Damage
to Remaining Trees
Most timber harvests remove some but not all of the trees. The trees remaining
after a harvest will provide the value of your future stand. In particular,
thinning and single-tree
selection harvests leave a stand with nearly full forest cover and
typically strive to improve overall quality of the timber resource as
the stand develops. However, the activities of felling and removing trees
from a stand have the potential to damage the trees that are left standing.
Even horses and light-on-the-land logging equipment have the potential
to produce very significant damage to standing trees, and this damage
has very important ramifications to the health and vitality of your woodland
as well as the economic value of future timber harvests.
Logging damage to remaining trees will often reduce future tree growth and can lead to the death of otherwise healthy standing trees. When large branches are broken off or when bark is removed, fresh wood is exposed to a wide variety of tree insects and diseases, and some of these pests can kill previously healthy trees. At the very least, the wounding of a tree will introduce decay fungi that will discolor and rot the interior wood of a tree, which will reduce the quality, economic value, and merchantable volume of wood when these trees are ultimately harvested. Trees are most susceptible to damage in spring and summer when they are actively growing.
While it is essentially impossible to harvest trees without some level of damage to some of the remaining trees, it is important to minimize damage, both to the number of trees damaged and the extent of damage to any individual tree. Some strategies for controlling damage involve a fee schedule that fines a contractor for each tree damaged. Typically these fee systems are graduated based on the economic potential of the damaged tree. Another common strategy is to set a threshold for an acceptable number of damaged trees and any damage in excess of that threshold would cause a contract to default. For both of these systems, it may be important to define exactly what damage is in the contract. Under any circumstances, working closely with the logging contractor and clear communication of your concern regarding damage will help minimize logging damage to your woodland. Trees along skid trails, particularly at any turning points, and trees adjacent to areas where logs are stacked before being trucked to a mill are particularly prone to damage, so working closely with your contractor to minimize damage in these areas in particular will provide the most important protection to your future interests.
Dick and Charlotte Thompson learned from first hand experience the importance of strong contract provisions to protect against tree damage. On the Thompson’s tree farm near Osseo, they once had a logger damage about 125 red pine trees during a second thinning of a 26-acre plantation. A strong contract enabled the Thompsons to successfully negotiate a solution.