Hardwood Management

DDFSI Hardwood Management

For those growing up and living in the US South, it is so easy to take our hardwood resource for granted. From a global perspective, we have a timber resource that is unequaled in the world temperate zone in both tree species diversity & potential for the production of grade timber. We have a history of high-grading that has left this resource in a state that is well below its potential. Reasons for this state include a lack of management knowledge (research and distribution limited), as well as a complexity of management. With these two main limitations, periodic high-grade harvests or conversion to pine, have been the easier choices over time. The result in either case is often a degradation of stand value potential, or elimination of quality hardwood stands altogether.

At DDFSI, we have a specialized system of natural hardwood management, to include tools for hardwood site evaluation and existing stand evaluation, as well as management protocols focused on the regular production of valuable grade hardwood. Once the resource is present, the marketing is often not well understood either. However, at DDFSI, we complete hardwood inventories and marketing in a specialized method to maximize the revenues received from timber to be sold.

Most hardwood regeneration is natural. But, hardwood plantations can be successfully established, either for wildlife forage, for grade hardwood production, or for short-rotation energy crop production. The methods for doing so are not simple and the details have to be managed for a successful establishment. DDFSI professionals have established many planted stands of hardwood and can be of assistance in proper recommendations.