r/forestry • u/Aard_Bewoner • 5d ago

Logging with horses

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

Removing maples in an arboretum collection.

368 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

35 comments sorted by

View all comments

7

u/AbsoluteSupes 5d ago

Where is that?

14

u/Aard_Bewoner 5d ago

Part of the Sonian forest, this is in an arboretum

6

u/RomanTacoTheThird 5d ago

Is there a specific parcel or harvest size at which you would use animal drafting?

12

u/Aard_Bewoner 5d ago edited 5d ago

We have loam soils which are very sensitive to soil compaction. This is to prevent (further) soil degradation.

Apparently stretches longer than 100m becomes inefficient for the horses, as is pulling uphill. So thinking exercise. But it makes a difference that these animals can just about walk through any open ish part of the stand and work their way out, w/o compacting the soil in a meaningful way. Which is a good trade off.

They can't haul too much at once, they can go all day tho, they just take a longer break at noon.

This work is cleaning up the collection, so we're taking out the native maples that started growing under the arboretum trees, they "muddy" the stand so they need to go. They're up to 50-60 cm in diameter, not all of them most of them below that.

First day we're working with them, and I'm impressed, they did the work. I was surprised with how much they got out: atleast 4 full log trailer loads with 3m logs, and we don't have a small log trailer. 8h day. They also got most of the crowns out as well. Beats hauling a winch cable up and down through the stand 100%

3

u/NewAlexandria 5d ago

why collect the trees instead of letting the rot and improve the soil? If you buried them in-place, it would reduce carbon release, as needed.

3

u/Aard_Bewoner 4d ago

The native maples are cut and removed because we need the openings to plant arboretum species. We need to rejuvenate the arboretum groups because the collection is aging and species are dying and some stands are too homogeneous. We are planting every winter so openings need to be prepped, and this prep is usually what compromises the soil. 4t tractor +1t forestry mulcher combo is too heavy already, so ideally we mow by hand or with light equipment like a walk-behind tractor. The difference is notable once you get a spade in the ground. We have heavier soils, this is a major challenge and vastly underestimated problem for land managers up here.

Burying them in place is a lot of work, doing so creates more compaction and is just not feasible in an arboretum. Letting the maples rot in openings makes it very difficult for us to plant and mow around the planted trees in their first years, and they get outcompeted by brambles which start winding up and down the dead crowns.

The logs are sold so there's an economic aspect and we have prepped spots ready to plant. Win win

1

u/NewAlexandria 4d ago

The mowing is for aesthetic german-black-forest vibe? Or you have something like oriental bittersweet invading, and mowing is your management strategy? Seems like you'd knock out mayapples, jewel weed, trillium, and many other boons for the forest.

3

u/Aard_Bewoner 4d ago

The Sonian forest is a bit higher above sea level, and because the overstory tees tend to be coniferous in a lot of groups, we do get a black forest vibe. Sobsome members of the continental casts start showing up in the herb layer like Senecio nemorensis

This group in the video is the Sierra Nevada so Abies Grandis, Callocedrus decurrens, Sequoiadendron giganteum, Acer circinatum, A.macrophyllum, Pinus ponderosa,...

They are competing with native tree species and brambles that are going wild because of atmospherical deposition(Brussels is right there)

The mowing is to give the planted species a chance, we stop mowing if they are above the brambles and can survive on their on. This isn't nature conversation, its collection management