Management of low quality pine at Queechee State Park

 

The Department of Forest, Parks and Recreation recently conducted a hazard tree removal and thinning of a predominantly white and red pine stand surrounding the camp sites at Queechee State Park. The tree marking was done by State Lands Foresters Tim Morton and Aaron Hurst and the logging work was done by Longview Forest Contracting Inc. from Charlestown New Hampshire.

The goal of this job was twofold. The first priority was to remove any trees that were considered hazards, meaning dead, dieing, or leaning in a way that upon falling could be dangerous to humans or damage park infrastructure. The second goal was to reduce the density of the stand to increase the growth of the best quality trees, release any understory regeneration, and create areas in which regeneration could become established. Another goal was to increase forest regeneration between campsites for increased privacy. “It’s important to minimize potential hazards to our state park guests”, said Hurst.

The Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation annually removes hazard trees from state parks but as the stand at Queechee aged a more thorough treatment was needed. Stewardship Forester Tim Morton said “we designed the treatment to remove hazards and minimize future hazards by developing stronger thriftier trees. Because a number of stem and root rotting fungi were found in the stand Borax was applied to all freshly cut stumps to halt infection by Fomes annosus. In addition, a highly skilled crew ( Longview) was used so no residual trees suffered logging damage.”

The park forest is now composed of the best and healthiest trees at a spacing that allows them to grow and allows existing and new understory sapling to thrive.

This ACORN monthly highlight by: Sam Schneski, Forester, VT Forests, Parks, and Recreation.