Homestead mailing list

[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

On Nov 5, 2008, at 9:06 AM, <eureka AT hctc.net> <eureka AT hctc.net> wrote:
> Diversity isn't just limited to species, but should
> involve life stages as well.

Absolutely. A healthy eco-system includes species and age  
diversification. As in farming and gardening, mono-cropping is fraught  
with problems.

A friend, David Haenke, who manages a several-thousand-acre private  
forest, introduced me to Clint Trammel, who is Forest Manager for  
Pioneer Forest near Salem, Missouri. PF consists of about 160,000  
acres, all owned by businessman, Leo Drey. For half a century PF  
foresters have been practicing a single-tree harvest practice.  
Opposite of normal logging, the practice takes out the worst trees and  
leaves the best, making sunlight, water and nutrients more available  
to the best trees, including mother trees that seed the floor. The  
practice thus continually upgrades the forest, making it ever more  
valuable.

David brought Clint to Heartwood some years ago to advise me before I  
did a modest amount of logging. Clint's knowledge is huge. It was a  
wonderful afternoon of keeping my mouth shut except to answer  
questions and mostly soak up information as fast as I could while we  
walked through the forest of Heartwood, a mere 130 acres of oak, pine,  
hickory and other valuable trees.

http://www.pioneerforest.com/index.php