Burnham, I do the reforestation planting, too.
Come spring we'll replant that clear cut where the Grand firs were felledwith another non-native conifer, Sitka spruce.
And you are right, that is every bit as hard as logging the area was.
I've been replanting for 40 years. Some of the first trees I planted are about old enough to clear cut again.
And so the circle continues.
Of course I know this very well, Stig. Which was the point of my initial post following yours on the subject. You and your crew are most assuredly within my treasured cadre of under-appreciated reforestation workers.
Yes, that always seemed like gutty, hard work. Usually done in poor weather as well I'm guessing.
Question for you.
Did you just plant the saplings direct in the ground then forget about them or was there protection (plastic tubes) and periodic clearance of bramble and the like until they got going? (Like here)
Mick, there are quite a range of pre and post planting regimes in all reforestation efforts.
In the "bad old days" we (we being the US Forest Service, many other land management agencies, and private timberland owners) burned the slash off in broadcast burns, planted the appropriate species for the site, managed the competition from brush with herbicides or hand cutting.
In more modern times, broadcast burning is very rare, piling slash and burning the piles is becoming rare, herbicide use has been off the playbook for several decades on federal lands, still used on state and privates. Planting is all done by hand, and in units of today, the slash is miserable to work in. Release from brush competition is hand work, with chainsaws or hand tools.
As to the plastic mesh or sheet tubing protection...yes right off the bat following planting, it is used where either prior experience in an area indicates above acceptable levels of foraging by ungulates or rodents, or inspection either informal or by formal survey, show such problems. Again, by hand, all muscle power on steep, slashy, remote ground. And it has to be done to very exacting specs, or you hurt more tree seedlings than you help.
After planting, a regularly scheduled cycle of stocking surveys is conducted, by grunts traversing the units in grid pattern, taking sample plot counts to establish estimates of surviving seedlings per acre. If these numbers are not acceptable, replant. If acceptable, survey again in a couple of years, and a couple of years later again. Pre-commercial thinning at 8 to 12 years after planting is usually done by chainsaw crews, to bring numbers down to proper spacing for optimal growth.
All of it tough, intensive work and requiring good attention to detail over a span of many years on each logged/reforested site.
