Bob, I would find it interesting if someone could do an economic analysis of the best stands in MTSF. And by that I mean- determine the raw economic value of those trees as timber, then do the type of growth analysis that Karl Davies did- then find out from mills how much they pay for timber of that size and quality- then calculate "rate of growth of value as a function of existing value"- that's forestry economics in nutshell- it's no different than asking what your rate of return will be on the $1,000 treasurey bond you bought. Now, as Karl would say, we need to know what the markets will be in future years- that is, assuming the mills can continue to cut large trees, if such large trees become extremely rare, yet the quality of the wood stays high, and inflation occurs for such rare high quality large logs- that's right, a lot of "guestimation" is needed for long term forestry economics- but the point of doing this would be to present a convincing argument that it's great capitalism to grow really huge trees- rather than the current mantra which is that most timber in the NE is mature by 75 years- sure, it's mature from the point of view of the harvester- who is doing a completely different economic analysis- he's thinking about the cost to harvest that tree compared to the profit from that tree- that is, the net profit from harvesting that tree- which has nothing to do with the rate of return on investment, which is the only economics that makes sense for the owner (and here we're not including other intangible values such as pure aesthetics or carbon sequestration).
Once the proof is in that growing trees to a huge size - we might be able to see a lot more really big trees in our landscape. Of course, the establishment will fight this idea tooth and nail. Joe On Sep 22, 10:41 am, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Russ, > > I think that most of the wooded landscape of New England that is intended > for some kind of management gets thrashed frequently enough so that big trees > are in no danger of taking over. However, on protected properties, the story > is different and certainly for Mohawk Trail State Forest. A diameter > distribution study for different areas of Mohawk would indeed be interesting. > There would be areas loaded with trees between 20 and 30 inches in diameter. > A few areas would have a not insignificant number of trees in the 30 to 40 > inch class. Very few trees as a percentage of total are above 40 inches, but > where they are encountered, they can seem more densely distributed than is > actually the case. > The 35 white pines I have in my database for Clark Ridge in MTSF average > 36.1 inches in diameter. The 105 white pines I have for the Trees of Peace > site average 31.5 inches in diameter. I am inclined to want to do more with > diameter distributions than I've done in the past to get a better assessment > of how the timber community would assess these tenuously protected properties. > > Bob > > > > -------------- Original message -------------- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Bob: > > I'm too far (in time and space) away from the New England woods right now but > from Appalachia... > > I think that the days are numbered for the commercial harvesting of oversized > trees. A few years ago there was only one sawmill left in WV that was > prepared to mill out trees larger than 40"... a few years ago I also attended > a Forest Guild annual meeting in Coastal Oregon where I heard several > foresters lament that trees generally grew so fast that many managed > properties were starting to fill up with trees that were above the commercial > size ceiling imposed by a combination of modern milling technology and the > general small size of the second, third and fourth growth timber being cut. > I can almost anticipate portions of New England could also be headed in the > same direction. > > Russ > > Looking for simple solutions to your real-life financial challenges? Check > out WalletPop for the latest news and information, tips and calculators.- > Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org You are subscribed to the Google Groups "ENTSTrees" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
