Should I cut the pines or not?

We just purchased some property that has a good bit of pines that are leaning badly from a previous ice storm. The pines had already been thinned and I was told that they were thinned too much and this contributed to the ice damage.
Question:
What should I do? I don't want the pines that are leaning as some have already snapped in high winds...one already went through our pole barn roof! There are a lot of other pines that are in good shape but we really want to plant other trees and start some food plots. I would like to cut all the pines.
I have attached a picture of what some of the pines look like. Date stamp is incorrect.
I need someone experienced in forestry to tell me if I should leave them and cut them later or if it's ok to cut them now. I don't want to throw money away.

Thanks for the help!

I have attached a couple more pictures. There are some larger pines in front of the property.

i cruised timber for three years but im no expert. we did do alot of consulting tho. if it were my property i would get someone to cruise it(count the trees) but just the leaning or damaged ones. they will usually do it free if you give them a shot at doing the cutting. all they are doing is giving an estimate of what you will make off the timber. if it sounds like a good bit of money let em cut it and go ahead and cut the rest except enough to reseed the property naturally. im guessin leave a good straight tree every 3 to 5 acres. you will be surprised how many volunteers will be produced.

No expert here either so I may be wasting your time. Depending on how many acres you have, I would consider the following. split the area into sections. 2,3,4, whatever will work. Completely clearcut a section or 2, selling the timber for what you can get. Replant in pines. Have the other sections select cut damaged timber, and for long term investment, plant you some long leaf pines in there, along with some oaks of your choice and maybe some other wildlife/fruit bearers. Make your food plots wherever you want and enjoy. Congrats on getting your own land. Nothing like taking an animal on your own dirt. Just something about it for me.

I'm not a forester, but after going through so many hurricanes and ice storms I can tell you any tree tall enough to fall on my house or shed is a no brainer to cut down. especially pines.

Almost time to order trees from ga forestry for planting, they start pulling them @ the nursery first week in december.

Looks like the pines that where let , where left for natural reforestation. For what you have there will be no benfit as I can see to leave them but the benefit to have them removed will be great. Remove what is there and start over and get everything on the same time schedule and put on your plots. If you leave these they are most likley to break and fall and gain you no benefit.

My .02...

what they cut was not a thinning. they left x amount of trees per acre for a seed tree regeneration. you have good volunteers and still room for trails/roads and paths. your not gonna get much due to the low amount of valuable trees. doubt you'd make enough to pay for a total re-planting.

i will say some does look like poor thinning and some looks like seed-tree regeneration.

for wildlife purpose i would clean your plots and plant. leave it to natural growth. it will get thick and provide cover for your wildlife. you could burn it off on an alternate 2nd year schedule to help timber pro. and still have half your land in understory.

just and idea.

Based on your pictures, what you have is basically a clear-cut with over mature whips. If the purpose of leaving those trees was to reseed then whoever choose the trees didnt have a clue. I would surmise that whoever cut the tract didn’t really care and left as little volume as possible but enough so it wouldn’t be totally removed of trees. Large straight trees with no disease and a quality crown is what you leave for seed trees and thats not what you have. The problem I see is you really don’t have much to work with in terms of a merchantable stand or artificial regeneration because the residual trees don’t appear to have sufficient crowns to produce many seed. A number of trees appear borderline merchantable and they will continue to break over being that thin. If the pictures reflect the condition of the entire tract then you would have been better off if they’d cut everything and left what was unmerchantable in a pile so you could have at least burned it before replanting. The way it is you’re forced to address the whips before replanting and that may cost if you dont have enough volume to get a small time operator out to cut the remaining trees.

Contact Georgia Forestry and have a forester come out and meet with you and offer some on ground advice. Its free and he/she should be able to help you develop a plan based on what you want to do with the property. They may be able to help you offset some of your cost with some cost share assistance depending on whats available. A little TLC and you’ll get it back into production. Good luck.

Thanks for the advice!

Can anyone direct me to someone who would cut these pines? I called someone and he did a timber cruise and said he had other jobs that were bigger right now but that a smaller company would probably do it.
I would like another opinion on the value and recommendations on who to call to cut them.
Thanks for the help!

davel said:

Can anyone direct me to someone who would cut these pines? I called someone and he did a timber cruise and said he had other jobs that were bigger right now but that a smaller company would probably do it.
I would like another opinion on the value and recommendations on who to call to cut them.
Thanks for the help!

Click to expand...

Contact your area Ga Forestry office for advice on how to proceed.

The GFC forester can give you a list of buyers for your area. Ask the forester to mark 2-3 contacts who will cut small tracts and small volume because most buyers arent gonna move much equipment to harvest the volume the pictures reflect. Thats why I said what I did about whats left being somewhat of a problem. If you had to give them away to get them gone it would be better than having to pay someone to cut and pile to burn.

I was given a quote by someone who did a timber cruise.
I called a forester for a second opinion on what to do since I am not knowledgeable on the subject.

Davel,
From the pictures I see, it looks like a they did a seed tree cut for natural regeneration. Previous stand before cutting was probably very dense in the amount of trees per acre you had, hence the height of the tree related to diameter at breast height being small. Over time those parent trees will gain in diameter and not grow as tall. With that being said another wind or ice storm you could lose more. Don't think anyone would come out to cut those but depends on acreage and value. From what I can see it's not worth much. Some of those I don't understand why they left them to begin with.

I would advise you hire a forester and get him or her do a sampling of tree suvival to figure out if what you have out there is sufficient. You may not even need to replant. You may even have too many which may require a precomercial thinning in the future.

Degree in hand but no liscense or I would help you for a nominal fee

I have spoken to a forester and he is going to take a look and let me know.
Thanks for all the advice!