FOS 3rd Annual Forest Education Day with John Byrd

On Saturday March 21st, the lovely second day of spring, a dozen attendees and Shimek Forester John Byrd met at the Shimek Forest Headquarters to begin a  morning of learning about trees.  The first topic was pruning.  Most trees in this area should be pruned between January and March

 

 

 

Forester Byrd explains how NOT to trim a tree---never cur a branch off totally flush with the trunk.

Forester Byrd uses a small, folding pruning blade to demonstrate the three cut approach to cutting limbs from trees.  This method should be used  to avoid tearing of the bark and splitting of the wood that would cause permanent damage to a tree.

Always trim a limb off a tree just in front of the branch collar.  The branch collar is the area that will create the regrowth that seals over a cut limb. The collar is a slight thickening of the branch a short distance from the trunk.

Forester Byrd demonstrates the use of a power pruning saw on a pole to trim a larger limb.  Here he is making a final cut just in front of the branch collar.

To learn more about tree pruning, see  http://www.extension.iastate.edu/forestry/care_maintenance/pruning.html

Coppicing is re-sprouting of a tree from the stump or root system after a tree is cut.
To learn more about coppicing, see  http://publications.iowa.gov/3415/1/F-327.pdf
 

Shimek Forester John Byrd discusses coppicing experiments he is doing near the Upper Campground in the Lick Creek Unit.  He has demonstrated dramatic, fast regrowth by using coppicing, which can be a much faster way to obtain a new tree trunk than by replanting an entire tree.