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Growing Heat
by Mary Jasch
In these days of out-of-control oil and gas prices, more people are turning to burning wood to keep their houses toasty. Sawmills and firewood business are booming. But why not grow your own in that patch of woods behind your house?
Heather Gracie-Petty, president of Gracie & Harrigan, Consulting Foresters in Far Hills, says most people who she works with manage their backyard woodlots for the principal purpose of growing and harvesting firewood in a sustainable way. “They do this by promoting the growth of higher quality trees -- channeling growth into healthier more vigorous trees that are less susceptible to disease and insect infestations, like gypsy moth, than an overstocked forest in decline." “We want to manage our woodlots sustainably but it's going to be very difficult if the deer populations are not controlled."
Forestry is sound management on a sustainable basis, she says. "In older forests with no deer and a good food source around, like beech and sugar maple, natural succession occurs."
On every job, no matter the management priority, Gracie's concerns include esthetics of the property and “releasing trees" -- giving them more light, soil moisture, and nutrients by cutting large nearby trees.
To get results for your backyard woodlot, it helps to know what you are starting with. Consulting foresters work with the owner, inspect the property, and write management plans that provide a baseline of your woodlot that includes: the kinds of stocking levels (over or understocked forest), tree size, distribution, age, and soil types. They rely on skilled loggers to do the work. They know how a tree will fall, understand esthetics, and minimize soil compaction caused by activity.
On one recent day she made the rounds to some clients.
First stop: Homestead Farm owned by Ed Carroll, a retired WWII marine who manages his 10-acre parcel of land in the Somerset County hills at the Passaic River headwaters. He takes firewood from his lot and burns three to four cords a year.“Guys come from Maine to help him cut his firewood in exchange for hunting privileges," says Gracie who marks the trees to cull.
Carroll has a 10-year management plan for his backyard woodlot with Gracie, who inventoried the lot, and documented its health and conditions. The plan calls for cutting out dead and diseased trees to promote growth of healthier trees. His is an older woods whose deeper soils support upland oaks, tulip poplar, red and sugar maples, American beech, black birch, ironwood, and white ash. Some of the trees are 100 years old. So many woodlot owners like Ed just enjoy the land. They like the quiet serenity of it.
“When in a watershed area, having a healthier forest has a positive impact on the watershed by wicking up impurities, softening the impact of rain, and stabilizing the soil," she says. “I form a relationship with land owners. We share ideas about what they envision for their land. This property is so much a part of Ed."
Stop Two: At a Bernardsville “country gentleman's" farm, loggers cut long boles of big trees for timber. The seven-acre over-mature woodlot has trees over 100 years old. Some became weak due to a closing forest canopy that decreased available light. Some developed heart rot, at first unnoticeable but later visible as weaknesses in bark structure.
“New Jersey has great soil from old farms. It grows great lumber," says Gracie, referring to the old oaks and tall straight tulip poplar. Here, trees are selectively cut for timber management that yields veneer, moldings, and lumber. Loggers removed the old diseased trees, just five or six per acre. "We're not driven by the dollar. We're driven by what's good for the woods."
“You can come back here in spring and never know they were cut. We didn't take that many trees out so it doesn't look that much different than when we started."
“We love trees. You have to cut trees sometimes to make other trees grow better. Healthier trees translate to better wildlife, better watersheds, and trickles down to everything else. New Jersey forests are getting older," she says. “This type of selective cutting brings wood to the marketplace, stimulates the economy, and is good for the woods under supervision."
Stop Three: A tree planting in Peapack where 50 acres are all fenced. It is an educational tool to show what New Jersey woodlands can look like when deer population is kept under control. Gracie has worked here for 20 years, and the fence has been up for 10. Since then, Gracie has seen naturally recurring regeneration of native species out-competing invasive species in areas being left alone. Other areas are being rejuvenated by controlling invasive species and active reforestation.
Ten years ago this old farm field gone to heavy seed was all brush and vines. A garden crew mowed down multiflora rose, barberry, and brambles and pulled out honeysuckle vines. They took out a lot of black locust and planted red oak and tulip poplar and placed 2 x 2-foot brush mats around the base of trees to keep vegetation down. They kept native species like flowering dogwood. To keep these botanic pests at bay, the crew routinely mows and weed-wacks.
“It triggered a whole new forest here without interference from deer," says Gracie. “We started this just as an experiment and it worked. We left as much as we could."
Up along the property's perimeter, Gracie keeps a mowed trail next to the eight-foot fence in order to monitor the woods and to provide recreation for the owners. The forest here is a young, early successional one, and the plan is to accelerate its growth by planting native species.
After the area was fenced, there was a delayed period before they saw new growth because the deer had eaten the seed source of acorns. Now, American beech and chestnut oak are coming up. A lot of firewood is removed from this area as well as a few logs. “The forest had been so damaged by deer, now the emphasis is on tree planting."
Next to the trail, Gracie and crew are changing what was an entanglement of invasive plants. They mowed brush for two seasons (starting a year ago), planted sugar maple, red oak, dogwood, and fir, and monitored the invasives. This spring they'll take off some of the overstock trees (trees that are too crowded) to give the seedlings a better chance for survival.
“Now that we have established what we want, we will change the species composition of this forest that's more native to New Jersey with replacement of desirable trees." This plot will yield firewood and the owner will get someone to come in to take the locust for posts.
Stop Four: On a corner lot along a Peapack road, Gracie's crew removed tangles of invasive species. They mowed down Chinese privet (Ligustrum sinense) and Japanese barberry with a four-foot brush mower on tracks and severed Oriental bittersweet vines. They'll use Round Up in spring and plant 25 to 50 trees, monitor them, and put up tree protection against deer browse and antler rub. They'll use either five-foot tubes of corrugated plastic that let in light for the seedlings to grow through to sunlight or wire cages.
When brush grows back, they'll let it re-emerge and mow again because it can only take so much leaf loss (and lack of photosynthesis) until the roots die. The vines will dry up and blow down from the trees. “It's a very long term battle." The lot will be managed for firewood, vine control and invasive brush control.
Stop Five: Want to keep deer out of your garden? Then give them their own. On this 80 acre farm, owners wanted to keep the deer away from the house and planted landscape. Gracie chose a patch of Eastern Red Cedar in which to plant a wildlife food plot for the deer. They kept early successional hardwoods and removed cedar trees, giving some to an area artist to make Adirondack furniture. They cleared the area down to tillable soil. They raked, limed, and fertilized, and planted annual oats that grow in temperatures down to 35 degrees. Next year, they'll plant an “ecological mix" of turnips (irresistible to deer), clover (for turkey and grouse), and chicory (deer, birds, turkey).
“As foresters, our big concerns are deer and invasives. Part of forestry is wildlife habitat management." And Gracie's final advice? “Don't plant invasives as landscape plants."
“People should be good stewards of the land and take care of it. The forest is very dynamic and ever-changing -- you have to work with the forest to extend the longevity of trees and to make it a whole healthier environment. The healthier the forest is, the better it is at filtering pollutants and making better watersheds. As responsible stewards of the land, we need to take care of it."
How to choose trees for firewood: Cut down dead, dying, deformed, and diseased trees or those too closely spaced together. Keep diversity for wildlife that use trees for nesting and denning.
Sustainable Woodlot Management Tips:
Remove trees that are dead, dying, deformed, and diseased.
Maintain species diversity
Protect wildlife habitat sources, i.e. species for food and shelter.
Free up young trees growing near old trees, depending on condition.
Encourage brush piles. Birds set up nests in them in February and March.
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published December 06, 2005
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