Green Horizons

In October 2007, our farm became certified in the Missouri Tree Farm program. Others have suggested several times that details of this living history may prove useful to some folks and interesting to many more. This is the second installment of this series.

Our story had progressed to us having a management plan for our 240 acres of forest. Unspoken, but important steps in the process involved reviews of all the details of the plan by the consulting foresters we hired, by the Missouri Department of Conservation Private Land Conservationist we worked with, and by me. The final version of the plan, after we all signed off on it, was submitted to the MDC Forestry Regional Supervisor for approval. These formal processes gave me a lot of confidence in the recommendations and decisions made, and actions planned and executed. We had as much confidence as possible that our plan was plausible and would produce the results we desired before we even began implementation. This is a wonderful starting point.

We found ourselves very aware that we now were responsible for decisive management of 23 stands of timber. These stands varied dramatically in acreage, slope (steepness), aspect (which direction the slope faced), soil type and tree species composition. As a consequence, the prescribed treatment for each of the stands was unique, but in some ways similar to those of other stands. We found ourselves ready to prioritize our activities and to get started: almost.

Boundaries and Fences
The purple paint law in Missouri allows us to legally mark our exterior boundaries in a way that will not permanently damage logs. This is money in your pocket as a forest landowner. Look into it, if you don’t understand it. Get advice from your MDC Private Land Conservationist.

In the case of our forest, we had one more important need. All of our neighbors have cattle; we need good fences. In our part of the world, business is still done by the right hand rule: as two adjoining landowners face each other at their shared fence, each is responsible for maintaining their half of the shared fence – the half on their right. This of course is my personal summary of the tradition. It varies tremendously across our state. University of Missouri Extension has lots of great information on Missouri’s fence law.

Regarding Cattle

Soil compaction, root exposure and erosion problems worsened during the last few years of intensive grazing. Fencing cattle out of the woods has allowed the healing to begin.

The biggest problem we faced might easily be overlooked by the casual admirer of our beautiful woods. We are missing about 60 years worth of trees. The cattle ate them as seedlings. Much of our woods looked very much like a park with a solid canopy of big, beautiful oaks, hickories and walnuts. There were virtually no seedlings, saplings or small pole-sized oak trees beneath the canopy. To make things even worse, the cows did not eat honey locusts, cedars, prickly ash or multi-flora rose.

If one were to harvest any of the sawlogs and remove big, desirable trees from the canopy, what would grow back? Where would the seedlings come from?

Fortunately for us, we have experienced two excellent acorn crops in the past three years. Now that the cows are eating grass instead of seedlings, the forest floor is carpeted with new growth. Nature abhors a vacuum, they say. Healing has begun.

So get a plan, fence the forest and get the cows out. Next issue we begin timber stand improvement (TSI).