Why The Trees Need Harvesting

Trees can get sick, injured from neighbor trees, broken by heavy snows, snapped by windstorms, or attacked by creatures all throughout their lifespans.

The current logging job on the farm is a necessity. The large trees have come to a point where they are no longer growing effectively and they are taking up valuable sunlight and nutrients that the smaller trees need to grow.

There is also an issue with stump rot, a subject that is  a bane to all woodsmen. With stump rot, the conditions are ripe for ants to move in and take up residence inside the tree. Birds attack the tree to try to get to the ants. Larger predators move in to capture the birds, and on it goes.

This tree was just cut down when we noticed the whole heart of the tree was infested with ants. About 10 feet had to be cut off before the heart of the tree no longer had the ant colony ruining the valuable wood.

This is the same tree after the 10 feet had been removed. The heart shows that when it was a young tree about 20-30 years old it was damaged which caused that darker, uneven ring near the center. This tree was struggling to grow and tried valiantly for another 50 or more years, but the ants found the weak spot and moved in from the base of the tree. Between the shadows you may also be able to see gray/blue-ish looking areas, these also show that the tree is dying slowly.

This one tree has 10-15 trees around it that will fill in the space left by this tree. By removing this tree, the young vibrant trees in the area will take advantage of the opening, and double their size in just a few years.