It is essential that forest thinning be carried out correctly and on time.  When done, the benefits of thinning for an owner are

• The correct management of the crop
• Tax-free revenue from timber sales
• Increase in asset value of the remaining crop
• Remaining trees increase in volume faster which allows clearfelling to be completed as quickly as possible

Conifer crops are normally ready for thinning between the years 14 and 20. 

Not thinning will result in a larger number of smaller sized trees per hectare with a significantly reduced value on clear felling.

Clear felling is the harvesting of all marketable trees at the end of a forest rotation.  For conifers this is normally between the age of 30 and 40.

When a plantation is established currently the number of trees   planted per hectare is 2500. This stocking is far in excess of what is needed to arrive at a mature clear fell plantation. They are planted at this rate to allow the forest to control vegetation in the early stages and then through competition between the trees for room and light to kill off the side branches and improve timber quality. In first thinning the current popular regime is removing 1 line in 7 and a light select thinning in between. The line being removed is to facilitate access for harvesting machinery for this thinning and all subsequent thinnings and the selection in between is to commence the reduction of the tree numbers over the rotation (30 years Approx.) to 500/600 for the clear fell.

In first thinning the tree numbers removed is approximately 750 and depending on the growth rate it should yield about 45 tonnes per hectare, this can vary depending on a number of factors but it is a good guideline. Subsequent things should yield a similar return but with a lesser number of trees.

To find out when your crop is ready to be thinned contact Forwood Forestry Ltd. here