Red Pine

[Travis Bahrt]

I have a couple areas on my property that at mainly all Red Pine, I am not really sure what the best plan is for those areas when it comes to habitat improvement. I only have 39 acres so I would say maybe 5 acres in a couple different areas are all tall very bare red pine. What have you guys done with your red pine?

 

[rocksnstumps]

I have a 6 acre and maybe 1 acre blocks of red pine along with some northern hardwoods. The pine are the only consistent spots turkeys will roost when in the neighborhood. They have been thinned once and now have a bunch of junk brush like prickly ash underneath but thickened up nicely. Decent thermal cover and used a fair amount by deer in the winter and they really like the open edge on the south side.

If yours are lots of bare branches 2/3 of the way up and only pine needles at ground level you need to do a thinning. With that small a patch you will likely have to cut some other timber to interest any logger.

 

[JFK52]

Do an every third row thinning or a specific tree thinning. You will be amazed at the at the results. My understory in the plantation pines I have thinned is just filling out with berry bushes and other trees. It makes for great bedding and food sources for the deer where previously it was a deer desert.
rocksnstumps is correct in that a small area of pines will not interest many loggers. I had about 50 acres thinned when I did mine and am lucky to have a friend who lives within 10 miles of my land who took the job. I just talked to him about the time frame for doing the second selective tree thinning. We are looking at 3 or 4 more years before considering that job.

 

[sandbur]

Second harvest is in the planning stages.

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[Nova]

Definitely thinning is key. We just had ours thinned 3 years ago for the third time and it's really getting nice understory now. Try to find a log home maker in the area. They prefer selective harvest to get the correct size trees and they pay much better for the wood.

 

[Tap]

I have a couple areas on my property that at mainly all Red Pine, I am not really sure what the best plan is for those areas when it comes to habitat improvement. I only have 39 acres so I would say maybe 5 acres in a couple different areas are all tall very bare red pine. What have you guys done with your red pine?

I planted some red pines back in the 1990s because deer seemed to not bother them very much. They destroyed my white pine and hemlock so I tried reds. They grew nicely for for about 15 years or so, but then they all started to die off. I have no idea why. I don't think I have any that are still alive.
BTW, I have a few other pine varieties that are sickly. The blue spruce are all dying in this region, and I'm losing my Doug firs, too. Hemlock are in jeopardy too.
White pine are doing fine but need protection from deer. Norway spruce are also doing fine.