Hi Michael,
Beautifully stated and probably wholly appropriate for your part of Western Canada where the Pacific coast forest is comprised mainly of coniferous (exotic) tree species. Your reference to Merv Wilkinson is not misplaced and its a shame that he is no longer available in person to articulate his views and experience but thankfully the model of his endeavour lives on in his woodlot.
I would draw your attention to a few other observations made in the "olde country" that you might like to consider. Examinations made in oak timber framed buildings that are between 4 - 600 years old reveals that the trees employed for construction of same were not particularly old (50 - 100 years) and these trees are demonstrated to have been grown quite densely to increase production rates of specicific building components like rafters, studs, plates and the like. The notion that older is better might well be true for coniferous trees but it is not necessarily true for deciduous trees where younger trees are proven to be fit for purpose. Big trees occupy a large space within the forest with an enforced long wait to harvest. There is no guarantee after say a 250 year wait that the contents and quality of the wood within the log will be good and useable. The bigger the log the more one is forced to adopt mechanical means to extract and convert trees into timber scantlings where grain flow might also not necessarily match the optimum pattern needed to ensure good long term performance (e.g. jowl posts) in a timber framed building. As a woodland owner I do not have 250 years to wait for a harvest and discovered to my cost a few years ago when the biggest tree in our woodland came down across a public highway in a storm (14 ft girth) that this was unceremoniously cut up and scavenged by the local farmers for firewood. I got no return at all on this large volume tree that had taken over 165 years to grow to magnificent proportions.
If man chooses to interfere in nature's domain then all management techniques will be a compromise and hence management plans need to be driven by clearly stated and well thought through objectives recognising that with the passage of time that market demand might force changes upon those objectives. For example, the market for the production of beech chair legs (bodging) was spawned, grew up and died all within one man's lifetime but the legacy of beech woodland remains with almost no takers today for this once much used general interior purpose timber. What to do ? Do we cut down the beech trees and replace them with oak since that is the tree that is now very much in demand today and if we do how long should we be expected to wait for a harvest and when we eventually get to that point will there be a market for those trees or will they simply grow into senescence and become a perfect bug habitat ?
Our medieval ancestors used woodlands in a way that that would be difficult for us to replicate today since the basic chain of demand, supply and regrowth has been broken. It probably won't be till the oil runs out that a more holistic approach to woodland management will return.
Regards
Ken Hume
