Trees, Pastures and Pests Question

[Drawbar]

I got a real tough issue I am struggling with right now. 12 years ago I planted 12 acres of pasture ground into a High Bred Hackmatack tree plantation. Over these 12 years these tree have grown about half-way to maturity, or about 8-12 inches in diameter at the base and perhaps 30-50 feet tall.

Now the Maine Forest Service's Forest Pathologist has confirmed this tree plantation has been hit with a High Bred Hack bark beetle pest. It burrows into the wood and and soon cause tree mortality. It only averages 3-4 trees per acre per year though.Now that is not good news, but not terrible news either.

Now enter a fledgling beef operation. I would like to raise beef cows as a way to pay for my property taxes and other land ownership expenses. Since this is former pasture ground, it only makes sense to use this same acreage. The way I look at it, I have three options:

1. I can fence around the existing, half mature trees and simply hope the bark beetle infestation slows or is not significant enough to really stop the overall growth of the trees. At the same time, because of the wide tree spacing, some grass grows among the trees and I can graze some cattle on it. A little-bit-of-both-worlds kind of thing.

2. I can thin the tree plantation out by taking every other row out, allowing the crown area to thin and the grass would grow better for the grazing cattle. This would give me a little bit of return on the tree investment should the bark beetle infestation intensify. Still if the trees ended up shrugging off the bark beetle pest, down the road I could get full sized trees. At the same time I could take some of the profits from the tree harvest and invest in the cattle side of things.

3. Clear cut the tree plantation and glean what I can from the sale of the trees though the trees are only half mature. I could then use the profit from the tree harvest and invest that in the cattle operation. With more money, and more grass growing in the full sunlight, the cattle operation would be better, but the tree plantation would of course be over

As I said, its kind of a tough call. I was just curious what other homesteaders think would be the best course? If pictures help, you can check out this webpage I have dedicated to this tree plantation. These pictures were taken only two weeks ago (mid-March). They will give you a better idea of what I am talking about.

http://www.railroadmachinist.com/Wood-Treegrowth.html

[Deberosa]

Well, I am no expert so take my thoughts with a grain of salt. But what I was thinking is that I would thin the trees, but not a row at a time. I would take out the same number but on a grid that left double the distance between trees that you have now. Sort of every other tree alternating in every other row if you know what I mean. Also removing any trees that appear to have the beetle in the process.

I would do that because with the trees farther apart it may be less likely that the beetle will spread... Also give them more light and space to be strong enough to fight off the beetle attacks...

That would also leave more grass for the cattle.

Sure looks like a great place you have there!

Debbie

[msta999]

Do the buggs crawl or fly? If they crawl, seems like you could find something to contain/kill them. Seems to me, that you would atleast want to remove the infected trees and maybe some around them. But I'm no tree doc, so this might not work. Did the Maine Forest Service's Forest Pathologist reccomend anything?

Is this the same as the Emerald Ash borer? If so, this might be of interest. Start on Page 30

http://www.invasive.org/eab/eab2004.pdf

[Drawbar]

The Pathologist just said to make sure not to leave any dead trees around. For instance when he was over I was working on a new addition on my house and had to remove several tress. These he felt should be cleaned up and burned, especially around June/July when the bark beetle were very active.

The good news is, this is a high bred tree, so the bark beetle cannot spread to any of my native trees. The wood is not under a quarantine either, so luckily this can be shipped to market. Since its a paper-making tree, the bark beetles would be quickly killed there.

As for traveling I am not sure how they travel. I know I have the only High Bred Hack Plantation for miles around, so however they got here, I assume they are pretty hearty travelers.

[MadTripper]

Is it possible to know which trees have the beetles? If so, you might be able to thin only these trees out and perhaps a few per year. This would consistently decrease the population of the bugs and give the future growth a better chance. Of course this method would also increase the grassy area slowly and you could increase your cattle as well.

I'm not guaranteeing this would work but from a logic standpoint, it makes sense. Adding some preventative measure against the beetles by way of spray or maybe importing some type of predator would help as well.

Tripper

[annabella1]

If the trees are for paper pulp maybe coppicing would help. Since the trees are ground for pulp you don't need big trunks. Its not done much in the USA but is very popular in Europe. Check with the paper mill you would be selling to. It might be that you could harvest more frequently if they would take the trees this way.

[Drawbar]

Is it possible to know which trees have the beetles? If so, you might be able to thin only these trees out and perhaps a few per year. This would consistently decrease the population of the bugs and give the future growth a better chance. Of course this method would also increase the grassy area slowly and you could increase your cattle as well.

I'm not guaranteeing this would work but from a logic standpoint, it makes sense. Adding some preventative measure against the beetles by way of spray or maybe importing some type of predator would help as well.

Tripper

You are right, and spot on, but here is the problem. They are High Bred Hack Trees, an evergreen, but they lose their needles during the winter...the only evergreen tree that does this. They look dead for 7 months out of the year then in the Spring I notice a few trees per acre never bud out. That is when I know something is wrong. By then the bark beetle and sap suckers have done their job and the tree is dead.

In some ways you can kind of tell which trees are next. At least you can tell that some trees are stressed. It only makes sense the bark beetle is part of that stress.

I am thinking quite strongly of doing a little thinning this Spring. Right now the snow is still melting in the woods and its very muddy, too muddy to log, but out in the tree plantations where the wind and sun can get to the ground (because of the lack of needles), the ground is pretty firm. Its a lot more work because the trees are small, but this might allow me to keep my tree plantation viable, yet grow a little grass for my cattle too?

I am going to talk to my trucker too and see if can mix tree species. You used to be able to mix Hack with Hemlock. If that is still okay, I could mix bigger hemlock from my natural forest with the smaller trees in my tree plantation. I would have to wait until after mud season is over with, but that might be a better alternative.