I agree that select cutting is the way to go. There are places out west that use timber as a crop however. They clear cut the entire crop of pines and replant improved seeding all the same size. They grow up together as a crop. They are clear cutting ever 27 years. That is a relative short time to raise a tree from seeding to mature tree. With a hard wood forest it is much different. I selectively logged my place about 3 years ago. The fellow I used to mark the trees and select the one to cut told me that I can now do that every 15 years perpetually. The trees I left will be huge in 15 years, and the young tree that are starting now will be mature in 30 years. It is a different way to use timber as a renewable resourse. One way uses the trees as a crop, the way a Farmer would and takes the entire crop. There is no diversity in the forest, every tree is the same improved pine, a mono culture if you will, The 2nd was uses the woods more as a Forest and wild Life eco-system. It takes some and leaves some, allowing Nature to take her course. I like the 2nd way better.
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