Timber harvests and forestry: Management projects spell out sustainability, success of future forests
Olivia Goudy | Herald-Standard
Russ Gibbs, a service forester with the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, points out a strand of Mile-A-Minute, an invasive weed that’s crept up in a timber harvest area along Wharton Furnace Road.
Olivia Goudy | Herald-Standard
Though a 90-acre portion along Wharton Furnace Road is a designated white oak stand, new growth of poplars, as Russ Gibbs with the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources points out, won’t be deterred.
Olivia Goudy | Herald-Standard
Russ Gibbs, a service forester with the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, points out a strand of Mile-A-Minute, an invasive weed that’s crept up in a timber harvest area along Wharton Furnace Road. (Photo by Olivia Goudy)
Olivia Goudy | Herald-Standard
Russ Gibbs, a service forester with the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources calls the overstory removal with residuals a success, noting the abundance of white oak regeneration after a prescribed burn and three years of select timber harvest.
Olivia Goudy | Herald-Standard
A portion of the 90-acre timber harvest along Wharton Furnace Road is fenced off to keep deer away from seedlings. Fenced areas, as seen on the left, are often more dense and have taller sprouts than areas left unfenced, as seen on the right.
There’s a science behind the long-term health and sustainability of the 2.2 millions acres of Pennsylvania state forest.
“We have regeneration models throughout the state. Within the model, you can see every stand,” said Russ Gibbs, a service forester with the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ Bureau of Forestry.
In terms of forest management, a “stand” refers to an area of trees similar in structure, size and species.
“In order to balance age class distribution — you don’t want old growth throughout, but instead want a mixture of age classes in each timber type — there are planning periods every year,” Gibbs said.
Management foresters get an acreage amount per stand type of what needs harvested the following year to two years. That way, Gibbs said, they’re ahead of the game.
For instance, if the model calls for so many acres of an oak — one of the most common stands along with hardwood — harvest, foresters have time to do a survey of the stand and install plots that will determine how hard or light to cut it and what action to take.
One such harvest was completed last year along Wharton Furnace Road in Wharton Township. Near its intersection with Fayette Springs Road, a steep hillside of 90 acres was designated to be an overstory removal, or clearcut, with residuals.
Gibbs explained that residuals were left for seed sources for wildlife. Some clearcuts, however, require every tree be cut for success, like aspens, which regenerate from their root systems. Any trees left behind can deter growth.
Sometimes, though, overstory removal isn’t the overall goal. A 75-acre harvest project in process along Kirby Road also in Wharton Township, is considered a shelterwood treatment.
According to the Forbes State Forest District 2017 Activity Plan, the goal for the Kirby Road timber sale was to “remove some of the poor quality, low value and dying trees to allow more sunlight to the forest floor to stimulate regeneration, favoring oak seedlings.”
As for the 90-acre project on Wharton Furnace Road, the process began in the spring of 2012 with a prescribed burn that eliminated invasive species or other tree species that were clogging what was designed as a white oak stand.
“We used fire to knock down competing plants. Cherry was a problem, so were the poplars. It knocks that stuff back and gives the second growth of oaks a change to grow,” Gibbs said.
Since then, an abundance of white oak have sprouted up in the 90-acre tract of land, next to a number of large oaks left standing.
“Some people might look at this and think ‘wow it looks bad.’ But it’s not. It’s just the way it works,” Gibbs said. “You don’t want to change a stand. We saved the white oaks, because this was a primarily white oak stand.”
Before the harvest and burn itself can actually begin, months of proposals, paperwork and onsite data collection has to be completed. Each tree slated for harvest has to be tallied by diameter, while reserved trees are also marked.
“It’s a big undertaking,” Gibbs said, adding that when the paper- and boundary work are completed, a bid package is sent out to local buyers that DCNR works.
A portion of the completed stand was fenced in to protect “growing seedlings from deer browsing,” a common practice in stand harvests according to DCNR.
The only hiccup that’s cropped up in the tract’s success is the invasion of Mile-A-Minute. Gibbs described the invasive species as a fast-growing vine that will layer and mat over time. Though they’ll die off each winter, the copious amount of seeds will almost guarantee its regeneration the following spring.
Biocontrols, in the form of vine-eating weevils, were released last year in an effort to curb the red vine with green leaves and blue-colored seed clusters.
Overall, Gibbs described the Wharton Furnace Road project as a success, noting the large number of oak regeneration. Prior to the prescribed fire, it was a shady, forested area. He joked that you could see a mile through the woods — but there was no undergrowth.
“This is how it responded to fire. It gave it a chance to regenerate even prior to cutting,” Gibbs said. “This is a forester’s dream to get this much regeneration.”
Game plan
Forestry is a field that takes time and patience. Results take years. But every project and action is a step in sustaining the state’s forests for generations to come.
“Very few of us will see the actual results. It depends on the site. But these — we’re not going to have that for another 80 years,” Gibbs said with a laugh.
The timely process also requires more than the time spent harvesting the trees. Annual monitoring of plots to track regenerate, stand health and other factors has to be completed by district foresters.
Gibbs said it’s all a matter of balancing regeneration and the division of age classes.
“We want to keep that curve up. We don’t want to get to the point in 200 years when you have so much mature timber, you can’t get it out fast enough. That’s the challenge,” Gibbs said.
Out of the district’s Ligonier office, three divisions of forest are controlled: Laurel Mountain, Mt. Davis and the Braddock divisions, the latter of which include a majority of SOME AREASnn.
DCNR’s previously mentioned 2017 Activity Plan is part of the larger State Forest Resource Management Plan.
A number of harvest projects are listed by where they are in the completion process, including three shelterwood treatment projects in the Braddock Division: a 32-acre harvest in Gibbon Glade, a 139-acre gas well harvest along Skyline Drive and a 48-acre harvest south of Memorial Drive and north of LIttle Sandy Creek.
Another district project marked in the Mt. Davis area by Elk Lick Run and Vought Rock Road will hopefully generate a diverse forest stand where the 1998 tornado and the 2008 gypsy moth defoliation impacted the area.
Projects that aren’t sold yet include two shelterwood treatments: a 135-acre Point Breeze timber sale east of Kirby Road and a 95-acre Fire Tower timber sale around the Braddock Division Forest Foreman’s Headquarters, along with three other projects near the Laurel Mt. Division.
Three proposed projects that impact the Braddock Division are a 40-acre overstory tree removal project east of Elliottsville near Route 381 to allow regeneration of the next stand to include tulip poplars, red oaks, and red and sugar maples, according to DCNR. The area previously underwent a shelterwood treatment.
The other two proposed Braddock Division projects include a 130-acre overstory tree removal along Shepherd Road and Skyline Drive and a 75-acre shelterwood treatment project at the intersection of Brethren Summit Road and Wharton Furnace Road.