Category: Virginia forestry

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CO2 & Forests

Carbon dioxide makes plants grow faster and stronger, so presumably higher levels of CO2 in the air as a result of burning fossil fuels would make forests grow faster.   I was particularly interested in an experiment done at Duke University where they dosed a loblolly pine plantation with elevated levels of CO2.     Duke is not far from my forests and they were experimenting with the same species as I have on similar soils in a similar environment. 

Below are pines at a Virginia Tech experimental plot testing biosolids at the Peidmont station near Blackstone, VA.  The trees were not actively managed before the biosolid experiments.

The studies showed that the pines did indeed grow faster and stronger.  They were also less prone to damage during ice storms, which is a factor that limits loblolly growth farther north.  The forest did relatively better during dry years.   The hypothesis is that the limiting factors in the growth of the pines are nutrients such as nitrogen, which is in deficit on much of the pine land in the Southeast.   In dry years, however, the trees don’t bump up against those factors since they are growing more slowly because water is the limiting factor.  When rain is plentiful they are reach the limits of the site’s nutrients and the extra CO2 isn’t much of a benefit.

Everybody knows that forest soils in region are deficient in N and P as well as trace minerals.   Pine forests often sit on land that was used for cotton, corn or tobacco.  These crops depleted the soils, which were old soils anyway.  Building the soils is one of our tasks. 

It seems to me that we have a solution to this problem if we just fertilize better.   This is something we might want to do anyway.   I think this is a place for biosolids.    I really don’t understand why we cannot balance these things better.   I read about the problems of disposing bulk wastes and sewage from municipalities and commercial farms.   In Virginia and NC, we have a lot of chicken and hog operations.   They produce too much crap; our soils could use it and the trees would grow better and faster.  I am going to try to figure out why this is not being done more widely.  I suspect it is misguided regulation coupled with plain inertia.

Below is one of my failures, or maybe a single success.  I planted twenty bald cypress.  As far as I can tell, only one survived.  I want to get back into the swamp when the ground freezes this winter to check on the overall progress.  I was in Iraq last winter, so I missed that opportunity then.  The tree you can see in the picture is thriving.   The others not.  I don’t know what I did wrong.   My guess is that there was too much competition.  There are a lot of box elders that overgrew them.  This one is near the road, so I can get at the brush regularly.  BTW – the bald cypress is the green one on the left. 

Anyway, the Dept of Energy, which was funding the Duke studies, is pulling the plug on them.   You can find information re at links here, here & here.    It was that news that made me think about this subject.   I am a little unhappy about this outcome, although I am not sure how much more could be gained anyway.    There are too many variables.  You would have to try to fertilize some, make sure others had lots of water etc. and by the time you figured it out the results would probably be OBE’D.  Good forestry practices and superior genetics will make the forests grow a lot faster anyway.    Experiments are difficult in forestry because of the variable conditions and the very long times involved.   It is usually easier to compare and contrast different places and practices over larger areas and work with landowners.

Below are 13-year-old loblolly pines on my new land.  They are planted close together, which shaded out other trees.  You can see there are only a few stray hardwoods.  But these trees are too close.  I want to thin them out maybe in 2010.  That is a little early, but the stand is growing well and I think the opening will help.

Virginia Tech does a good job of outreach to forest owners, which helps them understand the forests of Virginia in a very practical way.    For example, they are studying biosolids application on a tree farm near Blackstone and they invite landowners and anybody else interested to look at the results.  It was a biosolids demonstration in 2007 that directly led me to apply biosolids on my land.    They also send around student teams to check on forest pests etc.   All this outreach makes the whole Commonwealth of Virginia their laboratory.

I know this is a bit of a subject change, but I have to add that any CO2 solution requires higher prices for carbon-based fuels.  The bad news is that oil prices are coming down.  We need to tax them back up.  I have been writing about this for years now.  Please follow this link and let me know what you think.  

Of course, maybe all this will go for nought.  It has been darn cold around here for the past weeks and I read in the paper today that not only was this October one of the colder on record, but there has been no global warming for the last ten years.   Statistics are like that, however.  There is the story re the man whose head is in the freezer and feet in the fire but on average he is comfortable.

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Marking Boundaries, Managing Wildlife

Below – boundary trees are often the biggest trees.

I don’t really do much useful around the farms, but I enjoy being there and I have assigned myself tasks.   One of my repeating tasks is marking boundaries.    I squirt new paint on the markers each year.  It was a challenge the first time just to find them.   Most of the markers are on old trees.  Boundary trees tend to be the biggest ones because neither side can cut them down.  Beyond that, surveyors tended to choose long-lived species such as white oaks.   The most interesting markers are old signs.   My property was owned by Union Camp and there are metal signs telling people that.   In some cases the trees have grown almost completely around the signs.    On two sides I have the remains of a barb wire fence.  In the old days the fence divided two pastures.  It is very old and the trees have grown around the wires in many places.   The wires are mostly down, but they still provide a straight line to follow.  The southern boundary is Genito Creek … or it WAS the creek.   In 1962 the creek changed course and cut a new channel through my property.    The line is now the old creek bed.  There are no clear markers there.  The eastern border is also moved.  It used to be the road, but around 1970 they moved the road, so now I have around 100 yards on the far side of the road too.  This strands a couple acres, but I am glad to have both sides.   Nobody can build anything I don’t like along my road.   The plat map has precise longitude and latitude that these days you can find with GPS.   In fact, you can find everything with GPS.    I like the precision but I enjoy the exploration more.   

Below – The tree swallowed the barb wire fence.

Below My trees are growing very well and I expect that the thinning and biosolids will make them grow even better.   The property was clear cut in 2003 and replanted the next spring.   The site index is good.

I met the guys from the Reedy Creek Hunt club.  They seem a nice bunch of guys.   They told me that my new property has been in forest since as long as anybody can remember.   They knew a lot about the local forestry business  and I was glad to share their expertise.  

There is no shortage of deer in the area.   In fact, deer have become pests, destroying crops and becoming road hazards.   The hunters shoot as many as they can, but it doesn’t make a dent on the herd.  They speculated, however, that the deer may be a nuisance also because they have to search for food farther from the forests.   We agreed that the club would plant some food plots on the eight acres below the power lines that cross my new property.    High protein diet would not necessarily increase the size of the herd, but it might keep them closer to home and make the herd healthier.  That is the theory, at least. 

Above & below are some of our healthy trees. I am 6’1”, so you can see the comparison with the trees.  I didn’t know trees grew that fast.  Back in 2005 when I first got the place, none of them were even knee high.

Some still hunt individually, especially those who hunt with bows or black powder but hunting in this part of Virginia is a usually a communal affair.   They send dogs into the woods to drive out the deer.  Theoretically they coordinate to get the deer.   Evidently many still get away.   They move fast and the guys assured me that it is a lot harder than it sounds.  

We talked about the various other sorts of animals the live around Brunswick County.   I was not happy to learn that bears are becoming common again.   I have not seen any bear tracks yet on my land.  Good.  I prefer to avoid encounters with any animals that can do me serious harm.  As few as ten years ago there weren’t any in Virginia except in the mountains and in the areas of the Great Dismal Swamp.   I heard from a different source that a guy near Brodnax killed a bear last year, a big bear … with a bow and arrow.  I am not sure I would shoot at a bear with a bow.   A near miss would just make him mad and you might not get a second shot.  Hunting for bear is still restricted to bow and black powder.    Of course there is the usual menagerie of animals, such as beaver, turkey, bobcats and recently coyotes.   I understand that beavers have been trying to dam up one of the streams on the new property.    You just can’t get away from them.    They are kind of cute but they breed like rodents, I suppose because they are.

Above is the place where the club plans to plant some food plots.

Above – my new property came with appliances.  The hunt club guys tell me that they have been there a long time.   It is a Sears Kenmore washer and range.   Despite years of exposure to the elements, they are in decent condition.  I guess Sears built to last.

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Kill Animals & Cut Trees to Protect Nature

Continuing my thoughts from the Greenpeace posting below, when I tell people about my forest, they often praise me for protecting nature. Their enthusiasm cools when I explain that I am indeed protecting nature by killing some animals and cutting some trees. You just cannot rely on nature to take care of itself anymore. Preservation is not desirable everywhere if you want to protect nature.

Below – the clearcut on my forest land two years later.   The weeds and debris were higher than the trees and sometimes I worried whether of not I actually had a forest at all or just a weed patch.

Humans live in this world and have forever altered it. What if all humans disappeared tomorrow? What would nature “return” to? Where my trees grow, I think it would eventually be a fight between invasive paradise trees and kudzu vines. I don’t know if the wild boar would move in and tear up all the roots, but I figure that we probably would soon get many of those introduced bugs that kill beech, oak and ash trees. Eventually some sort of new balance would result. Would the paradise tree/kudzu ecosystem be superior to the pine, oak, beech & poplar and sweet gum I maintain?

Humans are not leaving this world any time soon, so my scenario above is just imaginary. Managing the land is even more important in the world we really live in.

Below – the clearcut on my land five years later

Humans must and will use resources taken from the earth. We can do that for a long time if we manage it right. A wise analysis indicates that some places should be preserved. We should not cut down all the redwoods, nor should we make the Grand Canyon into a gravel pit. But in order to be able to preserve some things, we need to use others wisely.

My land is beautiful rolling green piedmont cut into three parts by clear running streams. It is jumping with wildlife. Beavers sometimes have built little ponds. I love my land and feel responsible for it, but I am under no illusions that THIS particular land needs to be preserved untouched.  It is special only to me.  This was one of the early parts of our country to be colonized by English settlers.  For a couple centuries what is now my land was growing crops such as corn, cotton and tobacco, which depleted the soil.  About a century ago, the owners just gave up trying to grow ordinary crops and let it go.  Soon loblolly pines covered the land. Those pines were harvested in the 1930s.  They grew back and were harvested again in 1959, replanted with trees trees selected for their genetic qualities.  These were harvested in 2003 and replanted with really superior trees, some of which are now around twelve feet high. (We never cut about 30 acres of mixed hardwood near the streams to preserve water quality.)

Below is a clearcut thirteen years later.  This is on our new tree farm that we got this summer.

This land has produced wood for hundreds of homes and will produce wood for thousands more. Every stick of wood harvested from this land means we do not have to cut an old forest somewhere else. To make the trees grow faster, we apply biosolids (processed sewerage). This is where it goes when you flush the toilet. It has to go somewhere. You can dump it or bury it where it will be pollution or you can apply it to fields or forest land where it will be fertilizer for the next generation of trees.

It would be immoral for me to take this land out of production, to preserve it. My higher duty is to conserve and protect it. Conservation is harder work than preservation.

Consider the animals that live on the land. There is no shortage of deer, beaver or wild turkeys.  I have seen signs of coyotes and bobcats.  I am glad that the local hunters shoot and trap some of them.  Each hunter gets deer during each season, gun, bow, black powder.  They eat the meat and use the hides, and this pays the property taxes. They cannot seem to shoot enough deer or trap enough beaver to put a dent in their populations.

Using the current methods, I believe the land will continue to produce wood, wildlife, clean air and clear water almost forever. The land LOOKS unattractive for about three years after a clear cut, although the deer love it and it is a time of great abundance for raptors such as hawks and eagles. After three years the mix of brush and Christmas tree like forest is once again beautiful.

So remember, if you want to preserve special places, you need to use some others and if you want to protect nature, you need to cut some trees, spread some sewage and kill some animals.

Above is a wall in the middle of a woods in Wisconsin near the Milwaukee Airport.  Nature returned.  You would not know it had ever been gone until you come up on the wall that indicates settled agriculture in the past. Some people would call this a virgin forest, but they would be wrong.  You see a lot of that in New England.   I visited Robert Frost’s farm and remembered his poem “Mending Wall.”  I have included it below.  These days, however, there is no need to mend wall.  It is the same forest on both sides.  And the walls are mostly down.

Mending Wall

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
‘Stay where you are until our backs are turned!’
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors’.
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
‘Why do they make good neighbors? Isn’t it
Where there are cows?
But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That wants it down.’ I could say ‘Elves’ to him,
But it’s not elves exactly, and I’d rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me~
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father’s saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, “Good fences make good neighbors.”

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A Forest and Field Day – With Biosolids

One of the great services provided by the State of Virginia is ongoing landowner education.   The courses I like are usually hosted by Virginia Tech and I prefer to go to the Southern Piedmont Research Station near Blackstone, VA because that is close to my forest land.   Forestry is very localized in terms of soils and climates.   I prefer to share the experience with people who work with my kind of tree in similar climates and soil types.

Below is a discussion of precommercial thinning.  The Dept of Forestry recommends it to keep the forests healthy.  I already did mine.

I attended a field day that included talks on forest road maintenance, carbon credits & pond management, as well as a tour of a local saw mill.

The instructors and my fellow landowners are always very nice to me, but I am strange to them with my northern accent and unusual background.   Most of the other landowners are old south & rural and I feel always in the presence of Andy Griffith or Billy-Bob Thorton.  They inherited their land, which has often been in their families for many generations.  

As the older generation dies off, farms and timberlands are left to kids who have moved away to the cities.  They often divide it up among the heirs and sell it off.  This leads to fragmentation of the forests.   100 acres in one parcel is not the same as 100 acres divided in to ten or twenty fragments.  You really cannot practice forestry on land less than forty acres.  We also talked about conservation easements, which might reduce this trend.  A conservation easement lowers taxes in return for a contract never to develop the land.  It stays in forest or farm.  This can be a good thing.

I also went down to my forest to check on the biosolids application.   The workers had just finished.  There is a little smell to the biosolids, but not that much.  The bigger effect is that the heavy machinery crushes down the vegetation, including some of my trees.  It would be better to apply biosolids first and then do pre-commercial thinning.  There is not that much damage really.  The rows are far apart and unless the trees are actually run over by the tires there is a good chance they will recover. 

My forest is looking very good in terms of spacing and tree health.  There is a debate re how close the trees should be.  The closer spacing provides more wood at first, but lower quality.  The closely spaced trees are also more stressed and in more danger from insects.  Wildlife also does better with more widely spaced trees.   Anyway, my choice is more spacing.   I am interested to see how much fertilization does for the trees.  Most forest owners do not fertilize at this stage and I am one of the first in the area to use biosolids at this stage of the lifecycle.  Virginia Tech has studied the applications of biosolids in Southside Virginia.  I went to their seminar last year and I trust them, so I am doing what they recommend.   We did 132 acres of the 2004 generation.   I probably should have left a control plot for comparison.

Below are what the biosolids look like.  These particular pellets produced by anaerobic digestion.  Some are lime stabilized and in more liquid form.  Biosolids are a great circle of life thing – from flush to farm.  Wastes are applied to land to produce more growth and life.  Virginia Tech has found no significant amount gets into the water supply, even when applied massively beyond what we usually do.  People complain about the smell, but I walked all over the place and hardly noticed them.  It is a mild fertilizer smell that will go away in a couple of weeks.  BTW – this was the place where they piled them for spreading.  The actual spread is much thinner.

One side benefit of the application was the paths the machines made through the brambles.  I was able to get to places on the land where I never set foot before.   In fact, I was so beguiled by the new paths that I stayed too long and almost didn’t get back home in time.

Below is a sweet gum in its fall colors.  They are pretty trees, but sort of like big weeds if you are trying to grow pine.  This one is near the stream management zone and it is a natural part of the Virginia landscape, so we will let it to grow to old age and I will enjoy its color next fall too.  It will be prettier each year.

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Down to the Woods

I will be back in Iraq soon enough and will presumably write more exotic posts, but for now I am enjoying a life a little more ordinary so please excuse my more mundane posting.  As you can tell, this spring a lot of my time is being spent my forestry matters.  You gotta have a hobby.

Below – the trees are a little tight in places.

Chrissy and I went to Southside Virginia to check into pre-commercial thinning of our pines and maybe get some biosolids next year.   We currently have around 1000-1500 loblolly per acre.  That is way too many.  We were lucky that we had a very high survival rate and we got a good number of volunteers, but now it is time to reduce that to around 500 an acre.   The State of Virginia in its wisdom is offering cost-share this year, in order to fight the southern pine beetle (too many trees are less robust and more likely to be attacked by disease and insects), so we will have it done.   It will shorten the rotation by a couple of years, improve wildlife habitat, help the stand resist the pine beetle and make it easier to walk around the property.   It is just a good idea, like thinning a flower garden except a lot bigger.

Below is the best wildlife plot so far.  It is almost completely filled in.

We also checked out our recently planted wildlife plots.   We have five plots; the biggest one is about an acre, planted in white clover and chicory.   It adds significant diversity to the tree farm and makes the local animals healthier.   I also like the look of the meadow to break up the landscape.   Everything is coming in very well.   There are all sorts of animals on the farm anyway.   

Our pine lands were clearcut in 2003.  Southern pine requires full sunlight, so this is the only managment option.  It doesn’t look good the first year, but a clearcut plus around five years is one of the most productive and diverse wildlife habitats around, especially if you do a few things like wildlife plots and corridors.  Southern pine fills 58% of America’s demand for timber.  It is a fully sustainable resource and our pine lands are great places for wildlife & recreation.

The stream management zone have the biggest trees, mostly beech, oak and tulip-poplar with a holly understory and a fern forest floor.

We have around 30 acres in stream management zones and these provide corridors of mixed hardwood through the pine plantations, while preserving water quality.  My water is clear, now that we have addressed some of the erosion issue at a couple places.   Our water eventually runs into Albermale Sound in NC via Genito Creek, which runs through our land.The boys and I spread 40 tons of rip-rap last year and the year before.   The banks have stabilized and vegetation is growing profusely where it the soil used to run into the water.   I am surprised also to find little fish in some of the pools.  Life is surprising that way.  Another important thing we have is “vernal ponds” AKA mud holes with water.   These ponds are important because they allow amphibians like frogs and salamanders to breed.   The pond must be intermittent, i.e. dry up sometimes so as not to support a fish population that would eat the eggs.   People tend not to like vernal ponds, because they are well…mud holes.  They drain them and fill them in, thereby helping to doom the local amphibian population.  

Below is native honeysuckle.  It blooms this time of year and brightens up the forest

The good thing about forestry is that you can have fun, make good investments, grow trees and be environmentally responsible all a the same time.

Below – Chrissy & me in front of one of wildlife plots.   This one is well within the pine plantation and will probably be one of the better ones in the fullness of time.  Wildlife plots spread out in the wood with irregular sides are the most productive.   This will eventually have a soft edge of taller growth.  The clover and chicory will fill in. We wanted to break up the compressed dirt.  Nothing could grow in the compressed clay until it was broken up an limed.  This plot was created in October.  Recent much needed rain will help it grow.

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The Next Forest

I call it our agricultural enterprise.  I never want to retire, but I want to be working at something special from the time I leave officially paid work and when I take the road to glory.  That is why I am acquiring forest land.  Eventually, I would like to have an integrated enterprise including forestry, fish farming, hunting leases and maybe some limited livestock production.  I hope the kids will take an interest too.  This is a long way off and it is more of an aspiration than a plan, but we took another step today when we got another 115 acres of forest land.   Added to the 178 acres we already own, I figure we are around 1/3 to the goal.

The new property has 86 acres of loblolly pine planted in 1996.  It is excellent stand, only a little too thick, but I have not seen better at this age (except for a perfect stand of trees along HW 48 just south of US 1).  The owner who planted it was Union Camp.  During the 1990s, they had a lot of good foresters working for them who did an excellent site preparation and planting.   The trees you see in the picture (with the truck for comparison) are tall and healthy. This is an outstanding plantation of trees.   I thank the downturn in the property market and the low price of fiber for this land being available.   There is a minor risk from the southern pine beetle until first thinning, which I think we can do three years. a couple years ahead of average.  Then we will apply biosolids & do a prescribed burn.  I expect the second thinning chip & saw about seven years later. 

Running through the property are power lines.   This is a good thing.  It makes it less desirable for development and provides a long open area good for wildlife.  I can manage that space for herbaceous plants.  There just can be no trees.  Eight acres are taken up by this easement, which includes an access road.  The rest of the property is a seventy year old hardwood forest we leave alone to ensure water quality.   This property has no permanent streams, but the low lying areas feed springs and are watercourses in wet weather. 

We also inspected the precommercial thinning and wildlife plots on the first piece of land.  I am calling this property Chrissy’s Pond.  I have not built the pond yet, but I have a couple of good places.  This place has two spring fed streams and big creek.  Below is one of the wildlife plots.  The clover and chickory are under those ragweeds.  It needs to be mowed.

This is more fun than being in Iraq.

Above is the thinned forest on the CP property.  The spacing will protect them from beetles and cause a growth spurt.  These pines were planted in 2003.   Before this treatment they were a bit too thick and there was significant competition.  I think they should be just a little bigger.  At some places on the property, they are.  The hardwood forest at the edge of the picture is beech-oak-tulip poplar.  That is my favorite part of the land.

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Carbon Credits

Below – today.  This is SR 623 looking south.  Both sides are our up to the trees at the horizon, which is Genito Creek.  On the east side of the road we only own about 100 yards from the road, not enough for forestry, but I can keep the road from being developed now and forever.  Not that it is a big possibility way out here.

Al Gore buys them; so does Madonna.  Green celebrities and politicians assuage their guilt with carbon credits.  It works a lot like selling indulgences for sin in the medieval church.  The jet-setting celeb can buy a carbon credit to make up for his/her sin – profligate use of energy – and still be a member in good standing of the church of the environment … and not have to use less energy.  Ever wonder where those credits come from?  Some will come from me. 

Below – 2006

The guys who did my pre-commercial thinning have been working on this.   They say that I can sell the carbon my trees take out of the air on the Chicago Climate Exchange.  Young pine forests like mine take a lot of carbon out of the air and they figure that I can earn about $15/acre/year.   You have to enter into a 15 year contract to grow trees and not develop the place for fifteen years.   Since this fits with my plans anyway, it seems like a pretty sweet deal.  I even get a little more money for applying biosolids (which I already plan to do next year) since that makes the trees grow faster.  It is a win all around.  I get to grow my trees as I planned and get money.  People like Al Gore & Madonna get to feel virtuous and environmentally friendly when they buy the carbon sequestered by my loblolly pines.

There is an even more interesting permutation.    Scientists at Duke University have been studying loblolly pines in a higher CO2 environment as they expect with more greenhouse gases.  They grow significantly faster and stronger, so my trees are both removing excess CO2 and growing stronger while doing it.

I don’t feel too hypocritical.  I know.  It is a bit of a scam for fat-cat celebs, but it does some useful things.  It makes some eco-friendly activities more valuable.   In my particular case it will not change my behavior, but I can well imagine cases where a couple thousand dollars a year might help encourage someone to keep his land in trees and/or do better forestry.   The income from carbon credits will pay the property taxes, which are a burden on some of my neighbors.  Besides, we forest landowners have been giving the Al Gores of this world a free ride too long.  It is about time they pulled their own weight and we were appreciated.   The way I see it, we all like the green. 

Below 2006.  You can see the taller trees in the background in both pictures.  I have circled it here. I can no longer take a picture from this spot.  You cannot see the forest for the trees.

The minute the coins in the coffer ring, the soul out of green purgatory springs.  So when you see your favorite rock star, actor or celebrity, you can thank me for keeping them green (if not perfectly honest.)

Below – most of S. Virginia is pine covered.   This is I85.  It is like that for many miles.  Lots of carbon credits available.  Of course, older forests do not take as much carbon out of the air and an old growth forest is pretty much carbon neutral.

I love my trees and am proud of their growth.  If you look at the sets of pictures in the text, you can see how well they are doing.  The pictures with the smaller trees were taken in 2006.  Only two years later it looks a lot more like a new forest.   I also bought another forests today.   I will write more in the next posts.  I have always loved trees.  Thanks to energy guzzling celebrities, it pays better.

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2008 Tree Farmer of the Year

As I mentioned in earlier posts, one of the things I get to do as VFA Tree Farm communications director is to interview the outstanding tree farmer of the year.   I learn a lot from these guys and I like to share a part of it with others through the write ups.  I met this year’s winner at his farm near Hardy VA a couple days ago.  This is my draft article for the “Virginia Forests” magazine.

Tom and Sallie Newbill are bucking the trend and doing what so many small forest owners dream of doing.   While fragmentation is a big challenge of today’s Virginian forests as farm and timber lands are divided into smaller parcels, some almost too small for proper management, the Newbills have been bringing land together into a bigger well-managed unit.   They started to assemble the pieces that became Montmorenci Tree Farms in 1967 and over the next decades built their inventory of land to include 1190 acres in Franklin County, Virginia and Halifax County NC.  Their home place unites three adjoining farms in Franklin County, VA plus two others are nearby.    The North Carolina place comes through Sallie’s family.   That is also where the name Montmorenci originates.   In 1772, Sallie’s mother’s family received a land grant in North Carolina from the King of England, in this case George III, and they called their estate Montmorenci.   Sallie and Tom revived the name for their farms.

Tom Newbill was not always in the forestry business.  After graduating from Virginia Tech with a degree in engineering, he took a job with Westvaco and later worked for IBM and as a principal in a computer services company in Atlanta, Georgia, where the family lived between 1966 and 1996.  Sallie taught school and later spent ten years as a State Senator in the Georgia state legislature.  But Tom felt the pull of the forests of home.  He grew up in Franklin County around forestry operations.  His uncle ran the local saw mill and Tom had a long and natural connection with forestry so he always appreciated the stable value of land and timber. 

When the Newbills had opportunities to invest for their future, timberland seemed a natural choice and the woods of home a natural location.   Tom was returning to his deep roots in Franklin County.   His mother was a long time school teacher in the region and it seemed like half the people of the county had been her pupils.  The Newbills bought their first forest land in 1968 and eventually brought together what had been five separate farms. Both Sallie and Tom inherited land from their parents, and later bought out their siblings.  Each farm had its own story and its own family cemetery, where some of the biggest trees still grow.  Tom and Sallie are very respectful of the cemeteries.   Family members still occasionally visit, but as the years go by the visits are becoming less frequent.

Below – controlled burning is an essential tool of forestry and wildlife management.  Virginia pine forests are fire dependent.  Native Americans burned forests every couple of years.  Small controlled fires stimulate growth and help avoid the large disasterous forest fires that result from too much fire supression.

The Newbills use some of the best forestry practices on their acreage, including planting the latest generation of trees (Tom even has a few third generation loblolly pines on his land), controlled burning, proper thinning, and use of modern chemical treatment;  but he does not take the credit for understanding and employing all these techniques.    Tom says that Jim Ebbert, who recently retired from the Virginia Department of Forestry, was for most practical purposes his land manager.   Tom joked that he wondered how Jim could accomplish the other parts of his job while doing so much for Montmorenci Tree Farms.   Another big help was Westvaco’s Rob Bell, who ran the local Cooperative Farms Management (CFM) program.   Among other things, Rob helped with details of timber sales, something that the DOF does not do.  Today Tom gets professional advice from both MeadWestvaco and Travis Rivers at the Virginia Department of Forestry.

Travis nominated Tom Newbill as this year’s outstanding tree farmer and says that working with someone like Tom is great for everybody involved.  The Commonwealth of Virginia has a strong interest in helping responsible tree farmers like Tom and Sallie improve their land and produce timber while protecting the soils and waters of the Old Dominion.  Partnerships like this make it all possible.   In addition to timber production, about a quarter of Montmorenci Tree Farm’s land is devoted to stream management zones, wildlife plots, and cropland rented to a local dairy farmer.  Tom actively manages the wildlife plots and turkey, deer and quail abound on the land.   Water and wildlife resources are further enhanced by a five acre lake he built on the home tract.  The lake supports bluegill and largemouth bass.  Ducks and geese use the waters.   Tom says that one particular pair of geese had been returning to his lake for six years to raise their families of goslings.  In 2006, six goslings grew to maturity.

Below – Tom’s lake.   I hope to make a similar one on my land.

The advantages of managing as much acreage as the Newbills’ own is the diversity it allows. Over the years, timber has been harvested from all Montmorenci tracts, mostly clear cuts, and currently the oldest plantation was established in 1978.   The youngest is from 2000.  This gives Tom a variety of harvest and management options, as one or more of the eight unique stands, plus SMZ or wildlife plots is always ready for some kind of treatment.   Tom also gets a first hand, up close experience of the difference between growing pines in the mountains (Franklin County) as opposed to the tidewater (Halifax County, NC).  

Tom’s observation is that loblolly pines in the mountains are about five years behind those of the tidewater, which is a significant difference.   Franklin County lies on the edge of loblolly country.  In fact, Tom’s farm is outside the natural range of the tree.   One advantage of growing loblolly pines in the mountains is that there are very few “volunteer pines”.   Tom has not had to do any pre-commercial thinning and when properly treated there is little competition from hardwoods or weeds.  The southern pine beetle is also somewhat less of a problem in this cooler and higher environment.   In the tidewater, well within the natural loblolly range, volunteer pines fill in much more profusely, as do weeds.  On the other hand, properly managed pines grow significantly faster.    Beyond that, the flatter topography makes thinning and other treatment operations much easier.   Another more general difference between tree farming on the tidewater and in the mountains is species composition.  The mountains provide good natural regeneration of poplar and there is a good local market for it.

Tom has been a member of the Virginia Forestry Association since 1974. Whether it is in the mountains or the tidewater, Tom Newbill and his family are doing an outstanding job as tree farmers.  They are well and truly achieving what tree farmers strive to achieve.  They are producing timber while at the same time protecting water and wildlife resources and providing places for recreation.   The Virginia Tree Farm Committee congratulates the Newbill family on a job well done and a job they continue to do.

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Shenandoah and Appomattox

Below is Tom Newbill, this year’s tree farmer of the year, next to his biggest oak tree.  It stands in one of the five family graveyards on his land.  In the old days, people buried their relatives on the old farmstead. Tom says that some people still visit the graves, but less frequently as time goes on.  Sic transit gloria mundi.

The most poignant is a grave of a nine year old girl called Goldie, who died just before Christmas in 1914.  Her grave is alone, near where the farmhouse stood, but away from other family members.   I am sure there is a story, but nobody will ever know.

This year’s tree farmer of the year lives in Hardy, near Roanoke, a little more than a four hour drive from Vienna.   Since I had to get there at 9am, I set out early in the morning.   I took 66 to 81 and made good time and was almost to Lexington by the time the sun came up.   It is tough driving on 81.   81 is the truck route that serves the East Coast and it is uncomfortable to be the little guy among the giant trucks.

The Shenandoah Valley is beautiful at dawn or at any other time.   Looking at it from 81 is not the best way to see it, however.   My thoughts often return to Iraq, where I must soon return, and the effects of war.  This beautiful valley was the scene of terrible destruction, much more intense than in Iraq.   Phil Sheridan went through the Valley in 1864 and destroyed everything so that the South could not use it as a supply area.  He famously said, “If a crow wants to fly down the Shenandoah, he must carry his provisions with him”.    And he did this after the war had ranged through the place for four years.   The Shenandoah was a battleground because of its proximity to Washington, its natural bounty and the mixed loyalties of the valley residents.   Anyway, by the end of the war there was not much left.

It grew back.

I will write up and post the article re the tree farmer of the year tomorrow or the next day.   Suffice to say, this guy has done well.  He has more than 1000 acres and he got it the old fashioned way.  Well, he inherited the family farm, but then he saved his money and bought some other acreage.   It is his retirement account and his land is very well managed.

Since it was more or less on the way, I stopped at Appomattox.   I missed the big event by a couple of days (and of course 143 years.) Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia in Wilmer McLean’s parlor on April 9, 1865.  Our Civil War was unique in world history.   All that fighting and killing just ended.  Robert E. Lee was a real man of honor.  He sent his men home to become good citizens of the United States.   Civil wars don’t usually end like that.   In France, they would cut off heads.   The Russians machine gunned the opposition and the Chinese just starved millions to death.   In the U.S. Lee just went home and so did his men.  Of course, Grant’s terms were generous.   A few weeks later Joe Johnston surrendered his army to William T.  Sherman and the unpleasantness was largely over.  Johnston and Sherman became friends.   In fact, Johnston died of pneumonia contracted at Sherman’s funeral when he refused out of respect to wear a hat or take shelter from the rain.   April 1865 was also the month Lincoln was shot.   With the possible exception of July 1776, it was the most momentous month in American history. 

Of course most people remember the story of Wilmer McLean.  In 1861 he lived near Manassas, on the banks of a little stream called Bull Run.  During the first battle there, with the lead flying through his back yard and a Union shell landing literally in the soup pot in his kitchen, he decided to move to a quieter place, one where the war would not intrude.   He figured Appomattox was the spot.  Talk about luck.

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Tree Farming & the Virginia Countryside

Below is my tree farm draft article for the next issue of “Virginia Forests”.   It has nothing to do with Iraq, but is part of my other life, as communications director for Virginia Tree Farm Project at the Virginia Forestry Association.  I needed to write a short article for them and I just finished it.  The picture is from my forest.  It is one of the spots I like to sit and watch the water run.  We don’t cut trees in the stream management zones, which account for around 30 acres on the farm.  The picture was taken in January 2005, but it is not that different now except at this season the buds are popping and the wildflower are out.  BTW – the pictures are just mine and I just like to look at them.  They will not be part of the “Virginia Forests” publication.

The American countryside is threatened by development and urban sprawl as never before.  The very concept of “rural” is increasingly strained as urban style communities and urban lifestyles reach to even the most remote parts of Virginia.  This can be positive as new people bring fresh perspectives and new incomes breathe life into declining communities.  But these shifts fundamentally change the character of the countryside.  When significant numbers of owners and rural residents themselves no longer have their livelihoods significantly tied to the surrounding land, their perspectives are different. 

This change happens in a variety of ways, some obvious others subtle.  The most obvious is when someone from outside the local community buys a tract forest land.  This has been happening for a long time, but the trend is accelerating.  A wholesale change in ownership patterns took place over the past decade as forest and paper firms sold off large tracks of forest land to private individuals, investors and timber investment trusts. 

The more subtle change in emphasis can take place due to inheritance or just changes in lifestyle.  Relationships and feelings about the land change when long time resident farmers or forest owners begin to earn more or even most of their incomes from non-agricultural or non-forestry sources.  Of course, children who inherit family farms often have an emotional tie to the land, but may lack practical ties or skill sets that keep them managing the land in same way.

This picture is from near the same spot as above, but during July.

A key attribute of a traditional family forest, or those owned by paper and forest product firms for that matter, is/was that these were working lands, used in multiple ways to include profit generating activities such as forestry, hunting and non-timber agriculture.   When land changes hands, the new owners may indeed leave a forest intact.  In fact, they may have purchased the land specifically to “preserve” what they believe is the local ecology.  But preservation or changes in land management fundamentally alter its nature and that of the surrounding community by perhaps not engaging in those activities that traditionally linked the human and the natural communities.  The idea of humans are active participants in the natural environment wisely and sustainably using natural resources is the basis of conservation but it is an idea that can be misunderstood.

The American Tree Farm System (ATFS) is adapting in response to the changes in ownership patterns, motivations and needs of our constituents. As it has done since 1941, ATFS is working to improve forest management through education and advice.  Today there are 87,000 certified Tree Farms covering 29 million acres.   Obviously certifications and inspections remain the backbone of the tree farm system, but increasingly education and outreach will take on greater significance.  New tree farmers and new types of tree farmers will need to understand the nature of a working forest and its place in a sustained and healthy environment.   Here are the boys in the pine plantation last year.  We will have to do some pre-commercial thinning this summer so that the little trees can have room to grow & stay healthy.

Some of the education will represent a change in emphasis from how to sustain a multiple use forest to why they should want to do that.   ATFS has often explained to owners how to manage their forests to produce timber while at the same time caring for clean water, providing recreational opportunities and creating great habitats for wildlife.   It was taken as a given that owners wanted to produce timber and gain some income from the investment in their land.  Many new owners may be less enthusiastic about making sure their land profitably produces timber at all.   They may have bought the land as a home site or in order to create a preserve of some sort where forestry or hunting are not priorities. ATFS will increasingly need to explain why it is important to keep timber lands producing timber and why they need to be managed to do this.

Well managed forests producing wood, clean water, wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities are a great American tradition well worth keeping.  Each generation of forest owners must learn or relearn the lessons of good forestry.  As the demographics of forest ownership change, education becomes more important.  ATFS understands this and is ready to provide the information and education that will keep Virginia a place of beautiful, well-managed and productive forests for years to come.