Low Impact Forestry- Profiles

Raymond Young

Jemseg
250 acres
Ecoregion - Grand Lake Lowlands
Ecodistrict - Grand Lake

The Young's 250 acre farm fronts on the St. John River at Jemseg. Grand Lake is visible to the northeast and to the south is Washdemoak Lake. The predominance of these large bodies of water have an important impact on the microclimate of the region, bringing warm temperatures and a moist climate. This microclimate provides the opportunity for early drying of agricultural soils, moisture and a longer growing season which allows farmers to be able to provide early crops and to extend production longer than most other areas in the province.

The microclimate provides a special climate which means early planting and early maturing of the crops and providing early and profitable marketing of garden produce. Mr. Young and his family start marketing root and green vegetables to the Saint John area markets in the early summer, several weeks ahead of farmers from other regions in southern New Brunswick.

The woodlot has traditionally been part of the family farm operation, providing cash input into the farming operation in the winter months. Traditionally, Mr. Young’s father went to the woods in December after freeze-up, working through the winter until spring break-up in March. "Any time after the 10^th of March is a bonus. My road has a southern exposure, and as March 10 rolls around, the sun hits the road and it falls apart."

This is the Grand Lake Lowlands Ecodistrict, which is in the warmest ecoregion in the province. Trees such as bur oak, green ash, butternut and silver maple can be found here, especially on the interval soils. In areas where there is less spring flooding, sugar maple, red maple, basswood, ironwood, white ash and read oak stands can be found. The sandy shorelines of the lake are dominated by red oak and white ash. On the uplands, mixedwood forests of red spruce and hemlock, in association with red maple, white birch, and poplar are common. Black spruce is frequently found in the western part of this ecodistrict on the wet and acidic uplands. White pine is fairly common in may stands. A long history of logging and farming has considerably changed the forest here, resulting in numerous stands of red maple, gray birch, white birch and polar, with a scattering of spruce and fir.

Harvesting History and Management Approach

Mr. Young’s 150 acre woodlot was logged heavily in the late 1940's for lumber just before his father purchased the property. The Young's continued to harvest on the woodlot every winter, for fuelwood, pulpwood and sawlogs in a way that hand no major impact on any part.

The next major disruption to the woodlot was the spruce budworm in the sixties and seventies. It virtually wiped out the balsam fir, and also effected some of the spruce.

Mr. Young and his family spent the seventies and the early 1980's chasing the budworm and salvaging what softwood they could. What was left on the woodlot was an over-story of hardwood with a scattering of spruce and white pine. As the softwood was salvaged from the woodlot, considerable light was able to reach the forest floor, promoting considerable regeneration of both softwoods and hardwoods.

As the remaining hardwood over-story matured ( primarily white birch, red maple, and poplar with isolated yellow birch and sugar maple), a lot of its trees went into decline. Young has been harvesting the over-story, along with isolated softwoods that escaped the budworm. The over-story harvest has encouraged growth in the natural regeneration of the under-story. This has been pre-commercially thinned to help it attain optimum size and condition.

There are some small patches of mixedwood and some areas of mature spruce. These softwood stands are carefully monitored and harvested to remove severely declining trees and to maintain the healthier trees. "I need twenty cords every year for sawing and making crates. What softwoods I have will have to last quite a long time, until the young stands are big enough to supply my mill. So I am pretty careful selecting some trees to cut and still keep the remaining trees in the stand growing. But when I look at the first stands that we thinned, they are big enough to take studwood out of them, so I am very happy with their growth."

Mr. Young says his father was never impressed with the advantage that pre-commercial thinning offered, but Mr. Young himself believes that it offers great potential for improved growth. He has however seen the government supported programs as some-what restrictive in the past. "I always felt that there was a need to allow hardwoods to be left in the thinnings. The programs at first didn't want any hardwoods left at all. It was changed some, so now we can keep more. I think that when there is a mixture of hardwood and softwood, that is when we get the best growth. It seems that the growth in mixed stands is better than in pure softwood stands."

Mr. Young has clear memories of the devastating impact of the spruce budworm and does not want any pure spruce-fir stands in his woodlot that could be wiped out when the insect returns to epidemic levels. Young’s crop trees by order of preference in the pre-commercial thinnings are white pine, spruce, yellow birch, maple, balsam fir and finally poplar.

Careful Attention to the Forest Soil

The elevation rises from the river toward the back of the property until the land drops into a steep valley, cut by a major brook. The topography of the woodlot is quite level with fairly good drainage from north to south. Although the woodlot has a smooth topography, Mr. Young points to wet areas that have less than optimum production capacity. He can also point to the sensitive forest floor that has not been adversely impacted by harvesting.

"I rely on freeze-up to let me work in these wet areas with out rutting or damaging the soil. You can bet if I was working in these areas at any other time of year, I would end up with ruts and other damage. When I am working in the winter, there is no damage. That also means that there is less stress on my equipment and it makes for better working conditions for me."

Working in the winter with snow cover, also means that small seedlings less than six inch in height are left virtually unaffected. Careful felling and skidding practices ensure that a very high percentage of the larger seedlings and sapling also survive the harvest operation.

Protecting Regeneration

In addition to his care for the soil, Raymond Young's work methods are very kind to the advanced regeneration that extends across the woodlot. Raymond points to the past winter's harvesting that removed up to 20 cords per acre, but left a landscape covered with young trees. Raymond says his success with keeping the regeneration comes as a result of common sense, planning and proper utilization of the equipment that he uses. He says that the first step is proper layout of extraction trails and then sticking with them until the harvest is complete. The harvest trail is laid out as a D, with the vertical line representing the main woodlot road. A temporary 12 foot culvert is installed, with the farm tractor/front-end loader, where the trail connects with the main road. The curve of the D comes to about 100 feet of the property side line, so that the area can be worked with the farm tractor logging winch cable.

Trees are directionally felled so that they are pulled in a direct line to the tractor and then hauled out along the trail. With big trees, Raymond will often cut them into sixteen foot lengths so that they will trail in the tractor's track closely, causing little damage to small trees along the trail.

Directional felling is good in theory, but often tree lean and wind direction can prevent accurate felling. At such times Raymond uses his tractor's front-end loader or a pull from the logging winch to give him a help. Instead of using a direct pull with the winch cable, the cable is threaded around mature trees so that the felling direction is away from the tractor.

Wood Products from Pulpwood
to Strawberry Crates

Harvested wood is hauled a short distance along the main woodlot road to a yard where products are sorted. Once cut to length, logs are loaded onto a trailer with the front-end loader of the farm tractor. Individual loads of different products are hauled to the farmstead. Firewood is piled down and processed and marketed later in the spring and summer. Some customers choose to cut and split their wood through the summer. Pulpwood and wafer-board wood are hauled as soon as a tractor-trailer load is generated.

The Young's have an unique utilization opportunity related to their farm. Mr. Young operates a small rotary cut sawmill that produces boards for strawberry crates, potato bins and pallets. The Young's main farm produce is strawberries and as everyone knows, strawberries come in flats. These wooden crates contain 15 quart boxes. The mill is designed to saw four foot bolts, and Raymond says that he saws about 20 cords of "low grade softwood" to build his supply of flats. He says that once spring thaw starts in early March sawing and building crates becomes the foul weather job after the regular farm chores. Raymond also manufactures potato crates for special export requirements and for his own potato production, as well as pallets for other produce. The mill is housed in a 20 foot by 30 foot building, with mill downstairs and the assembly and storage area upstairs. The mill is still powered by the same 1954 Chevrolet car engine, that was originally installed.

Bobcats, Coopers Hawks and Deer

Raymond explained that the woodlot host's a pair of Coopers Hawks every year. The pair usually raise three young and they frequent the farm fields to forage their feed. "When I start mowing hay, they show up perching in trees along the edge of the fields. When they spot a mouse in the wind-rows they come in and get their lunch. One day a hawk tried to get off the ground with a snake, but as soon as the hawk was a few feet in the air, the snake would wiggle out of the hawks grip. After a while that hawk gave up."

"This past year we have had lots of snowshoe hare, but not many coyote. A few years ago it seemed that there were lots of coyote, but there were very few rabbits. This year we also had a few bobcat tracks."

Raymond is an avid deer hunter and enjoys getting his annual deer. Deer are plentiful in the region attracting hunters from across the province. Night-hunters have been an annoyance for the Young's, both from late nights disturbed by rifle fire and destruction by vehicles on the farm fields. To address the problem Raymond invited a friend to construct a camp on the woodlot at the edge of the farm fields. The presence has helped to cut down on both the night hunting and destructive trespass.

"I can go to the woodlot and enjoy the silence and relax some"

Besides producing wood products for sale and their own use, the Young's have a camp deep in the woodlot that is used for recreation by family and friends. "I always light the fire when I am working in the winter, then I have my lunch in comfort." Young says that his woodlot is also an important element for providing relaxation and stress release through the year. He explained that when spring comes, his family is scrambling to get crops planted, then taking care of the crops and finally harvesting and marketing. The strawberry production, for example will see up to fifty different pickers employed. "When things get really hectic I can go to the woodlot and enjoy the silence and relax some. That is a very special quality that the woodlot provides me."



		*Raymond Young* Jemseg 250 acres Ecoregion - Grand Lake Lowlands Ecodistrict - Grand Lake
The Young's 250 acre farm fronts on the St. John River at Jemseg. Grand Lake is visible to the northeast and to the south is Washdemoak Lake. The predominance of these large bodies of water have an important impact on the microclimate of the region, bringing warm temperatures and a moist climate. This microclimate provides the opportunity for early drying of agricultural soils, moisture and a longer growing season which allows farmers to be able to provide early crops and to extend production longer than most other areas in the province. The microclimate provides a special climate which means early planting and early maturing of the crops and providing early and profitable marketing of garden produce. Mr. Young and his family start marketing root and green vegetables to the Saint John area markets in the early summer, several weeks ahead of farmers from other regions in southern New Brunswick. The woodlot has traditionally been part of the family farm operation, providing cash input into the farming operation in the winter months. Traditionally, Mr. Young’s father went to the woods in December after freeze-up, working through the winter until spring break-up in March. "Any time after the 10^th of March is a bonus. My road has a southern exposure, and as March 10 rolls around, the sun hits the road and it falls apart." This is the Grand Lake Lowlands Ecodistrict, which is in the warmest ecoregion in the province. Trees such as bur oak, green ash, butternut and silver maple can be found here, especially on the interval soils. In areas where there is less spring flooding, sugar maple, red maple, basswood, ironwood, white ash and read oak stands can be found. The sandy shorelines of the lake are dominated by red oak and white ash. On the uplands, mixedwood forests of red spruce and hemlock, in association with red maple, white birch, and poplar are common. Black spruce is frequently found in the western part of this ecodistrict on the wet and acidic uplands. White pine is fairly common in may stands. A long history of logging and farming has considerably changed the forest here, resulting in numerous stands of red maple, gray birch, white birch and polar, with a scattering of spruce and fir. Harvesting History and Management Approach Mr. Young’s 150 acre woodlot was logged heavily in the late 1940's for lumber just before his father purchased the property. The Young's continued to harvest on the woodlot every winter, for fuelwood, pulpwood and sawlogs in a way that hand no major impact on any part. The next major disruption to the woodlot was the spruce budworm in the sixties and seventies. It virtually wiped out the balsam fir, and also effected some of the spruce. Mr. Young and his family spent the seventies and the early 1980's chasing the budworm and salvaging what softwood they could. What was left on the woodlot was an over-story of hardwood with a scattering of spruce and white pine. As the softwood was salvaged from the woodlot, considerable light was able to reach the forest floor, promoting considerable regeneration of both softwoods and hardwoods. As the remaining hardwood over-story matured ( primarily white birch, red maple, and poplar with isolated yellow birch and sugar maple), a lot of its trees went into decline. Young has been harvesting the over-story, along with isolated softwoods that escaped the budworm. The over-story harvest has encouraged growth in the natural regeneration of the under-story. This has been pre-commercially thinned to help it attain optimum size and condition. There are some small patches of mixedwood and some areas of mature spruce. These softwood stands are carefully monitored and harvested to remove severely declining trees and to maintain the healthier trees. "I need twenty cords every year for sawing and making crates. What softwoods I have will have to last quite a long time, until the young stands are big enough to supply my mill. So I am pretty careful selecting some trees to cut and still keep the remaining trees in the stand growing. But when I look at the first stands that we thinned, they are big enough to take studwood out of them, so I am very happy with their growth." Mr. Young says his father was never impressed with the advantage that pre-commercial thinning offered, but Mr. Young himself believes that it offers great potential for improved growth. He has however seen the government supported programs as some-what restrictive in the past. "I always felt that there was a need to allow hardwoods to be left in the thinnings. The programs at first didn't want any hardwoods left at all. It was changed some, so now we can keep more. I think that when there is a mixture of hardwood and softwood, that is when we get the best growth. It seems that the growth in mixed stands is better than in pure softwood stands." Mr. Young has clear memories of the devastating impact of the spruce budworm and does not want any pure spruce-fir stands in his woodlot that could be wiped out when the insect returns to epidemic levels. Young’s crop trees by order of preference in the pre-commercial thinnings are white pine, spruce, yellow birch, maple, balsam fir and finally poplar. Careful Attention to the Forest Soil The elevation rises from the river toward the back of the property until the land drops into a steep valley, cut by a major brook. The topography of the woodlot is quite level with fairly good drainage from north to south. Although the woodlot has a smooth topography, Mr. Young points to wet areas that have less than optimum production capacity. He can also point to the sensitive forest floor that has not been adversely impacted by harvesting. "I rely on freeze-up to let me work in these wet areas with out rutting or damaging the soil. You can bet if I was working in these areas at any other time of year, I would end up with ruts and other damage. When I am working in the winter, there is no damage. That also means that there is less stress on my equipment and it makes for better working conditions for me." Working in the winter with snow cover, also means that small seedlings less than six inch in height are left virtually unaffected. Careful felling and skidding practices ensure that a very high percentage of the larger seedlings and sapling also survive the harvest operation. Protecting Regeneration In addition to his care for the soil, Raymond Young's work methods are very kind to the advanced regeneration that extends across the woodlot. Raymond points to the past winter's harvesting that removed up to 20 cords per acre, but left a landscape covered with young trees. Raymond says his success with keeping the regeneration comes as a result of common sense, planning and proper utilization of the equipment that he uses. He says that the first step is proper layout of extraction trails and then sticking with them until the harvest is complete. The harvest trail is laid out as a D, with the vertical line representing the main woodlot road. A temporary 12 foot culvert is installed, with the farm tractor/front-end loader, where the trail connects with the main road. The curve of the D comes to about 100 feet of the property side line, so that the area can be worked with the farm tractor logging winch cable. Trees are directionally felled so that they are pulled in a direct line to the tractor and then hauled out along the trail. With big trees, Raymond will often cut them into sixteen foot lengths so that they will trail in the tractor's track closely, causing little damage to small trees along the trail. Directional felling is good in theory, but often tree lean and wind direction can prevent accurate felling. At such times Raymond uses his tractor's front-end loader or a pull from the logging winch to give him a help. Instead of using a direct pull with the winch cable, the cable is threaded around mature trees so that the felling direction is away from the tractor. Wood Products from Pulpwood to Strawberry Crates Harvested wood is hauled a short distance along the main woodlot road to a yard where products are sorted. Once cut to length, logs are loaded onto a trailer with the front-end loader of the farm tractor. Individual loads of different products are hauled to the farmstead. Firewood is piled down and processed and marketed later in the spring and summer. Some customers choose to cut and split their wood through the summer. Pulpwood and wafer-board wood are hauled as soon as a tractor-trailer load is generated. The Young's have an unique utilization opportunity related to their farm. Mr. Young operates a small rotary cut sawmill that produces boards for strawberry crates, potato bins and pallets. The Young's main farm produce is strawberries and as everyone knows, strawberries come in flats. These wooden crates contain 15 quart boxes. The mill is designed to saw four foot bolts, and Raymond says that he saws about 20 cords of "low grade softwood" to build his supply of flats. He says that once spring thaw starts in early March sawing and building crates becomes the foul weather job after the regular farm chores. Raymond also manufactures potato crates for special export requirements and for his own potato production, as well as pallets for other produce. The mill is housed in a 20 foot by 30 foot building, with mill downstairs and the assembly and storage area upstairs. The mill is still powered by the same 1954 Chevrolet car engine, that was originally installed. Bobcats, Coopers Hawks and Deer Raymond explained that the woodlot host's a pair of Coopers Hawks every year. The pair usually raise three young and they frequent the farm fields to forage their feed. "When I start mowing hay, they show up perching in trees along the edge of the fields. When they spot a mouse in the wind-rows they come in and get their lunch. One day a hawk tried to get off the ground with a snake, but as soon as the hawk was a few feet in the air, the snake would wiggle out of the hawks grip. After a while that hawk gave up." "This past year we have had lots of snowshoe hare, but not many coyote. A few years ago it seemed that there were lots of coyote, but there were very few rabbits. This year we also had a few bobcat tracks." Raymond is an avid deer hunter and enjoys getting his annual deer. Deer are plentiful in the region attracting hunters from across the province. Night-hunters have been an annoyance for the Young's, both from late nights disturbed by rifle fire and destruction by vehicles on the farm fields. To address the problem Raymond invited a friend to construct a camp on the woodlot at the edge of the farm fields. The presence has helped to cut down on both the night hunting and destructive trespass. "I can go to the woodlot and enjoy the silence and relax some" Besides producing wood products for sale and their own use, the Young's have a camp deep in the woodlot that is used for recreation by family and friends. "I always light the fire when I am working in the winter, then I have my lunch in comfort." Young says that his woodlot is also an important element for providing relaxation and stress release through the year. He explained that when spring comes, his family is scrambling to get crops planted, then taking care of the crops and finally harvesting and marketing. The strawberry production, for example will see up to fifty different pickers employed. "When things get really hectic I can go to the woodlot and enjoy the silence and relax some. That is a very special quality that the woodlot provides me."