Wilderness Realty

Another “cottage industry” in Maine that will provide a woodlot owner with income.  There are two ways to approach this.  The first is to plant seedlings, preferably balsam fir, in a field or cleared area.  Seedlings can be purchased from nurseries or government agencies.  The Penobscot County Soil and Water Conservation District is one such agency that offers an annual tree and shrub sale in the spring.  A 6’ X 6’ spacing is sufficient to provide enough room for the trees to spread.

 Another source is wild trees.  Simply walk your property in early spring and carefully dig up 6-10” fir seedlings for transplanting.  Good places to look are along woods roads, trails and openings.  Transplant them soon after harvesting.

 If you have an area with established fir regeneration 2+ feet in height, thin out the stand to the desired 6’ X 6’ spacing.  Favor healthy looking trees with good needle growth.

 To get your trees in the traditional Christmas-tree shape, you need to prune every year.  Mid June is the best time when new growth is established but not yet “budded out”.  A hedge trimmer is a good tool for this purpose.  A manual one is fine for a small grove of trees, for a larger operation this task will be easier with a power (electric or gas) trimmer.  They key to trimming is to start shaping the tree in the traditional shape when the trees are still small.  Cut the leaders when the trees are about 3 feet tall to promote bushy growth.

 I have about 140 trees that I have been planting in rotation for the past 16 years.  Some are from wild stock and others were purchased.  I can trim up the trees with a hand trimmer in about 12 hours; though it is taking longer now that I have more large trees.  I have been selling a few each year on a “cut your own basis”.  Of course each year we get to pick out the best one for our own use.

 Fir trees will easily grow on most land.  Our listings at www.wildernessrealty.com are excellent candidates for growing Christmas trees.  Check out our inventory!

The biggest activities conducted on my property, other than the construction of my home,  was two timber harvests; one in the winter of 1992 and the other in the winter of 1997.  A total of 485 cords were cut yielding approximately $16,800 in stumpage value.  This activity was by far the biggest income producer generated by my LAND INVESTMENT.

 Approximately 19 acres was cut during 1992.  The area harvested occurred behind my home on the western 2/3^rds of the west rectangle.  This section was previously harvested in the 1970s and was nearly a clearcut.  The harvest was basically a removal of the remaining overstory with Spruce, Fir, Hemlock, Hardwood and White Pine being targeted species.  Most of the wood was sold as pulp and studwood along with a load of pine logs.

 In 1997 the cut area was comprised of 53 acres and included the entire wooded portion of the east rectangle and about 3 acres on the west rectangle to the north of my home.  This section was not harvested for many decades and consisted of mostly mature timber.  The harvest prescription was to cut softwood, popple and log quality oak, which was painted.  Tree species sold were Spruce, Fir, Larch, Popple, White Pine and Oak.  Again most of the wood was sold as studwood and pulpwood.  Approximately 23 MBF of oak and pine logs were delivered to the mills.  I kept another 40 cords of firewood, mostly oak tops and limbs along with a few Red Maple which were harvested incidentally.   

 My property still has plenty of merchantable timber.  The harvest crew left many trees that did not quite meet the initial prescription; and after 13 years have grown even bigger.  Consequently I can justify another harvest of Popple, Spruce, Fir and White Pine in the immediate future.  In addition, at the current rate that I am cutting firewood (6 cords annually), there is more hardwood growing on the property than I can use in my lifetime. 

 Most of the residual, merchantable timber is on the east rectangle.  The west rectangle is well stocked with mostly softwood regeneration and would probably be ready for a pulpwood thinning in the next 20 years, maybe sooner. 

 Other than an outright sale of the property, timber harvesting is probably the single most valuable income producer of a woodlot.  As you can see by my experience, income can be generated by successive, selective harvests.  My timberland investment has yielded me income over time; AND there is still plenty of remaining wood that can be harvested now AND there are trees growing for future harvests.  Need I say more.

 You can be a timberland owner as well.  Just check out our listings at www.wildernessrealty.com

If you like one of our properties, give us a call and make an appointment for a showing.

My first post under this category was a short history and description of my property.  For this post, I will describe some simple techniques that I employed to enhance the indigenous wildlife populations.

 The first winter after purchasing the 49 acres, I obtained two wood duck nest boxes and put them up overlooking the beaver bog on the east rectangle.  The boxes were used occasionally by the targeted species, wood duck and hooded merganser.  For several years one box was used by mice.  During another check, I surprised a little brown bat.

 Around my home, I cleared approximately 1.5 acres.  This provided a small field and “edge” with the surrounding forest which attracted several bird species to nest; including robins and chipping sparrows.  I left approximately 12 mature oaks which have produced acorns every year.  The fallen nuts have attracted deer, turkey, porcupine, ruffed grouse, gray and red squirrel.  At dusk I have observed flying squirrels harvesting acorns from the tree crowns.  I have also put out bird houses which have been used by tree swallows and chickadees.

 During the first timber harvest (more on this in a future post), I had the cutting crew leave a huge white pine tree.  This lone sentinel was used over the years as a roosting tree for bald eagles and ospreys.  One year it was used as a nest site by goshawks.  Unfortunately its dominance in a sea of young trees attracted a lightning bolt during a particular nasty September thunderstorm.  About 20 feet up it was shattered into numerous slivers and slabs, some of which I found nearly 100 feet from its base.

 At some point in time, I would like to put in 1 or 2 food plots and construct a pond.  Both of these endeavors will be costly; especially when compared to the rather simple (and inexpensive) techniques that I previously described.  My point is there is a multitude of improvements, running from the simple to the grandiose, that landowners can make to their property to attract wildlife.

 Not a landowner yet?  Check out our inventory on our website www.wildernessrealty.com   Feel free to drop me a line if something catches your interest.

First and foremost let me give you a brief history regarding my property.  It is 78 acres in size, bisected by a State highway (with very light traffic) and there is nearly 1100 feet on the Penobscot River.  I purchased it over time in 3 parcels.  The first 49 acres was purchased in 1988 for $13,750.  It is rectangular in shape and is split by a State road.  To the north and east, another 27 acres was bought in 1997 for $8000.  This piece wraps around the east rectangle to form an L shape and gave me the river frontage.  The final parcel of two acres was purchased in 2004 for $5000.  My total cost for the property is $26,750 or approximately $343/acre. 

 I built my home about 450’ in from the road on the west rectangle in 1989-90 near the south line.  The 2 acres purchased in 2004 serves as an additional 200’ buffer between my neighbor to the south and my home.

 The property is mostly wooded except where I cleared about 1.5 acres for my home, lawn and garden.  I planted about 150 fir trees in the open area and keep them trimmed for Christmas trees.  On the east rectangle there is about 3-4 acres of open swamp land and another approximately 1 acre open swath where a pipeline runs parallel to and about 100’ from the State road.

 In the future I will discuss various activities that I enjoy on my land.  The above description should, hopefully, allow the reader to visualize where the particular pursuit is occurring.