Wood Chippings from Thinned Trees
One of the methods in which we can diversify the way we are using our forests is to think of new and improved ideas for the use of the end product, the timber. Commercial forestry in Ireland is normally planted for the production of an end product and normally goes through a few different, although standard, stages of their life. The first stage is always going to be preparing the ground for the imminent arrival of the saplings. This involves descrubbing the land to remove from it as much competing vegetation as possible and mounding the land from the earth that is taken out of drainage ditches. This gives the saplings the best possible chance of survival.
After the initial couple of years, where maintenance work is carried out to prevent the invasion of pests and enveloping vegetation, the trees are left alone to look after themselves for the next 10 to 15 years. At this stage, forestry inspection path will be needed to ascertain the value of the crop. If the trees have grown as expected, the first thinnings stage will commence. This involves taking out all the weakest trees. Normally 1/4 to 1/3 of the entire crop will be removed at this stage. This will leave only the best trees, allowing more favorable redistribution of the available nutrients.
Up to now, the thinned trees have often only gone into the production of pulpwood or timber for stakes, today with the environmental concerns being at the top of the agenda, many forests that are going to be thinned go through the process for the production of woodchips. This is basically the same operation in that you are going to be taking out all the weak trees. But the process is slightly different. Instead of extracting the timber, as would normally be done for Irish forestry, now, the whole tree would be felled and left in order to season. This ensures that the timber has the correct moisture content that is needed for the wood chipping process to be successful.
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.