The motivation of hope

All a forest manager has is hope, the drive to improve the woods through work.  You never know the end result, yet the motivation leads to a vision of a better tomorrow for preferred species.  On the last full day of spring, when humidity started to descend and work conditions were not the best, some bow sawing and lopping gave more light to several young oaks, birches, and sugar maple.

Here's a yellow birch prior to the removal of two small balsam fir blocking daylight.  The birch now has the vital sun in larger quantities.

This baby oak, suffocating under total shade, still looks deformed and outgunned by other trees.  But hope lives now with more sunlight!  The cut trunk to the right of the oak are the remnants of a diagonal ash, dropped for the oak's benefit.  A larger balsam fir's demise from the bow saw helps the oak, as well.

Here are two more oaks, neither in the best of shape, that gained live-giving sun through a bunch of lopping and some sawing.  One oak leans too much, while the smaller one at the bottom of the picture needs a lot of luck to survive, even with more light.  As the #1 rule of forest management states, however, never give up on an oak!

Forest management tank

In the wonderful a.m. sun today, hard work was performed to help the forest.  Some thinning time with the small saw will give more sun to some oaks and birches.

The idea of eliminating trees to help other trees seems bizarre.  But the science does not lie.  Giving more sun to some trees means less competition and a healthier neighborhood of trees.

Because the work was so close to the house, the cut wood has almost totally been marched up for cutting and stacking.  No point in wasting it.

For the paper birch fans out there, don't worry about the amount of that beautiful species taken down.  Several other birches will benefit from the thinning.  Here are pics of the future firewood from today's project.

After the main work was done today, the paper birch pole at the start of the driveway was replaced.  Five years is a long time for the wet wood to endure.  The old pole was about to fall apart.  Now the new one shines beautifully!

Mom and fawn

A mom deer and fawn enjoyed time in a trail recently trimmed near the house.  Both ate some of the cut grass.  The young one was very curious and energetic, while mom seemed eager for rest in a safe spot.