The second section of forest at Inishconnell was marked for its first thinning in a similar way as was the first section. But the second section was more typical and more straight forward.
It is just a pure stand of sitka spruce. There were two lines of poplar in it, but no other broadleaves apart from the occasional ash that had moved in of its own accord. The soil is fertile and the trees have done well in this section.
This is how the forest looked before thinning
Here’s how the marking was done:
Using biodegradable coloured tape, the trees for keeping were marked in yellow and those to be felled were marked in red. I tried quicker methods, but ended up back with the tape. Tins of spray paint are commonly used for marking trees, but I really didn’t like breathing in the fumes and wasn’t too sure that the used tins wouldn’t end up in landfill. Using a paint tin and brush was too messy and also time consuming, as really all sides of the tree need to be marked so the person way up on the harvesting machine can see the marking clearly from whichever direction he/she is coming from.
Trees were marked with red tape for taking out
I selected trees of good, straight form with finer branching. I tried to select a mixture of sizes, some large trees, some small and some in between. I didn’t pay much attention to spacing.
The site was not cultivated prior to planting. The trees were planted directly into the ground and the site is relatively sheltered. All these factors mean that the risk of windthrow is slight. Even so, I looked for well rooted trees to keep.
It would not be practical to mark a first thinning in this way normally. In the next article I’ll tell you about the system that is more commonly used. But I wanted to mark out a couple of the sections myself just to practice getting my eye in and to be able to compare some marked sections with some where the system is used.
Second section after thinning
There will always be ‘mistakes’ made in forestry thinning, but I think the greatest mistake of all is not to thin. Just look at these optimistic little ash seedlings hoping for some light to be let in so they too might grow on and fully express themselves.
Optimistic ash seedlings bathed in new sunlight
Related posts:
- Thinning at Inishconnell – First Section
- First Thinning at Inishconnell Forest
- Forest at Inishconnell – First Thinning
- Forest at Inishconnell – Introduction
- Thinning the Cabin Woods
Tags: Inishconnell forest, Marking trees, Transformation thinning
