What you don’t know about- Your Trees?
If the farmer next door harvested his corn, and planned on another crop of corn next fall, but didn’t replant the corn next spring, you’d know that he was stupid. Well, a lot of forest landowners have been doing just that with their trees. Mostly, it’s because they don’t know what they’re doing.They hear one of the following “lines” from disreputable loggers and believe them, but these are only lines to take advantage of landowners, loggers have been saying them so long, they believe they are true and the right thing to do to your woods.
“You take out the big trees to make room for the younger ones. I only cut trees larger than 16 inches”(that means he cuts all the good trees and leaves all the junk for your children to deal with)
“Those trees are getting too big. They’re starting to rot from the center out. You better cut them all before you lose all that money.” (Scare tactic to get you to sell)
“You don’t need a forester to mark your trees for you. Why pay him to mark them for you? I can do the same thing, and you won’t have to pay me, I’ve been practicing conservation for 30 years.” (Does a logger really represent you, or himself? Does he really know the science of growing trees.)
“That forester left a lot of good trees up there. They’re just going to rot, they should have been cut too.”
“Those little holes in those trees are just going to get worse, you better cut it now before they rot, don’t let the gypsy moths, tent caterpillars or that new one the peach bark beetle get them. All your ash are going to die from the Emerald Ash borer, you better cut them now”
“I leave those big old gnarly trees with holes in them for wildlife and seed trees. They make good seed.” ( seed trees are good, but not poor genetics, nor something that stops the growth of young seedlings)
“I cut all the junk and only cut those trees that are ready to sell (how would a landowner know?)
“The prices are high now, don’t wait until the prices drop.”
“I am a forester for a sawmill, I pay the same for consultant’s timber sales as I do my own, I mark the trees the same way, you won’t gain anything by hiring a forester to represent you, you’ll just lose his fee.”
“I could bid, but I prefer to pay on a percentage. I would have to be careful bidding. You should receive what your trees are really worth.(that’s because he really doesn’t know what he is doing)
“I’ll pay you $1,000 an acre for your land” (It’s possible that your trees are worth a lot more than that!)
“I’ll build you a beautiful network of roads in exchange for some of your trees.” ( you might end up with a $10,000 road, but the timber should have brought you $50,000, how would a landowner know)
How would a landowner know the following: Are all trees worth the same to every buyer? How much money should I receive for my trees? Which tree should be cut or left to meet my family’s objectives? What does a good marking job look like? Is a little tree a younger tree or a tree that is of poor genetics or poor quality? What is a good tree farm supposed to look like? Most landowners don’t have a clue, but they’ll trust the buyer of their trees to tell them, and some will listen. These lines may sound good, but they are just sales pitches, to get you to sell your trees to them. A disreputable logger plans on you not knowing the truth, and hopes you will fall for one of his lines to his advantage, and give your timber to him. The truth is, your forests are a very complex group of trees, interacting with one another in a way that you can enhance, to help you and your family, meet your objectives. Whether it be for wildlife, recreation, or increased income from timber sales.
There are several ways you can manage your Tree Farm. A common method is for a landowner to contact a logger they heard about, and let the logger do whatever he wants. This method of managing your tree farm is called several things, Logger’s Choice, Hygrading, Selective Thinning (where the logger selects what he wants and leaves what he doesn’t want), Raping (where the logger sells what he can make money on and leaves what he can’t make any money on), Cut the Best and Leave the Rest. Your trees growing on your property have become incredibly valuable and disreputable loggers hope that you don’t know this. In fact, they plan on you not really knowing anything about your trees, and simply believing them. The truth is, forest landowners that have a timber sale without a certified forester, has been taken advantage of.
Your tree farm has great potential to produce great wildlife habitat and great income for you and your family forever. However, this potential can easily be destroyed in just a few short weeks of letting an unsupervised, disreputable logger
loose on your property. There are many dynamic forces in action on your property surrounding your trees, one of which is the rate of growth of the highly prized hardwood sawtimber growing on your property. Your trees are growing about 5% volume per year. Currently, an average Black Cherry tree of 150 board feet should be netting you near $200.
It’s really sad when I get called in after the landowner has made a mistake to try to put all the pieces back together again. Common “after the destruction” lines from loggers are:
“Well, it didn’t cut out as much as I thought it would.”
“The quality wasn’t what I was hoping, I’m sorry.”
“Well, the veneer buyer just didn’t think it was as good a grade of veneer as I was hoping.”
“Oh, that’s standard procedure, to leave the landing and the trails like that.”
“Oh, that’s not a veneer log, that’s really a firewood log (how would you know?).”
“I thought your property line was further than that, I didn’t mean to cut on your neighbor.”
Most landowners don’t know anything about their trees, and a disreputable logger knows that, so he can take advantage of you and your family and the income that he’s making off of your trees. Further, he hopes that you don’t make him cut any of the junk out of the woods because that’s a cost to him. It isn’t a cost to good loggers. Good loggers recognize the value of practicing good forest management, but how would you know a good logger from a disreputable logger? From a neighbor’s referral? How would they really know? Who can you trust?
It can be a simple decision with a certified forester helping you and your family scientifically do what you want to do with your property and forest lands. There’s a tremendous amount of competition for forest products today from good forest products companies, and the competition that your forester creates for you and your family, will drive the price of your forest products to their maximum. Your increased return that your forester gets for you and your family for the timber that’s being sold off of your property will more than cover his commission, while at the same time he also cares about his seven children’s future making sure that your next sales will continue to grow valuable forest products for both of our families.
In order for your trees to grow properly, they need to be an optimum spacing for their age. When your forest started, more trees seeded in naturally than is best for growing at optimum levels. A forester knows which trees are ready to be sold now, which trees should be cut to maximize on the current markets, and which crop trees should be released for the next sale. A certified forester knows which trees have reached their maximum potential. He knows which trees should be thinned out to give more space so good trees are left for you and your family to grow faster for the next sale. You don’t have to decide if a sales pitch is the truth, you will know every tree that is going to be cut and for what purpose, and how much it’s worth before it’s cut. It’s important now and for our children. If you just cut out all the Black Cherry, Hard Maple, Red Oak, and White Ash on your property and don’t give any consideration for your children, it may be the last time that your property ever grows another Cherry tree. If you allow that disreputable logger to come in and cut what he wants, you may never grow what you and your family want to again.
I believe managed timber will be a rare commodity soon. High quality timber is not common, good quality genetics in the seeds will be lost on many properties forever. I want my son to have good timber for his children too, it’s not hard to do. Our brochure goes into more detail. Talk to a Certified Foresterand learn how you and your family can have income from your trees today and tomorrow. 09/30/2018