Growing sawlogs: How to grow trees to put up for sale or saw

Woodlot owners have a lot of potential to make use of the natural resources of their land.

While some woodlot owners use their properties to grow firewood or raise Christmas trees, others grow specific species for sawlogs, growing trees to harvest high quality logs for use in construction or woodworking projects. This lumber is designed to be high quality and can be made up of desirable species like hard maple, white oak, black cherry or black walnut.

Your own forested land can be a key resource for producing your own lumber or generating revenue.

So where do you start in building a woodlot of sawlogs and how do you maintain and harvest them? Here are some tips, courtesy of the Ontario Woodlot Association (OWA).

Here are some key terms you may want to understand regarding sawlog production:

Tie logs: These are generally low-quality logs that are used for "ties," like railway ties or bridge ties.

Log form: This is the state of the tree once it's been felled. Once on the ground, the timer starts ticking for what you want to do with the log, whether you want to dry it in a kiln or cut it green.

Sawlogs: These are logs specifically designed for sawing. Typically, these are high quality logs with few knots or branches and have little or no tension built up.

Here are some tips for selecting the right trees to harvest:

Trees which are ideal for sawlogs should meet a number of requirements. They should be:

• • Straight, long stems without branches for the lower 5 to 10 metres of length

  • Be without knots, bends or other imperfections which would impact the quality of the log

  • Have reached the ideal length for sawing, potentially at least 8 feet but this can be whatever your personally require

These trees are often the tallest in the stand. Their height allows them to get the most sunlight while suppressing sunlight to trees around them.

The OWA advises that dominant trees often make the best crop trees, so keep that in mind when tagging trees for harvesting.

Ideal crop trees are ones which are free of the following imperfections:

• • Stem defects such as seams, cracks or crooks

  • Permanent insect damage, such as maple borer wounds

  • Diseases — obvious cankers or conks

  • Major forks in the main stem

  • Wounds or scars on the stem or exposed roots

  • Poorly healed branch stubs

Be sure to thin trees on site, trimming lower branches and ensuring the crowns of each tree are not colliding each other.

Naturally forest debris will accumulate between your rows, including broken branches, leaves and other organic matter. It's up to you to decide what to do with this. Many woodlot owners will clean up this material to reduce tripping hazards, improve mobility for ATVs and tractors between rows and prevent rodents or other wildlife from affecting the trees.

However, it may be beneficial to leave it lying there. Decaying organic matter provides fresh nutrients to the soil, encouraging plant growth and creates habitats for forest wildlife. Depending on the goals of your private forest, decide whether you want to clean up this organic debris or leave it there for optimal forest growth.

Other measures you should take include:

• • Felling non-crop trees whose canopies are in contact with your high-quality crop trees

  • Cut down split, diseased, leaning or bent trees

  • Be careful when thinning as not to leave the forest too sparsely stocked

  • Ensure any equipment such as tractors or loaders are not damaging crop trees

Select trees which meet the best conditions, trying to space it out so you're only taking out one tree approximately every seven meters. This will allow for continued shade and sunlight to promote further growth for your remaining trees.

While optimal spacing is important, it's more important to select high quality crop trees, so if the trees you're harvesting aren't exactly seven meters apart, that's fine.

Strategically selecting crop trees to harvest also prevents damage to your remaining trees, giving them more space and preventing branches from knocking into and damaging each other in the event of a wind storm.

It's recommended you go through and mark your selected crop trees, using either a brightly colored ribbon or a high visibility paint.

Growing trees takes time.

It may take 10-25 years for trees to reach full maturity and reach optimal height for harvesting. Even then, imperfections during growth could mean that even after that time, the logs from that tree may not be ideal for your intended purpose. Having a backup plan for lower quality trees is ideal as it means nothing goes to waste.

A forest management plan is a document you use to project and guide the growth of your woodlot for the next 10+ years. It outlines the goals of your property and can be used as reference material for any potential forest managers you task with maintaining your woodlot, or to refer back to.

These documents outline the inventory of trees on the site, your property lines, your schedule for thinning and harvesting as well as your business model.

It may take a decade or more for your sawlogs to finally be available for you to use, or for you to take to market, but woodlots are great renewable resources for long-term investment in rural areas. Woodlots are also very important for encouraging wildlife growth, as they provide valuable habitats for potentially endangered species.

Come up with your plan, plant your trees and find ways to maintain and harvest your property so that you can make the most of your forest.

The Ontario Woodlot Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting owners of privately owned forests and is committed to sustainability. Its members promote, through education and mentorship, the benefits of a healthy ecosystem thereby increasing the enjoyment of our forests. For more information visit their website. You can also read more on this topic here.