The New York Forest Owner - Volume 22 Number 1

2 New York Forest Owner

Vol. 22, No.1

THENEW YORK FOREST OWNERS

ASSOCIATIONEditor

Evelyn Stock5756lke Dixon Rd.Camillus, NY 13031

In This IssueP. 2 New Members; DirectorsP. 3 President's MessageP. 4 The Saratoga NurseryP. 5 Property #2-Sandlot, by Al

RobertsP. 6-7 Selling Some Oak Sawtimber, by

N.A. RichardsP. 8-9 How to Blaze BoundariesP. 10 Another in our series of Forests in

Other Countries: Japan, byHoward and Richard Ward.

P.11 Forest Bookshelf; Trip to U.K.; Onthe Calendar; Letter to the Editor

P. 12 Energy Tree for the Eighties:Hybrid Poplars; How Much Does aTree Weigh? by Doug Monteith

FRONT COVERFour year old Hybrid Poplar Plantation at

Frey & Sons Nursery, Ephrata, PA 17522.

WelcomeOur New MembersMr. & Mrs. Kenneth L. Baker6711 Southpoint Dr.Dallas, TX 75248Robert BlyMorgan Hollow Rd.Hinsdale, NY 14743George Broseman129 Excell Rd.RD #1Earlville, NY 13332Rick CoughlanForest ConsultantButtermilk FallsRFD #1Argylle, NY 12809

Wayne Cox6370 Bunting Rd.Orchard Park, NY 14127

Jay M. Eckel230 Weiss St.Buffalo, NY 14206

~ ._-

New Members

Richard J. FoxRD #3Moravia, NY 13118

Robert K. Glidden546 Goundry St.N. Tonawanda, NY 14120

Irene Jessen/Steven LeviRD #3 Dandelion HillNewfield, NY 14867

Rodney M. JonesNortheast Timber Services118 W. Main St.Hancock, NY 13783

Mr. & Mrs. William D. Knauss178 Brentwood CircleNorth Andover, MA 01845

Ms. Elizabeth P. Knauss178 Brentwood CircleNorth Andover, MA 01845

Barry LeifheitRD #, Box 2435Phoenix, NY 13135

Harvey MorseAndes, NY 13731

Donald W. Munson46 Endicott Dr.Buffalo, NY 14226

James M. Roberts227 Winsor Ave.Jamestown, NY 14701

George RoodBarnard Rd.Phoenix, NY 13135

Mr. & Mrs. Carl Rosenblum1024 Arabella St.New Orleans, LA 70115

Robert Schmedes23 Frankland Rd.Rochester, NY 14617

Published by theNEW YORK FOREST OWNERS

NYFOA DirectorsAs of November 1, 1983

(By date their terms expire)1984

'Robert L. Demeree'David H. Hanaburgh, James P. LassoieHarold PetrieNorman Richards'Robert M. SandLloyd G. Strombeck

'Will complete 6 years as Director.1985

Ken EberleyRichard E. GarrettJ. Claude LeCoursMary S. McCartyDouglas B. MonteithEarl PfarnerPaul Steinfeld

1986Nancy F. FineganJohn W. KelleyAlan R. KnightBill LynchGeorge F. MitchellAl RobertsLinda Thorington

New MembersDolores Siwula739 Amherst St.Buffalo, NY 14216

Ms. Ann H. StevensP.O. Box 981Brooklyn, NY 11202

Ms. Jane Alden Stevens2623 Eden Ave.Cincinnati, OH 45219

Mr. & Mrs. Robert C. Stevens1 Green Ridge Rd.Pittsford, NY 14534

January-February 1984 3

ThePresident's Message

As our Long-Range Planning Com-mittee grapples with the serious, philo-sophical problems of NYFOA's exist-ence, deliberating about our true mis-sion and whether our goals are realistic- some basic issues are confronted.For example, do we really expect to im-prove quality and best use of NewYork's forest land in private ownership- including that major segment ownedin parcels of fewer than 50 acres? Is itrealistic to expect that NYFOA couldreach a significant number of some500,000 private landowners and influ-ence their attitudes and practices?

When we consider informed esti-mates that demand for hardwoods willincrease by 200 % by 2030; that woodfuel will become 8% of the world'senergy supply; that the United Stateshas the potential of becoming the"OPEC" of wood in the world market- we perceive the real need to achievethe goals indicated above. But howpractical is it for NYFOA to chart suchgoals?

I must admit to being a sucker foridealistic goals, especially when theyserve the nation's interests, and con-

tribute to the quality of people's lives.Allowing for my bias, I still think thatNYFOA, which now has some 700members, could become much largerand could help develop a new feelingamong large numbers of New York'ssmall forest owners. It would have to bea feeling that land is a precious or evenholy heritage; that it is wrong, or sinful,or wasteful, or unpatriotic for peopleblessed with land to fail to perceive thatthey are stewards. Large numbers oflandowners could be persuaded thattheir lives would be enriched if they bet-ter understood their small segment ofthis earth, its capacity to be productiveand beautiful, and its capacity to enrichtheir lives and the lives of their childrenand children's children.

NYFOA could not accomplish such atransformation in people's hearts alone.We need to develop alliances withothers. These allies need not be onlyamong forestry professionals and gov-ernment and voluntary agencies relatedto forestry, but should include potentialsupport from the media, schools, andchurches. "It is not your duty to com-plete the work, but neither are you freeto desist from it." Paul Steinfeld

To the New York ForestOwners Association MembersLike a tree in the right soil, the New

York Forest Owners Association isready to burst with new growth. Onemore vital natural substance is needed- and that's you. Your ongoing mem-bership indicates that you believe inwhat NYFOA is doing and now theNYFOA needs your assistance in pass-ing the word along to your neighborswho are not yet members.

Are your neighbors who own wood-lots in our November-December 1982Directory? Are your friends? If not,please send their name and address toour membership secretary and be agood neighbor. Thanks for your help.

George MitchellMembership Secretary

P.O. Box 69Old Forge, NY 13420

Individual Memberships ..... $10.00Family Memberships. . . . . . .. 15.001 Year Gift Memberships. . . . 7.50

JANUARY"Then came old January, wrapped well

In many weeds to keep the cold awayYet did he quake and quiver like to quellAnd blew his nayles to warm them

if he may;For they were numbed with holding

all the day,

An hatchet keene, with which hefelled wood

And from the trees did lop theneedlesse spray"

-Faerie Queene, Spencer

Tit for TatA native of Ireland applied for a job in

a powder plant. "What can you do?"asked the foreman.

"Anything, sar, just anything,"replied the hopeful man.

"Well," drawled the foreman, think-ing to have some fun with the new-comer, "you seem to be all right, couldyou wheel out a barrel of smoke?"

"Shure!" exclaimed the man. "Justfillit up for me!"


The Saratoga NurseryBy Norman L. VanValkenburghDirector of Lands & Forests

Before the turn of the century, in1896, the need for reforesting cut-overlands, abandoned farm lands and otheridle lands was recognized by officialswithin the predecessor of the presentDepartment of Environmental Conser-vation which was known then as theForest, Fish and Game Commission.Within two years, the State College ofForestry was established at CornellUniversity and two small forest treenurseries were begun in Axton andWawbeck. These nurseries did not lastdue to lack of appropriations and weredeeded to the state in 1903. However,the state had also begun a nursery atBrown's Station in the Catskills. Theseedlings and transplants from thesenurseries were planted on the ForestPreserve lands.

From this modest beginning, the nur-sery program expanded with additionalnurseries opening in Saranac Inn(1904), Salamanca (1908), SaratogaSprings (1911), Great Meadows Prisonin Comstock (1912), Central Islip StateHospital on Long Island (1915), Low-ville (1922), Horseheads (1928),Painted Post (1929), Tully (1932), andOak Orchard (1958). The Saranac Innnursery was combined with a nurserysite in Lake Clear in 1922.

One by one, these nurseries wereclosed for various reasons includingpoor sites, fiscal problems and lack oforders for stock. By 1971, all nurseryoperations had been consolidated at theSaratoga Springs Nursery.

As mentioned, the Saratoga Nurserywas established in 1911, on four acresprovided by the Saratoga Springs ParkCommission. The four acres proved tobe too swampy for efficient nurseryoperations, so the nursery was relo-cated in 1919 and additional acreagewas acquired. The nursery today com-prises 250 acres separated by the Sara-toga Spa Reservation into two parcels.

Saratoga has produced nearly 2.5 bil-lion seedlings in its seventy-two years ofoperation. While species such as RedCedar and Eastern Hemlock were pro-duced at one time, the nursery nowproduces White, Red, Scotch, Austrian,and Japan, se Black Pine; Norway andWhite Spruce; Larch, either Japanese

or European; Balsam and Douglas Fir;and Black Locust. Since 1971 and theclosing of the nursery in Painted Post,Saratoga has also produced the wildlifeshrub seedlings for use in habitat or foodsource improvement. Cranberrybush,Tatarian Honeysuckle, "Cardinal"Autumn Olive, Silky Dogwood,"Streamco" Purple Osier Willow, Bitter-sweet Rugosa Rose, "Arnot" BristlyLocust, and White Cedar are producedfor use to improve environmental con-ditions for wildlife. These species arecombined with each other and also withtree seedlings to form packets for mixedplantings and windbreak and soil ero-sion control. Annual production for treeseedlings is targeted at 10 million, andfor wildlife shrub seedlings, 300,000.

Prior to 1972, the nursery relied onan extensive field crew of nearly 300young adults, retirees, and housewivesto harvest the seedling crop. An addi-tional inside crew of 30 was used topackage and ship the seedlings. In thatyear, several innovations took placethat not only changed the harvestingand packaging system, but also chang-ed the way seeds were removed fromcones and were sown into seedbeds.

The innovation was the purchase andrefinement of a seedling harvester.Developed by the Grayco firm of Can-ada, the prototype was brought to NewYork for further evaluation. Upon com-pletion of testing and modification, thenursery purchased this model, the firstof its kind in the Northeast. This elimi-nated the arduous work and the numer-ous employees from the field. Themachine is operated by six persons andcan operate in most any weather, whichwas not the case with the large fieldcrew.

That same year, the nursery's pack-aging system changed from the use ofrolled packaging to bagging the seed-lings. The counting system was mod-ernized using conveyor belts to movethe seedlings past the counters and thento the baggers. The new packaging doesprovide a better system and more pro-tection to the seedlings, providing thebags are treated with care.

The third event was the opening ofthe new seed extractory. The $500,000facility is modeled after the U.S. ForestService one in Idaho. Capable of ex-tracting, cleaning, drying and bottlingseed for storage, the building can pro-cess 200 bushels a day. The moderncold storage room in the extractory

holds three quarters of a million dollarsworth of seed. Once extracted andproperly cleaned and prepared, theseed of some species may stay in stor-age four decades and still be usable.

The nursery buys seed from commer-cial dealers, but a large percentagecomes from state-owned forest andfrom seed orchards established by theTree Improvement Program. The col-lected seed is then used on demand toproduce the seedlings available to publicand private interests.

Christmas tree growers, timber pro-ducers, pulp and paper industries, townand county governments, and membersof the public are all recipients of seedlingstock grown at the nursery. Reasonablypriced, the seedlings are sold throughthe use of a telephone system. Institutedin 1981, the ordering system has pro-ven to greatly increase the efficiency ofthe operation. A call can be placed,order given and confirmed, and the cus-tomer assured of receiving his stock allwithin the time of three minutes. This isclearly much quicker than the old mailorder process.

The nursery is now exploring otheropportunities to help the public in treeplanting. Using containers or mini-pots,the seedlings can be grown to plantablesize inside the greenhouse in less than ayear. Planting time is extended and theseedlings are of high quality providingthe grower with savings in time to cropmaturity.

While the operation of the nurserycosts nearly $100,000, it annually re-turns that cost to the state's generalfund. In addition, the product it pro-duces yields income to the grower andto the state through taxation. Productsgrown from Saratoga nursery stock arein today's lumber market, today's papergoods, and today's forests for peopleand wildlife to enjoy and use. With thedemand for wood products always in-creasing, and with the need for the pub-lic to have a place to relax and enjoy,Saratoga nursery will be there to supplytomorrow's early requirements as well.

"I long for wildness ...Woods where the woodthrush foreverWhere the hours are early morning ones,And there is dew on the grass,And the day is forever unproven ...A [woodland] evetlasting and unjollen."

=-Thoreeu


Property #2 - SandlotBy Al Roberts

Your Editor has finally asked me towrite another article about woodlots wehave bought. I wrote about our first ac-quisition in the March-April 1983 issueof "Forest Owner." In that article was aclue to why we bought the second lot. Itwas because the horrendous snows onTug Hill broke down our Scotch PineChristmas trees.

On the sandy outwash plains East ofLowville and the Black River in LewisCounty there is still lots of snow, butnothing like Tug Hill. I remember oneSpring day the Conservation Depart-ment crew was doing timber stand im-provement back of Highmarket on TugHill, working on snowshoes. The nextday they moved to a state area East ofthe Black River, twenty miles away, andplanted trees. So I scouted around inthis area looking for a suitable lot to buy.I found a sixty acre parcel, looked upthe owner, and he agreed to sell. Theprice was what the state was paying forland at that time, which was four dollarsper acre. Once again I had no money soI borrowed $240 on my G.!. life insur-ance at three percent interest. It turnedout to be a good investment, but not injust the way I had figured it.

The property was 35 acres open and25 acres heavily cut over woods. Theopen land had a few scraggly, naturallyseeded Scotch Pine trees which we gota big thrill out of cutting for our familyChristmas tree. The really valuable partof the property, though unrecognized atthe time, was 700 feet of frontage on abeautiful section of the IndependenceRiver, a fairly sizeable river flowing outof the foothills of the Adirondack Moun-tains.

The man we bought the land fromsaid his father grew potatoes on it, andhe could remember horses and wagonshauling the potatoes down to the boatson the Black River Canal, where theywere taken down to Rome. However,after not too many years all the humuswas farmed out of the sandy soil, leav-ing almost pure sand. In fact, in smallspots on our property there was open"blow sand." On an adjoining propertythere was a large acreage of driftingblow sand. When we camped on ourproperty our five kids loved to play inthe sand. They called it the SaharaDesert. There were also scattered biggrey "glacial erratic" boulders which thekids climbed on and called elephants.

Another attraction was Spike, an In-dian who with his wife Dody lived in acompletely charming little house theybuilt out of native materials on a bluffoverlooking the river. They made a liv-ing making deerskin moccasins andblack ash pack baskets. We all foundSpike very interesting to talk with, andhe used to let our kids "help" him bypounding out black ash splits he used tomake his baskets with. I met him the firsttime I looked over our lot. I was onsnowshoes, flying down a steep hun-dred foot bank in a cloud of snow to a

swampy spot where he was cuttingblack ash trees which the previousowner had let him have. We continuedthe arrangement as I had no use for theash.

The year was 1956, and as soon asthe snow was gone we started plantingScotch Pine, and over the next severalyears we planted 19,000 of them andalso 3,000 white pine and 1,000 redpine. I particularly remember 1,000Scotch pine that Moira and I planted inthree hours - I on the mattock andMoira handing me the trees.

The taxes on the property the firstyear were $8.39.

Three years after we bought the prop-erty I was transferred to Cortland, andthat was the year shearing was started.So for several years, we spent the weekwhich included July 4th camping on thelot and shearing Scotch pine. As soon

as each of our kids reached five years ofage he or she became a shearer. Sincewe had a beautiful camping spot weusually had friends or relatives with uswho also became shearers. Maybe that'swhy we had so few really good trees.But despite the mosquitoes and deerflies and heat, we all had a good time,and in retrospect we enjoy it even more.

Our first harvest consisted of 140trees which we hauled to Cortland on arented truck. We sold them in our frontyard for a net profit of $300 not count-ing production costs. Those costs wewrote off as fun. We sold 200 to 300trees a year for several years until thetrees suddenly turned from Christmastrees into pulpwood.

The kids grew up too, and we didn'tcamp on the lot anymore, so in 1974 Ijokingly said to a friend of ours who wasin Lowville real estate, "Hey Dick, doyou think you could get us $25,000 forour Independence River lot?" Appar-ently someone liked our river frontageas about a month later it was sold, for$25,000. Who says woodlots don'tpay?

MeetingBoard of DirectorsMarch 10, 1984

10:30A.M.D.E.C. Office

inBinghamton


Selling SomeOak Sawtimber:

An Economic EvaluationN .A. Richards

In 1964 I added a 49-acre tract ofwoodland to my tree farm in DelawareCounty at a reasonable price. It was oldpastureland, abandoned about 1880,regrown to mixed hardwoods and whitepine, and logged over for its few sale-able trees about 1950. I bought it pri-marily to fill in an important corner ofmy property, and because it included abrook and spring I liked; but also ex-pecting that it would eventually producesome merchantable timber.

Over the first decade of my owner-ship, local land prices increased many-fold; so the land itself was a good invest-ment. My casual management of thetract consisted of a day spent poisoninglarge cull trees to release better qualitygrowth, occasional inspection walks -enjoying the woods disguised as"work," and, of course, paying taxes.With taxes under $2 per acre, I couldwrite off this expense to my enjoymentof the tract; and actually paid the bill bygrowing Christmas trees elsewhere onmy farm. But in 1975, re-evaluation ofall real estate in the town to "full value"changed the previously low valuation ofland relative to buildings. This, alongwith inflation, has hiked my annual taxbill to about $8 per acre. So, I began tolook more carefully at the timber on thetract for its potential to pay the increas-ed bill.

A few years ago, the firewood boommade it practical for me to begin fire-wood stumpage sales through markedimprovement cuts and thinnings in thetract (see Forest Owner, September'83). In the course of firewood markinglast summer, I began to see dollar signson some good-quality red oaks scat-tered through part of the tract, in light ofthe recent boom in oak timber prices -although sawtimber prices in DelawareCounty generally are not as good as far-ther west in the state. So I marked 25oaks for a small sale of sawtimber usingtwo criteria: I marked only good treesover 20 inches diameter, breast high(DBH), with the assumption that goodsmaller trees would continue growth tomore valuable logs, and also becausethe Doyle log rule used locally greatlyunderestimates the volume of smallertrees. I left all large, low-quality oaks onthe premise that cutting them would not

return enough to offset their fellingdamage to smaller trees, and that theywere more valuable remaining for theturkeys and gray squirrels we enjoywatching. I also marked 10 merchant-able oaks, regardless of size or quality,along the public road-edge of the tractto permit road improvement.

The 35 marked oaks were sold stand-ing to a local sawmill owner, attracted tothe sale by the generally good qualityand access of the trees. He figuredstumpage prices at his log prices deliv-ered to his mill, minus $100 per 1000board feet (MBF) for cutting and haul-ing. This yielded stumpage prices of$400 per MBF for prime logs, $200 for#1 logs, and $20 for #2 logs. The 14.4MBF cut from the 35 trees yielded 24 %prime logs, 54% #1, and 22% #2 logs;

averaging slightly over $200 per MBFstumpage. This small sale paid backwith 10% interest all the "excessive" tax- that over $2 per acre - I have paidon the 49 acres since full-value assess-ment began in 1975. The prime logsmade the sale profitable; whereas the#2 logs would have returned me asmuch sold as firewood.

Previous to this oak sale, I had be-come discouraged about the economicprospects of growing timber on my treefarm after the large rise in taxes; feelingthat timber growing could not possiblypay its tax bill here anymore. My landassessment ($155 per acre) is as fair aspossible within my town, and on thewhole, I feel I would not benefit by put-ting my forest land under the Forest TaxLaw, 480-A. The problem is the more


basic one of land taxes for raising publicfunds; Delaware County, now 72% for-ested with little industry, is forced to taxforest land heavily to meet fundingneeds.

I am therefore encouraged to learnfrom my oak sale that timber growingcan pay the high land taxes in my townif there are at least a few high-qualitytrees per acre, and if I cash in the high-quality trees at their optimum valuewhen the market is favorable. Con-versely, it is evident that growth of poor-quality trees cannot repay taxes, andeven the growth of good trees cannotrepay high taxes unless I also take ad-vantage of good market opportunities.

Growth of individual trees, ratherthan growth per acre, has been mostimportant in this tract of generally low-value timber. So, more detailed eco-nomic analysis of individual trees is war-ranted here. I did this on my prize tree:27 inches DBH with 36 feet of primelogs; yielding a stumpage value of$227. The 95-year-old tree had grown8 inches in diameter in the 19 years Ihad owned it; increasing its board footvolume by 2.6 times. This good volumegain sounds impressive until one calcu-lates its annual compound interest rateas only 5%. However, the stumpagevalue of red oak was low 19 years ago,so the tree was worth no more thanabout $6 then. Its value gain has there-fore been about 38-fold, for an annualcompound interest rate of 21 %. Oh fora forest of such trees!

Examining the prize tree is fun, but itis more useful to. consider an averagetree cut here, having the same diameter

but 32 feet of #1 logs. This made thesame 5% annual volume growth overthe 19 years; its value gain of 12% waslower but still very good. The value gainon only about 75 such trees in the 49acre tract would have repaid with 10%interest all the taxes on the tract duringmy ownership.

Individual tree analysis also permitsexamining questions about the market-ing criteria I used in this sale.

1. Should I have cut these treesnow? To predict the returns I couldhave gotten by holding these markedtrees another 5 years, we will make twoassumptions: That the trees would con-tinue their present diameter growthrate, aided by the firewood thinningdone around them, and that red oak logprices will hold the same. The average27 inch tree with #1 logs would grow 2inches in the next 5 years, for an annualvolume gain of only 4 %, and a similarvalue gain because it is unlikely to fur-ther improve log grade during thisperiod. Given the various natural haz-ards of keeping valuable trees in thewoods, and the uncertainty of markets,I was probably wise to cash these treesinto a bank savings account now.

2. Should I have cut smaller oaksalso? I have left at least 50 good-qualityoaks 16 to 20 inches DBH, and prob-ably about 80 years old. The average 18inch, 2 log tree here should grow toabout 24 inches in the next 15 years,aided by my firewood thinning; gainingvolume at 5% annually, and up to 10%annual gain in value depending on theamount of change in log grade resultingfrom this growth. It would have been

wise for me to cut these smaller treesalso if I needed the money, but I chose aconservative diameter limit because Ienjoy seeing good trees growing, andam optimistic about their future.

3. Cutting only the most valuable.trees in a woodlot, as I did, is termed"high-grading," and is a major cause ofwoodland degradation in New York.Was my high-grading good silvicul-tural practice? Silvicultural practicesshould try to serve both the relativelyshort-term interests of the forest ownerand the longer-term interests of forestresources for society. This oak cuttingserved my landowner interest well, butwhether it is good forest conservationdepends on the quality of the growingstand I have left. The cut demonstratedthat this woods site can grow high quali-ty red oak at a faster volume rate thanthat of maple and other hardwoods inthe stand. Therefore, in addition tofavoring good younger oaks in my im-provement thinning for firewood, I havemarked firewood patch c1earcuts about100 feet wide in the vicinity of the har-vested oaks, in hopes of stimulatinggrowth of oak seedlings surviving inthese areas. Studies elsewhere showthat it is not easy to re-establish red oakafter cutting in mixed northern hard-wood stands. So, I may have to spendsome of my harvest income on clean-ings during the next few years to helpoak seedlings get ahead of competingvegetation; in order to achieve my goalof five good oak saplings for each treethat was harvested. If this is successful,my high-grading cut could lead to amore productive forest stand in thelonger run.


How to blaze boundaries

By David E. Belfordand Melvin E. Jenkins

Blazes should be made at breastheight with a shallow axe cut. They aregenerally elliptical (5-6 inches long and3-4 inches wide). Painting the blazeswith a bright, durable paint, such as amarine enamel or a polyurethane-basedpaint, will make the blazes stand out,although the scar from the blaze will lastlonger than the paint (up to 100 years ifproperly done). Blazes should be spac-ed close enough so that a blazed treecan be seen in either direction from anyother blazed tree. Keep in mind that iftrees are blazed in the fall or winter,visibility may be reduced when the foli-age returns in the spring.

A knowledgeable surveyor or land-owner uses several types of blazes to in-dicate the precise location of boundarylines. For example, blazes made at aright angle to the boundary line are call-ed fair spots and indicate that the prop-erty line goes through the center of thetree (see illustration).

Two blazes forming a 45-degreeangle mean that the line is just to theright or left of the blazes (depending onwhich direction they face). These areknown as quarter spots.

A face spot, or blaze made parallel tothe line, indicates that the line is approx-imately an axe handle's length from thatblaze. Ideally, this is the maximum dis-tance a blazed tree should be from theline.

In many instances, only two types ofblazes are used: the fair spot to indicatea tree on line, and either the quarterspot or the face spot to indicate the lineis just to the right or left of the blazedtree. A quarter spot is favored in thiscase, since the blaze can be seen moreeasily from either direction than the facespot. 2

The approximate locations of cornermonuments (iron pipes, stakes andstones, granite blocks, ctc.) can bedetermined from witness trees. Theseare usually a group of three trees withblazes (face spots) all facing the cornermonument. If the corner monument isever obliterated, the witness trees will atleast give the general location of the cor-ner in question. If the line was survey-ed, the witness trees may be describedin the surveyor's field notes with theirrespective bearings and distances to thecorner.

Witness trees can be differentiatedfrom boundary line trees (with facespots on them) by putting three facespots in a vertical rowan each witnesstree. This is the method used to markwitness trees in New Hampshire onstate forestlands.

If no trace of the corner monumentcan be found (lost corner), the land-owner should not attempt to put in anew one. A licensed land surveyorshould be contacted to reset the cornerat its proper location.

Although it's preferable to blaze andpaint trees, occasionally one encountersa valuable commercial tree such as a redoak. In this instance, it would be betterjust to paint the tree to avoid damagingit with a blaze. Paint will be visible up tothree years, and traces of paint discern-ible for up to six years.

Once the boundary lines are knownand clearly established, they should beinspected and maintained every 3 to 5years. Existing blazes should not berecut and any painting of existing blazesshould be limited to the outer edge ofthe old blaze. If new wood has grownover and obscured the old blaze, only

QUARTER SPOT

~~:_Ia_z_e . _iblaze

FAIR

SPOT 0/" '•..7 ""blaze blaze

boundary

line

blaze~

O FACESPOT


O~blazeCORNER -z....OMONUMENT

oblaze

blaze~Oone edge of the old blaze should berecut at that time. In this way, prior evi-dence of the line will not be destroyedand the callus tissue formation will serveto protect part of the original blaze.

A landowner should exercise cautionwhenever blazing and painting boun-dary trees. No line should be markedunless its exact location is known. In ad-dition, abutters should be notified priorto blazing and painting. This will helpavoid future boundary problems andconflicts.

There are many good reasons whylandowners should know where theirboundaries are and have them wellmarked: to prevent timber trespass, fortransfer of land and in general to avoidboundary problems."

It is especially important for forestlandowners to know where their boun-daries are. The first step in managing aforest should be to walk known boun-daries. Timber sales administration andany inventory require that the exactlocation of boundaries be known. Walk-ing the line will avoid cutting on an abut-ter's property, and knowing the exactlocation of boundaries is important be-cause volume estimates are first madeon a per acre basis, and later expandedby the total acreage of the tract (todetermine total acreage accurately, thelocation of boundary lines must beknown).

Property lines extending throughwoods where there are no physicalmonuments such as stone walls, fencesand streams are commonly delineatedon the ground by blazing and/or paint-ing trees along or near the line.

Forest landowners can blaze andpaint their own boundaries but shouldbe cautious in doing so. It is relatively

easy, for example, to mark trees alongdeteriorating known property lines indi-cated by a barbed wire fence. Wherenothing delineates a line on the ground,however, it is nearly impossible for thenovice to run a straight line for any dis-tance. In this situation, professionalsurveying advice should be sought toblaze and paint trees on the boundaryline, or at least to flag trees or put instakes on the line.

A layman's understanding of proper-ty surveying and its problems is avail-able in a low-cost paperback manual:Surveys, Deeds, and Title Searches byCharles E. Lawson (Stephen GreenePress) .

References1. Don Wilson, "Boundary Problems and the

Landowner," Forest Notes 142, Fall 1980, pp.8-9.

2. Maine Dept. of Conservation. Bureau ofForestry, Forest Management Division, "Boun-dary Information Sheet," October 1979.

David Belford is a consulting foresterin Madbury. Melvin E. Jenkins is a li-censed land surveyor and Professor ofForest Technology at the University ofNew Hampshire.

-Forest Notes, Fall 1983

NYFOA cosponsors the

Tree Farm Program

TREE FARM SAFETY:Chain Saws

Most chain SaW safety rules are brief.enough to fit in fortune cookies: Don't!!fell trees on Windy days; read yourfmanual~ start the saw only on the;:ground; keep clear of~he cutting bar.iEven so, chain saws are involved in130% of all woods accidents.•. Some chain saw injuries happen in a,lfractlon of a second, Others result from'Iyears of doing things the wrong way. All,[but a few are preventable by absorbing[such common sense rules as those listed'above and using protective devices thatwill cramp .neither your style nor yourlwallet. .

It's largely a question of having the"big picture. Most saw users are aware of]:chain saw "kickback." Here the saw,turns on the cutter after havlrtgencoun •.•tered a knot, the ground or other obsta- icle. This is certainly a very obViOUSand!dramatic safety problem, as well as be-[ingthe focus of most.arneles like'one .., But kickbi:l.ck accidents only ac-!count£0~,30% of saw related injuries.

Dangers just as great are presentrun-away saws, improper sawing pes-tures,>stumbling while carrying a:.ning?aw ..,burns from fuel, even[!itself:.One way we can be aware of and J!dealwlth these hazards is to divide theminto "danger z()nes.j" listing the parncll-!~arpltfallsof each .<JWhen NOT To Use A Chain SawOften we try to re,medy a partially fell-

edtree that is hung up on the top ofanother with a chain SaW. A canthookcan help to move the hung tree so that it':'.willfall cleanly, Sometimes even shak-;ingthe tree will do the trick. Even these'methods can be dangerous. Best solu-tion is a "come -along" or small winch tohelp you make the tree go where and'when you want it to.

When felling trees with a chain saw,you should always keep one or:plastic or aluminum felling wedgesyou, and when teamed with the!~aw .make thegteatest tool combina-tion:

Trying to prune a tree with a chainlsaw can damage the wood and you -'kickback injuries involving the head arecommon results of this malpractice.Always use a curved pruning saw orbow saw.

There is a big temptation towhat's in your hands - put it downthink again. - American Tree J,..,.,.,,,,,,,, •..


Observations on ForestryIn Japan

byHoward & Richard Ward

My wife and I spent three weeks visit-ing our son, Major Richard K. Ward,USMC, and his family at the MarineCorps Air Station at Iwakuni, Japan.Iwakuni is about 30 miles south-south-west of Hiroshima.

On Saturday, Nov. 7, 1981 we (myson Dick, his wife Nancy, and their twochildren, and my wife Margie and I)were met by Dr. Nibu, an orthopedicsurgeon friend of Dick's. He had bor-rowed an 8 passenger Toyota van. Weloaded our lunch, cameras and coats inthe rear and climbed in for a delightfulall day trip with the doctor doing all thedriving.

Throughout our trip, I was fascinatedwith the forests. The total land area ofJapan is just slightly less than that of thestate of California. What is most sur-prising is that about 80% of the landarea is made up of steep mountainswhich grow nothing but trees. Unfortu-nately, most of the natural growth isscrub which is worthless except as fuelwood.

The native forests are a mixture ofhardwoods, not familiar to me, withsome pine. I understand that thesemountain forests are all privately own-ed. It was somewhat surprising,therefore, to see many, many smallareas (maybe 20 acres each) of thesesteep mountainsides clear cut, with hor-izontal "windrows" of branches 30 to 50feet apart vertically. After such an areawas clear cut it was replanted on an ap-proximate 6' x 6' spacing with JapaneseCedar. This tree has the appearance inboth needle and branch formation ofour Sequoia.

On our many trips other than the oneabove, all in Southwest Japan, we sawthe same thing - many areas of refor-ested mountainside. Behind the Kintaicastle on a mountaintop near Iwakuni(we got almost there by aerial tramway)

I saw an older replanting. The treeswere approximately 8" dbh and a good40 ft. (ten meters) to the first branch.This stand had been thinned but shouldhave had a further thinning about then.

Another thing I noticed about theseJapanese cedar plantings was that whenthe trees reached 6 to 8 feet in height, inmany cases the lower branches hadbeen manually lopped from the trunkup to about half the tree height. Mindyou, these plantations are on land thatslopes at 600 from the horizontal. Iwondered how the workers managed tokeep from sliding down the hillside.

We saw several truck loads of logs onour various excursions. Some of thelogs were 12" to 14" in diameter butmost were 6" to 10". In some of thesmall sawmills I saw logs 30" to 36" indiameter but these were the exception.In fact, in some cases it appeared, fromthe weathered appearance of the logs,that they had been in the yard for sometime. I suspect that the large logs camefrom a small area of virgin forest some-where.

In this regard, on Nov. 19, 1981, wetook the train from Iwakuni to MiyajimaGuchi and a ferry from there to theIsland of Miyajima, all on Japanese Na-tional Railway tickets. I'm sure most ofyou have seen pictures of the "beam onposts in the water" which is the "Tori" infront of a shrine temple built on stiltsover the water. At low tide both Toriand shrine are on "dry" land.

Just beyond the ferry landing arehundreds of souvenir shops, hotels andrestaurants. The small Japanese deerroam freely over the island but are con-centrated in this area because they arefed a "junk food" diet by the tourists.

After a delightful lunch at a small rest-aurant off the beaten path (tatami matsand low tables and a formal garden withfish pond almost within arms length),we walked beyond this area into theedge of the forest. We discovered thatwe had blundered into an active loggingoperation.

We didn't risk walking out to the treefelling area, but did see the marshallingarea and a truck load of logs leaving thearea. Some of the logs were a good 20"dbh. There were several trees in thearea that were 30-36" dbh. One treehad recently been cut in the park area. Itwas about 42" dbh and Dick countedrings until he got to the point where heknew it was more than 200 years old.These were Japanese cedar. Many ofthe trees, including the 200 year old

monster, had grown with a spiral twist inthe trunk. What surprised me about thelogging operation was that the logs wereall debarked before being brought to themarshalling area. I don't know how itwas done.

The lumber cut from most of thesetrees is straight grained and easy towork. One afternoon about a weekbefore this trip Dick and I had visited afabrication shop where all the structuralmembers for a house were being fabri-cated. We were shown blueprints of thehouse.

A ridge beam about 4"xI2" to 14"was notched to receive rafters. Tenonswere formed on the ends of the raftersto fit into the notches of the ridge beam.One interesting machine was a planerwhich shoved a 4 x 6 through against astationary blade. It took off one con tin -uous piece approximately 1/32" thickand left a very smooth finish without thetypical waviness caused by some of ourrotary knife planers.

All the workmanship was very preciseand well done so that when the pieceswere shipped to the building site (witheach piece bearing identifying markings)the whole post and beam frame fits to-gether like an erector set with a mini-mum of bolts and very few nails.

Even though none of the workmen atthis shop spoke English and Dick and Ispoke no Japanese, we were able tocommunicate. The workmen werepleased at our interest in their work andproceeded to show us the capability oftheir machines, such as the planer, eventhough they didn't need to use them intheir current job. This was one of thethings I most noticed about the Japa-nese people. They are proud of theirwork and want to show the Gaijons(American foreigners) what they cando.

Back to the logging operation onMiyajima, they were using a track typeskidder to bring the logs to the stagingarea. The logs were loaded on a small(by our standards) truck by a forklift ontracks. I suspect that the loader was alsothe skidder.

The skid trail had to cross a smallravine and stream. Several logs weredumped in the ravine parallel with thestream flow and then covered withearth. (I've had the same thing done onmy place). As I stated earlier, we did notgo out to the site on the logging opera-tion but we could hear the sound ofchain saws just as you would here. Thedebarking is what I wished I could haveseen. More in next issue ...


FORESTBookshelfA guide to Federal Income for

timber owners. U.S.D.A., AgricultureHandbook No. 596. Fee: $4.75.

Farmer's Tax Guide, publication No.225, update annually. Fee: Free.The Timber Owner and His Federal

Income Tax, U.S.D.A., AgricultureHandbook No. 274. Fee: $1.40.

Information about timber taxes isavailable from: The Superintendent ofDocuments, U.S. Government PrintingOffice, Washington, DC 20402.

From the first settlers' gaze over milesof untouched woodlands to today'smost important environmental issues,the past, present, and future of thisgreat green land comes alive in "TheEncyclopedia of American Forest andConservation History." Oct. Price:$120.00, MacMillan Publishing Co.,Inc., 866 Third Avenue, New York, NY10022.

NYFOAto Visit U.K.Forest OwnersAugust 12 - 26

Come with us for an exciting twoweek visit to the forests and forestowners of Great Britain. As always theemphasis is on people, on visiting folkslike ourselves as they go about the busi-ness of being forest owners and Christ-mas tree growers.

It's always fascinating ... as previoustour participants can tell you ... to getan inside look at someone else's treefarm and even into a few hours of theirlives.

This August we plan to visit Scotland,northern England, and Wales. Ifenough are interested, we can add anoptional five days in Ireland.

Contact has already been establishedwith English Christmas tree growers andlandowner associations, but it won't beall work and no play. There will be plen-ty of time for an afternoon hike in thehills, maybe a bit of golf at a famousScots course, or some sightseeing.

Mark your calendar now. Save yourpennies. And look for details in comingissues of The Forest Owner. ContactAlan Knight, 257 Owego St., Candor,NY 13743 (607-659-5275) for furtherinformation.

Letters to the EditorEvelyn Stock

5756 Ike Dixon RoadCamillus, New York 13031

The November-December issue willbe Letters to the Editor issue.

Please share your forestry ideas withus, as well as consider the following:

1. What are you doing to promotebetter forest management?

2. What do you think needs to bedone for N.Y.F.O.A. to make a greaterimpact?

3. What do you think needs to bedone in your area?

4. Would you like to see regionalgroups of members?

5. How would you expand the or-ganization?

6. What would you like to see in theForest Owner?

7. What do you like best about theForest Owner?

8. What do you like least about theForest Owner?

Allen RoadChaffee, N. Y. 14030

Oct. 20, 1983

Dear Mrs. Stock,In response to your questionnaire in

the Sept.-Oct. issue of the New YorkForest Owner, I am finally finding a fewminutes to respond to the eight items.

No. 1. When I am not doing volun-teer work at our Audubon Nature Cen-ter, or taking short vacation trips, I worknearly full time doing timber stand im-provement work in our 78 acre woodlotand in even more acreage in neighbor'swoodlots. This involves making anddelivering firewood, primarily. I haveled groups through our woods to showwoodland improvement we have done.

No.2. I believe a good job is beingdone at present. I have noted that thepad of information blanks is on displayat our County Extension office and atour Agway Petroleum office. The blankis sponsored by the Extension Serviceand N.Y.F.O.A. Inasmuch as the Ex-tension people are conducting educa-tional meetings on woodland subjectsand seem to be co-operating withN.Y.F.O.A., I feel we should see someresults of this impact.

No.3. We are in the western extrem-ity of N.Y.F.O.A. territory, so it is moredifficult for some members to becomeinvolved. The fall meeting held at Cum-ming Nature Center was surely appreci-ated by some of us Western New York

On theCALENDAR

January 6-7Christmas Tree Growers Annual

Meeting.

February 28Computer Decisions II. Information

available from Dr. John Yavorsky.,Dean of School of Continuing Educa-tion, College of Environmental Science& Forestry, Syracuse, New York13210. Tel. (315) 470-6891.

April 24·26Forest Management and the Spruce

Budworm, Burlington, Vermont.

April 28NYFOA Annual Spring Meeting inl

Ithaca.

September 20-22Live Feed (Live Forestry, Equipment

Exhibition and Demonstration) at ArnotForest, Cornell University.

members. Perhaps woods walks in out-lying areas may help.

No.4. No opinion at present.No.5. Keep up the publicity. I'm

sure more people would join and bene-fit from N.Y.F.O.A. if they knew aboutthe organization.

No.6. I believe the Forest Owner isgetting better all the time and with thequality of paper now being used, thepictures are excellent.

No.7. Looking over the 1983 ForestOwners: Jan.-Feb. issue had excellentarticle on timber stand improvement byDoug Monteith. Also outstanding werethe career highlights of Dave Hana-burgh and the sample timber sale con-tract. March-April - Stumpage pricesand Al Roberts career highlights.Sept.-Oct. Firewood thinning by NormRichards was especially informative,and, of course, all the monthly articleson the back cover by Al Roberts.

Earl Pfarner

P.S. We were with the group thatvisited Al Roberts' woodlot and sawwhat a fine job he is doing.

No.8. I can't recal! anything I don'tlike about the present Forest Owner.

Evelyn A. StockEditor

5756 Ike Dixon Rd.Camillus, NY 13031

Energy Treefor the Eighties I

HYBRID POPLARS I"Fast Growing Hardwoods Planta-l

lions" was the title of the workshop co-sponsored by the School of Forestryand the School of Continuing Educa-tion at the SUNY College of Environ-mental Science and Forestry; NYSEnergy Research and DevelopmentAuthority, The Gas Research Institute,and New York Gas Group. ,

Fast growing hybrid poplars are be-,t coming increasingly attractive for the'bProduction of energy fiber.

The Morton Frey family has raisedhybrid poplars for 28 years. In 10-20years he claims to have produced pulpand lumber. A planting on 6 x 6 footcenters should yield in excess of 5 cordsannually on an acre of land,

Heating your home, running your carf or generating your own electricity arer someof the possibilities of hybrid poplarjienergy. Municipal sewage sludge mixed Iwith wood chips can be processed to:'make a fertilizer for the use of nurseries.There are many other uses being devel-oped. For further information you maycontact any ofthe following:

Morton FreyFrey and Sons NurseryEphrata, PA 17522

Wood Power.Energy Corp.RD#3

Ephrata, PA 17522B.A. Barkley, Forestry Specialist

Fast Growing HardwoodsA.M.N.R.

P.O. Box 605Oxford Avenue

Brockville, Ontario, Canada K6V 5V8

Dr. Lawrence Abrahamson116 HUckHall

SUNY, of E.S.F.Dr. Charles Maynard

216 Marshall, School of ForestrySyracuse, NY 13210

Non profit org.bulk rate

U.S. POSTAGEPAID

Camillus, N.Y.13031

Permit No. 57

The numbers in the lower half of thetables are provided to facilitate convert-ing the weight of your tree into otheruseful measures.

Bear in mind that the weights givenare for the entire tree above the stump.If, for example, you use only portions ofthe tree larger than 4" for firewood,your useful yield will be less than thetable weight.

HOW MUCH DOESA TREE WEIGH?

By Doug Monteith

For additional information call: WoodUtilization Service, School of For-estry, (315) 470-6562.

TREE WEIGHT TABLE

Species

AshOther

Pine Hemlock Soft-woods

OtherHard-woods

green weight (pounds)

10 90 70 103 81 60 53 61 79

20 501 488 531 416 359 340 358 453

30 1,254 1,284 1,324 1,018 914 893 911 1,142

40 2,347 2,463 2,476 1,884 1,727 1,713 1,719 2,146

50 3,781 4,024 3,988 3,016 2,798 2,799 2,784 3,464

60 5,555 5,967 5,858 4,413 4,123 4,151 4,104 5,097

Percent dryweight 64 58 58 66 42 47 46 60

Specific gravity 0.62 0.62 0.64 0.60 0.35 0.40 0.40 0.60

BTU/drypound 8,288 8,363 8,455 8,583 8,604 8,885 8,600 8,400

lbs/cordair dry (20%) 3,700 3,700 3,800 3,600 2,100 2,400 2,300 3,700

You may just be curious. You mayneed to know how much a particulartree weighs so you can estimate its totalvolume. Or judge how much of it tocarry in your trailer after cutting it forfirewood.

The table below enables you to esti-mate the weight of a tree, whatever thereason. To use the table, measure thecircumference of the trunk of the tree ofinterest. This measurement should bemade at the location on the bole whichis 4lj2 feet (about chest height for mostpeople) above the highest level of theground.

Tree Circum-ference at 4lj2feet above

ground level Maple(inches)

Oak Beech

The New York Forest Owner - Volume 22 Number 1

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Transcript of The New York Forest Owner - Volume 22 Number 1