The crews are working hard on thinning the Diamond Grove unit. It will change the face of my first forest. The size of the trees is surprising. When I see them being harvested and look at the thinned places, it is hard to believe that these were the little trees that could not even peek above the grass in 2005.
I think some of our management helped. We did pre-commercial thinning and applied biosolids in 2008. I think that contributed to the forest health now. Biosolids are great. Unfortunately, we cannot get them anymore in Brunswick. We are too far from the big cities.
I looked over the activities and talked to Kirk McAden and Nick for a long time, until I realized that I was subtracting value and got out of the way. I look forward to seeing it when it is done. I will plant grasses, flowers and clover on the landing zones.
To get out of the way and still do something useful, I went over to Freeman. I have a discer for my ATV and I tried it out. It works well. I want to replant some of the place that got grubbed up over the winter. The discer will make that happen.
My first two pictures are the harvest. Picture #3 shows the thinned forests. It is much better. It was too dark and a mess of vines. The vines will be back and I will need to fight them, but this thinning is a good thing. Penultimate picture is my new discer.
I have a question, maybe somebody here knows. I had trouble getting the discer on the machine. I had to drive onto a log to get the back high enough. Is there a better way?
Last picture is one of my little longleaf. We planted those last winter and I was afraid that the fire would kill them. This one looked dead, but you can see in the middle that it lives.