CALLAHAN, Florida—Most of the work in the forestry industry is done out of public view, deep in the forest, so it’s no wonder many school children don’t know a lot about forestry.

A group of more than two dozen forestry-related businesses here in Nassau County came together to change that, hosting Northeast Florida’s first-ever Forestry Career Day at the Northeast Florida Fairgrounds in September 2019.

Just under 200 high school juniors and seniors were immersed in forestry career experiences throughout the day, trying their hands at operating heavy equipment, researching genetics and even flying drones.

The theme of the day: there’s a forestry career for everyone and every level of education, whether you’re looking for something you can do with on-the-job training only, or with a Ph. D. 

“There are so many facets to working in forestry,” says Jody Davis, New England Forestry’s Manager of Human Relations and Talent Acquisition. “There are jobs from operational equipment operators to foresters, who are the science behind the growth and the replanting of trees.”

A Rising Demand for Forestry Heavy Equipment Operators

Employers are experiencing a rising need for employees in the operational side of the industry, which includes work such as operating heavy equipment and driving log trucks. New England Forestry Senior Resource Land Manager Ed Carter, who came up with the idea to host the event, says these jobs are ideal for students who don’t want to attend a four-year college program.

“There are vital jobs out there,” he says. “We want to reach all those students and let them know, in the forestry industry, you can make a great living and a career even though you don’t get a four-year degree.”

Several local heavy equipment operator employers, including Tim-Prep, Bobcat of Jacksonville and Conner + Conner Logging, allowed students to sit in the driver’s seat of their equipment, operating a skid steer, a mini excavator and even moving logs with a loader.

Students also learned firsthand from foresters about their role in the forest, from grafting and genetics to maintaining water quality and protecting wildlife. Representatives from colleges including the University of Florida, University of Georgia and Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College talked to students about their offerings for forestry degree programs.

There were also hands-on lessons about GIS mapping, a field the industry depends on to ensure data is accurate on each stand of trees.

Jim Tootle, a Senior Forester for the Florida Forest Service, says learning about forestry at this stage in their lives can help students get a good start in the industry.

“When I enrolled in the forestry program, I had no clue what I was getting into. I just knew I wanted to work outdoors,” he recalls, “so I didn’t really know how to focus my studies in a particular direction that I wanted to go. Something like this may give a student an idea of what direction they want to go in the forestry industry.” 

Forestry a Major Industry in Florida

In Florida, forestry is a critical industry. In fact, forest land accounts for almost half of Florida’s total land area. The forestry industry employs 124,000 people and contributes $25 billion to the state’s economy every year, according to the Florida Forestry Association. 

Representatives from the production side of forestry, including New England Forestry Advanced Materials and Westrock, taught students about the many items in their typical day that come from the forest and how they are made. More than 5,000 everyday forest products play a key role in our daily lives, including lumber, plywood and papers and cardboards, as well as items with a lesser-known wood component, such as LCD screens, rubber tires, bath products, even diapers. You can learn more about why trees are used in so many products by checking out our #ItStartsWithTrees articles.

To learn more about Forestry careers, visit New England Forestry’s Forestry Careers Resources page, which explains what different forestry careers are and links to schools, vocational programs and other resources for future foresters, at https://www.neforestrydistribution.com/careers/career-resources/.

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KINGSLAND, Georgia—A row of south Georgia pines appears to be on the move as an aptly-named feller buncher saws through more than a dozen trees in a row, gathering them in its claw-like grip while they’re still upright. 

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.

This is a thinning operation, and only a portion of the trees will be harvested.

WHAT IS THINNING TREES?

Believe it or not, thinning trees is one of the healthiest activities that can be done for a growing forest. Once trees have matured to a certain age—here in this Georgia forest, they’re about a decade old—they begin to compete with each other for nutrients, water and light. 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.

“We remove trees that are small, forked, diseased. Any trees with defects,” explains Resource Land Manager Josh Steiger.

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.

“Thinning is a big part of what we do. It allows the crop trees to grow and expand into the solid wood product that we want when we clear cut that stand. We want to have a lot of really good options for whatever our customers will need,” Josh explains. (“Crop trees” refers to trees that will be managed to full maturity and then marketed for their highest and best use).

Similar to weeding a garden, the removal of trees in a thinning leaves the forest less crowded so light can reach more of the tree canopy, and nutrients and water aren’t so hard to come by. After all, there are no sprinkler systems in the forest: there’s only so much water to go around.

WHAT HAPPENS TO THE TREES THAT ARE REMOVED IN A THINNING?

After growing for about 10 to 14 years, the trees removed in a thinning have an important role to play. The majority will go to pulp mills, where they will be processed into the pulp substance that is used in thousands of everyday products, such as paper, cardboard, fabrics, bath products, rubber tires and LCD screens.

WHY NOT PLANT LESS TREES IN THE FIRST PLACE RATHER THAN THIN LATER?

Foresters plant a certain number of trees per-acre with the full knowledge that some of those trees will later be thinned from the forest. In the meantime, those trees help develop a healthy forest in a number of ways:

• First, they help stabilize the soils when seedlings are first planted in the freshly-tilled ground.
• Secondly, when trees are planted closer together, they tend to grow tall rather than wide, with less branches on their trunks. This is important for the quality of the wood of the trees that will grow to full maturity: less branches means less knots in the wood, making a stronger and more attractive product.
• Third, as mentioned above, the trees that are removed play an important role in the forestry industry, supplying much of the wood needed in pulp production.
• And, finally, the trees destined for thinning offer the same environmental benefits as all trees while they grow: sequestering carbon, filtering water, stabilizing soils, providing shade and a host of other benefits.

WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO A FOREST IF THE TREES WEREN’T THINNED?

“We know that any given acre of land can only grow a certain amount of fiber,” Josh says. “If we do not thin, when that stand reaches its capacity, something that’s very common is what we call ‘self-thinning.’ The trees that are less vigorous will start to die.”

When the forest self-thins, it can be more vulnerable to disease and insect infestations, which can “absolutely devastate” a stand of trees, he says.

How does thinning trees impact wildlife and plant life in the forest?

Thinning a forest can have a significantly positive impact on wildlife and plant life in the forest. When a stand of pines needs to be thinned, the thick cover of treetops—known as the overstory—blocks almost all sunlight from reaching the forest floor. That prevents most plants—or, understory—from growing on the forest floor. After a thinning, shrubs and bushes that foraging animals seek for shelter and food become more readily available.

WHAT HAPPENS TO THE FOREST AFTER A THINNING?

Once a forest is thinned, the remaining trees will often be fertilized to give them a boost as they now have space to grow. But, for the most part, with more light reaching their leaves, more water reaching their roots, and more nutrients to go around, nature will take its course and the trees will naturally grow into a more robust, mature forest.

FOR FURTHER READING ON THINNING TREES:

Tree Thinning 101, by the American Forest Foundation

Thinning my Forest, Partnership for Forestry Education

The post What is Thinning Trees, and Why Do Foresters Do It? appeared first on New England Forestry Stories.

What happens on a timber cruise, and why is it important in forest management?

A timber cruise is an essential tool used by foresters to determine the value of a specific area of land, including the trees.

To learn more about how this process works, we talked to three New England Forestry employees, including Florida Resource Unit Leader Rick Piagno, Timber Marketing Manager Rusty Cobb and Resource Land Manager Kyle Purvis.

WHAT EXACTLY IS A TIMBER CRUISE?

“At a basic level, timber cruising involves collecting information like tree measurements on specific plots,” says Rick, who’s based in Hastings, Florida. “This allows the company to calculate how much monetary value we have in the trees and land.”

That information is critical to the company’s budgeting and planning, but it has to be obtained in a way that makes sense financially.

“We can’t measure every single tree. That’s just not possible, and it would be way too costly even if we could do it,” adds Rusty, who’s based in Yulee, Florida. “We take a statistical sample instead, collect the data, and run that through some analysis software that gives us a good estimate for how much volume of wood is out there in a particular stand.”

A stand is a community of trees that are uniform in age, species and condition. 

The First Type of Cruise is Called Timber Cruising

Rick says there are two types of cruising: “The first I’ll refer to as timber cruising, which is primarily used prior to harvesting a stand or group of stands.”

“With this type of cruise, we measure tree diameters and heights, then class each tree as to the product it will likely be merchandised as—such as pulpwood, sawtimber, etc.”

Pulpwood trees have a smaller diameter than the larger sawtimber trees. They’re used in everyday products like paper, the LCD screen on your phone, bath products like lotions and soaps, diapers, and thousands of other products. You can learn more about why it’s in so many products in our #ItStartsWithTrees article series.

Sawtimber logs have a larger diameter with few flaws. They provide the wood used for planks, boards and other lumber used in building houses, fences, furniture and other wood products.

Once the tree diameters and heights are recorded and classifications are determined, Rick says, “this information is first used to estimate the volume of timber in each product class, then used to value the timber.”

The Second Type of Cruise is Called Inventory Cruising.

“Inventory Cruising is generally done at specific ages in a stand’s life. This information is used and maintained in our system so we understand what volume is available at any point in time—primarily in the future.”

Rick likens it to a store owner inventorying their merchandise so they know how much of each item they have in stock.

Rusty adds that an inventory timber cruise plays an important role in planning for the future. The data is entered into growth and yield models to project what the forests’ wood supply will be in years to come, when the trees reach maturity.

He says inventory cruising is also done close to harvest time.

“That way we know real accurately what to expect for pricing” when the trees are harvested and weighed, he explains. “That’s how we budget each year, based on those cruises.”

He demonstrates an inventory cruise in the video below:

WHAT HAPPENS ON A TIMBER CRUISE?

Both types of cruises are completed in a similar manner. 

New England Forestry’s Land Information Services, or LIS, team determines where information is needed in order to predict the current and future value of a specific stand of trees. The team enters the coordinates they need information about into a software system that the foresters will have access to in the field.

“Basically, a pre-established grid is laid out over a stand of timber,” Rick explains. “The cruiser walks through the woods on a certain bearing for a specific distance, then stops and measures a plot. Where they stop is called the plot center. The plot is a small subsample of the timber near the center.” 

What Types of Tools are Used on a Timber Cruise?

Several different methods can be used to complete a cruise depending on the type of cruising and information needed, but the most common are variable plots, fixed area plots, and rectangle plots. 

The tools foresters typically use to complete the measurements include:

Prism – While a forester stands at the plot center, this tool is used to determine which trees should be measured and which should not. If the view of a tree’s trunk within the prism touches the view of the trunk outside the prism, it should be measured.

Diameter Tape – This specially-calibrated tape is stretched around the tree trunk at a height of 4 1/2 feet, also known as Diameter at Breast Height, or DBH. This measurement can be entered into a formula to also determine the cross sectional area of the tree, which is called the Basal Area. This helps determine both the size of the trees and the density of the stand (in other words, whether the trees are crowded or well-spaced).

Measuring tree diameter during a timber cruise. Notice that the numbers are different from a traditional tape measure, because it measures diameter rather than circumference.

Clinometer, Hypsometer or Biltmore Stick – All three of these tools can be used for the same purpose: to measure tree height without having to leave the ground. A forester will stand away from the tree at a specific distance, look through to the top of the tree using the tool, and read the height.

• A clinometer contains an ocular gauge with numbers inside to help the forester calculate height using basic trigonometry
• A hypsometer is like a clinometer, but it also incorporates a laser to further ensure accuracy.
• A Biltmore Stick looks like a yardstick, but is calibrated to calculate height.

Data Recorder or Tablet – A handheld computer allows foresters to enter their measurements into New England Forestry’s company-wide mapping system as they take them.

Kyle, who’s based in Lufkin, Texas, explains, “The tablet is probably the most important tool we have. It’s an important data recorder that lets us input all of our values” and update the company’s systems with the new information instantly.

Kyle enters data into his tablet after measuring a tree in a specific plot.

New England Forestry uses either employees or contractors to complete the work depending upon the scope of the project and location, and the time it takes depends upon the size of the stand and conditions in the woods.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF TIMBER CRUISING?

“Cruising timber is really important to the company,” says Kyle. “It basically lets the company know what they have.

“It also lets them know if there’s anything wrong with the stand, any bug spots or maybe a small fire broke out. So it serves multiple purposes.”

Foresters also look for signs of important animal habitats, such as the Red Hills Salamander habitat on our Alabama land, a gopher tortoise burrow on our Florida land, a Northern Spotted Owl habitat on our Pacific Northwest land or kiwi in New Zealand. If a habitat is found, the forester marks that location on the tablet to ensure the habitat will not be disturbed during forestry operations.

“Anything that we could pose a threat to, we definitely want to protect and make it known that that area has something that we’re trying to protect,” Kyle says.

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LUFKIN, Texas—Did you ever look at a towering, perfectly-straight utility pole and wonder what tree could have made such a large pole?

Some of them come from New England Forestry land!

The most valuable trees on our land in the U.S. South, “pole” trees can become utility poles for telephone and power lines or piles for docks and piers.

“It Starts with Genetics”

Pine trees in a natural forest typically do not provide a large number of poles, explains New England Forestry’s Lufkin-based senior timber marketing manager, Jeremy Flood. But our in-house genetic research team has worked to develop seed families that produce tall, straight trees with smaller branches.

“It starts with genetics,” Jeremy says, “followed by decades of management with proper thinning and fertilization. The result is mature plantations with high quality grade timber.”

Finding the Right Trees for Poles

Even though the trees in a stand of timber are the same age and species, they still mature to a variety of shapes and sizes. A forest manager ensures each tree reaches its highest potential use. Trees worthy of becoming poles are the rarest—and, consequently, the most valuable—because of the very specific requirements that must be met in order to qualify.

Without careful planning and attention to detail, one could overlook these valuable trees, selling them as sawtimber, a significantly less valuable product. Jeremy’s team created a plan to ensure as many trees as possible became poles.

“It Would Be a Waste Not to Capture Their Full Potential”

“These stands have been nurtured and grown for more than 25 years. It would be a waste to not capture their full potential,” says timber marketing manager Shane Bergman, who spearheaded the project.

To locate potential poles before a harvest, a forest technician takes an inventory, statistically measuring the stand of trees to locate those that meet the size specifications needed for poles. Our foresters work closely with a logging contractor, who cuts them down, separates them from the other trees, and places them to the side for the next step.

Strict Specifications for a Log to Become a Pole

Once the poles are laying side-by-side in a giant row, a forester inspects them one-by-one. He measures them to ensure they’re straight, with an even thickness and free of defects like scars and knots that could penetrate the wood. They also have to be the right diameter for the customer’s needs.

“Poles have very tight specifications required by the customer and consumer,” Jeremy explains.  “It’s not all cosmetic, much of the specs are required for engineering purposes, to ensure strength and longevity.”

They reject, or “cull,” logs that don’t meet the rigorous standards and use them for sawtimber. Using a chainsaw, they manually cut those that meet the standards to the exact size specifications of the buyer.

The logger delivers the logs to a pole mill to be processed into the final product.

Shane couldn’t be happier with the way the project worked out.

“It’s exciting to scale poles because of the relationships you build,” he says. “As you work with the contractors you get to learn about them and see that they have the same values as New England Forestry when it comes to being a good steward of the forest. We truly get to work with some great individuals.”

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