertilized after use in the central and southern Appalachians the loss of nitrates and other soil nutrients following clear cutting is usually not significant and usually disappears in two to three years there is a rise in water temperature in clear cut areas an increase of about eight degrees in summer but it quickly drops back down as the stream enters the woods the increase is just about eliminated by leaving buffer strips 80 to 100 feet wide along streams in any case the rise in temperature is usually gone after five years growth plants and organisms in streams can be affected by these changes in temperature and siltation and in turn affect fish but most of the impact short-lived and can be minimized by building roads carefully and providing buffer zones along streams since our trip to the Manangahila National Forest Joe's got a different notion about clear cutting he knows now that it's not just a logging method but that it's one of the ways of renewing and improving a wood lot and he realizes that he can harvest the kind of timber he wants without also bringing in a lot of troubles the starting point is to remember that trees take up all the growing space available and just as wind and fire and other natural forces open up a forest to intolerant hard woods so you and I can create the growing space for our next generation of trees first thing we need to do is make sure that the kinds of trees we want will grow in our wood lot such things as soil composition moisture temperature and access to sunlight determine what grows on a site and how well it develops getting a tree to grow off-site requires more planning and effort than growing it in its natural environment but may be possible and worth the extra work in the Appalachians unless you want to change the composition of a stand you don't need to do any planting there are enough sources of regeneration right there on the forest floor to do the job in fact there are so many seeds that it's seldom necessary to wait for a heavy seed crop before cutting they're spread around by gravity and wind water and animals some of them remain dormant for years on the forest floor and still produce a tree some seeds last over winter and some have no dormant capacity stump sprouts are another source of natural regeneration seedling sprouts from stumps under two inches in diameter are more likely to be healthy than those from large stumps and if a stump rocks a sprout that starts at the ground or near it will usually be healthy some trees need a head start to be able to compete with others that grow faster most Appalachian hardwoods need this advanced reproduction as the foresters call it black cherry white ash basswood and these red and white oaks most folks around here harvest their timber by high grading removing all the trees over a certain diameter limit they cut down all the best trees without thinking about what will take their place those that are left poorly formed less desirable trees dominate the overstory while shade tolerant trees develop in the understory there are several harvesting methods you can use to get the next generation of trees to be what you're looking for there's a partial cut which leaves a lightly thin canopy and makes the least disturbance of the area but over time a partial cut changes the makeup of the stand and intolerant hardwoods give way to one or two species that germinate and grow under the shade of other trees another regeneration method is shelter wood which leaves some dominant trees as a partial canopy for five to ten years while undesirable trees are removed and those that are desired get a head start then the canopy is removed letting the seedlings and sprouts develop into an even aged stand then of course there's clear-cutting which removes the entire canopy allowing the growth of intolerant trees in an even aged stand this is a cherry maple stand with valuable Appalachian hardwoods and there's no shortage of seeds birds scatter black cherry seeds over a limited area and over a larger one the wind distribute seeds of white ash basswood red maple and sweet birch these trees need that head start and seedlings and sprouts almost always around need to be at least six inches high preferably two feet if that advanced growth is there clear-cut the salable trees leaving a few good tolerant saplings and cut or kill the others over two inches diameter at breast height if there's not enough advanced growth use shelter wood cutting starting five to ten years before your final harvest this is an oak hickory stand oaks are the most difficult Appalachian hardwoods to reproduce black walnut and hickory produce seeds every two or three years while oaks produce acorns at two to ten year intervals the seeds are heavy and stay where they fall unless animals carry them off of all hardwoods oaks are the most dependent on advanced reproduction seedlings and sprouts develop in the understory but grow slowly even in full sunlight on higher quality sites they need to be about four and a half feet high to compete with other trees when the canopy is removed how you remove the canopy depends on the quality of the site on which the stand is growing on lower quality sites where oaks grow to less than 60 feet in 50 years you should clear cut on higher quality sites where oaks grow 70 feet or more in 50 years you should use a shelter wood cut and remove the competing understory in late spring if you have a good seed crop let the acorns mature and make the initial shelter wood cuts in the winter once the oak seedlings have grown to about four and a half feet remove the remaining overstory this is a stand of mixed Appalachian hardwoods there's usually plenty of seeds here and advanced reproduction so you'll get lots of new trees but not necessarily what you want intolerant ones will start but won't develop unless the overstory is removed so if you are looking for intolerant trees with some tolerant ones mixed in clear cut using small openings of at least a half acre if you want tolerant species only use some partial cuttings such as single tree selection whatever regeneration method you use you may have to deal with certain problems if you have grapevines you need to control them before they take over the canopy of the new stand about eight to ten years after clear cutting ferns and other undesirable growth in the understory might striped maple or beach should be cut out or herbicide it so the seedlings and sprouts you want will have growing space if you have lots of deer they'll eat the young growth and you'll have to use shelter wood or clear cutting you can leave brush and treetops making it difficult for deer to get two seedlings and sprouts and increase the number and size of openings so they'll have more food than they need planning and managing harvests and regeneration can get tricky and it's a good idea to get help from the professionals state industrial and consulting foresters take a look at this stand back here Joe knows what he wants to do now with his wood lot he knows if he uses a partial cut the stand will gradually be taken over by trees that like the shade if he wants intolerant trees he needs to use shelter wood or clear cutting if he does clear cut he can minimize undesirable effects by using small openings with irregular edges that blend into the woods buffer strips along stream and well-planned roads and log landing Joe is pretty excited too about harvesting timber protecting the environment and making sure that in the future he has the kind of trees he wants on his wood lot books with more information about programs in this series are available from your extension agent