Redwood Saga (1940)
Guy D.Haselton
Subject: Look at that! It's gorgeous! Time to chop it down! TOTALLY ironic telling of Redwood trees that have lived "since the birth of Christ" and the narrator goes on and on about the beauty of them, while of course, they're being cut down for "better uses" (no, I'm not making that up) The narration is the best part of this tale. While the chopping down of California redwoods is sad and somewhat awesome to look at, the totally loopy narration that gloats about the beauty of the trees and then to have it come down just totally becomes one ironic hoot-fest. Recommended!
Cutting, loading, transportation, mill sawing and finishing operations of the Northern California's redwood lumber industry.
Creative Commons license: Public Domain
.
What Timber Landowners Need To Know
A majority of timber landowners don't exercise good woodlot management practices for a variety of reasons. These include failure to view their forest as a resource to be managed; their belief that leaving a forest alone will benefit it the most; their ignorance of the necessary procedures; and a general mistrust of most loggers and timber harvesting companies.
Because of their past experiences with indiscriminate logging, some landowners incorrectly correlate forest management with harvesting only largest of their trees. Many of these forest landowners are reluctant to plan any new management activity. Others are not aware of the potential for producing a forest crop on an ongoing continual basis.
In the past, woodlots were not managed for renewable crops. They were sporadically logged with little concern for improving upon the condition of the remaining tree stand. Normally only the best of the trees were removed, leaving the defective and low-value trees to inhabit an increasingly greater portion of their woodland.
Additionally, many farm woodlots have been used for grazing by livestock. Woodlots that have been grazed contain lower grade, defective material. Few desirable, merchantable trees are present, although desirable species may be reproduced where grazing has been discontinued. Most are overstocked and need a thinning cut to maintain rapid growth rates. This will also encourage additional reproduction, thereby establishing a multiple-aged stand.
Woodlot Management
Woodlot management is the care and maintenance given to a tree stand to encourage continuing yields of all products. Management practices that allow each acre of forest to produce at a maximum, in intangible benefits, such as aesthetics and environmental enhancement, or in actual tangible products, like various wildlife species, fuelwood, pulpwood, sawlogs or veneer.
Woodlot Management is concerned with providing an adequate number of trees of good form and quality, spaced to maximize both tree growth and use of available growing space. It's also concerned with the regeneration of the stand to replace harvested trees. This can be done through planting or natural sprouting or seeding; essential for these continued benefits.
Most woodlots require periodic thinning to obtain the best tree spacing. The amount of thinning necessary will vary depending on the species, the size and distribution of the trees in the stand. In a properly thinned stand, growth of remaining trees may double or triple. As trees increase in size, their growing space requirements likewise increase making these periodic thinnings necessary.
Later thinnings and harvesting will yield higher quality products and, more importantly, provide openings in the stand for the establishment of new trees. With some harvesting every few years, the woodlot can be managed to produce a continuing crop.
The proper timing and application of timber stand improvements, thinning and harvesting operations will gradually improve the quality of a woodlot and help maintain its productivity. Previously poorly managed forest stands can be better managed to produce at or near their full potential.
Additionally, while maximizing forest products through proper management, forest landowners will also gain the satisfaction from being good stewards of their land. Our goal here is to provide the information that timber landowners need to enable them to make these choices for their own circumstances. We also contribute the resources necessary to implement these decisions.