Forestry

Global Positioning Satellite receivers (GPSrs) are more than just car accessories that move you around in your automobile. Portable GPS receivers  can be a life saver if you find yourself exploring or working in a forest and lose your sense of direction. Getting lost in the woods can be unnerving to even the most experienced woodsman.  Here is a tip or two on how to use GPS technology if you become disoriented in a forest.

A receiver with a track log function can keep a visit to the woods from turning into a night spent trying to find the truck. Most reasonably priced GSPrs have a track log function. You will certainly have this functionality in the Garmin eTrex series (called the tracks function) and in the Magellan Triton series (called the trails function). You can purchase the basic models for around $100.

Get yourself a receiver and take it along on visits to the woods. Before going on your walk, turn the receiver on, let it pick up the satellites and leave on auto mode. The auto mode saves the route slowly, conserves battery life but provides a more than adequate track back to the truck. At your final destination, stop and save the track log. You can then easily use Garmin's TracBack feature or Magellan's Reverse Trail to find you way out.

• Features Needed in an Outdoor GPS Receiver

Garmin GPS 60C Photo

There are 5 herbicide application methods most commonly used for woody-stem plant control. They all have their advantages and disadvantages and are not always appropriate for specific conditions and cost constraints.  I provide a situational graphic to illustrate each of these techniques.

• Controlling Woody Stem Plants
• Cleaning Forestry Pesticide Spray Equipment

You need to fertilize trees and shrubs to insure their good health which prepares them to fight off pests, disease, and environmental stresses. A proper fertilization program can't solve all tree problems and over fertilization can do harm. Still, tree fertilizing at the appropriate time and with the appropriate formulation will help your tree(s).

Ideally, growing trees should be fertilized throughout the year. The greatest amounts should be applied during the early spring and summer months. Right now is an excellent time to fertilize trees.

For young trees, good times to put out fertilizer is late March through early June, and while you are at it, proper mulching will aid in proper nutrient and water uptake. When a tree reaches the desired height you may decrease the fertilizer application to only once a year.

• How To Mulch a Tree
• Tree Fertilizing Basics

Water is the single most limiting essential resource for a tree's survival and growth. Most of us understand the need to water trees during dry times, especially in the landscape. But what we often forget is that a tree can also be harmed by too much water. Unfortunately, the symptoms for a water-starved tree can be the same as symptoms caused by water-logged tree roots.

Symptoms for both under-watering and over-watering are wilted and scorched leaves. Both conditions can prevent tree roots from effectively transporting water to the top of the tree and that tree will express these symptoms. In addition, too much tree water can also shut down sufficient oxygen to the roots. Some tree species can handle "wet feet" but many trees can not.

• How To Water A Tree
• How a Tree Uses Water
• Manage Trees During Drought

Trees use seeds as their principal means of establishing the next generation in the natural world. A fascinating but poorly understood chain of events have to happen perfectly to start a baby tree from seed. A viable tree seed has to be dispersed at an appropriate location under conditions that promote seed germination.

There are two major causes for unsuccessful tree seed germination under artificial conditions. Hard seed coated tree species and trees with dormant seed embryos complicate the seed planting process. Nurserymen have to expose some tree seeds to unique treatments to assure germination. They use two main processes called stratification and scarification

I have created this seed guide for preparing seeds from common trees for planting. I list or link to most of the common North American tree species with adequate information on propagating these trees from seed.

Oak Tree Sapling / Acorn Photo,  Getty Image

Hallie Morse Daggett was the first woman hired on as a fire observer by the U.S. Forest Service in 1913. Ms. Daggett staffed an original log cabin fire lookout called Eddy Gulch Lookout. The cabin was at the top of 6,444 foot Klamath Peak in the Siskiyou Mountains of northern California. The State of California passed an amendment granting women the right to vote only two years earlier, in 1911.

• Hallie Daggett, Forest Guard and First USFS Woman Lookout
• Hallie M. Daggett, Early Woman Lookout - American Forestry, 1914

_{Historic USFS Photo of Hallie Daggett and Eddy Gulch Lookout}

Here are photos of trees from one nursery I found within a mile of my home that sells inferior trees - every single day. People are paying premium prices at this family operated nursery but are not getting a premium tree.

Always choose your trees with care and from a quality grower! An example of a dealer to avoid: the nursery looks "weedy" both on the lot and inside the pots. There is often a relationship between weedy nurseries and poor plants (see photo). These nurseries never guarantee their plant upon return receipt.

I give you four simple steps to take when purchasing a tree from a nursery to protect yourself from buying an unhealthy tree. Even when offered a bargain price for a tree, it is never worth it if you have to nurse a sick tree.

• Picking a Healthy Tree in Four Easy Steps

_{Local Tree Nursery Photo - Photo by Steve Nix, Licensed to About.com}

Accurate estimates for wildland tree plantations in the United States are difficult to obtain. Educated guesses by forestry experts suggest that by 1952, there were nearly 5 million acres of tree plantations in the United States.

Not much is known about tree planting before 1927 when the U.S. Forest Service began keeping records. There were few tree nursery systems that could mass produce trees. When there were tree plantings, no records were kept. It is known that trees have been planted in significant numbers in the wild for over 200 years.

The latest complete USFS survey suggests there are 56 million acres of trees planted in the United States. Four million acres are planted in the northern states, 38 million in the southern states and 14 million in the west.

• A Tree Planting History and Timeline for the United States
• Tour of a Seedling Nursery and Harvesting Operation

Photo © 2007 Steve Nix, licensed to About.com

Timber and tree theft most often happens in one of three ways:
(1) Thieves can set up a harvest directly on your property or will move over on you from an adjacent ownership, (2) thieves will offer absurdly low prices for timber knowing that the landowner has no idea of the value, (3) and thieves can actually steal trees after you have approved and allowed the harvest.

South Carolina and the Society of American Foresters have published a bullet list of do's/don'ts on timber theft. Hang around your forest or timber sale as much as possible, walk your lines periodically and look for the following -

Be suspicious if:
-your logger is also hauling wood from adjacent timber tracts.
-logs and paperwood are mixed on the same truck.
-cutter is hauling at odd times of the day, on Sundays, or at night.
-boundary trees have been cut or removed.
-you can't contact your wood buyer or he can't seem to get you a payment.

Avoid being ripped off by:
-knowing the value of your timber.
-knowing the amount of timber you are selling.
-bidding all but the most marginal of sales.
-checking the logger's reputation/previous work.
-drawing up a contract!
-marking the boundary of the sale and property lines.
-finding a good forestry consultant who will help you with all the above.

With the cooperation of Sarofax and iPhone app developer Ash Mishra, I want to offer you TreeBook for free on iTunes. The app provides you with a pocket version of my tree leaf key at forestry.about.com.

Sarofax's TreeBook is leaf based and developed for beginning  students unfamiliar with tree identification.  It is designed as a beginning student guide using those leaved trees most commonly seen in North American forests. The app provides a system similar to the one on this forestry site for identifying the 100 most common trees with images, descriptions and links to more online information.

TreeBook supports a tree leaf key and provides a botanical glossary of the most common tree identifiers. TreeBook is especially helpful for identifying  the most common Eastern  U.S. hardwood trees.