At Your Service
by Mike Meriwether and Rick A. Lucas
Conservation District Foresters

SELLER BEWARE!

The current demand for quality sugar maple has a lot of different people beating the brush in search of this desired species. Ironically, each professes to be paying the highest price on the market for what you have on your property. For the private landowner with sugar maple, the current market climate has both good and bad aspects. The positive aspect of the situation stems from record prices being paid for veneer and grade quality material. The downside of the situation is the increased pressure placed on the sugar maple resource has more maple being cut verses being managed. And equally important, the current situation leaves the uninformed private landowner vulnerable to some unscrupulous individuals looking to seize the opportunity.

Chances are that many of you have received a phone call, a letter in the mail, a knock on the door or have seen ads placed in the classified section from a "timber buyer". Having an understanding of who that person is and what their underlying interests are is critical to making sound decisions regarding the sale of your timber.

In most parts of Michigan, forest harvesting activities are driven by individuals and/or forest product companies looking for raw materials to run a sawmill. There are several means commonly employed to access private lands and the timber resources found on them. The system currently in place consists of advertisements, letters of interest, brokers, snoops, buyers, foresters and word of mouth. As a private landowner, the question becomes, what's the best way to market my timber?

Anyone who makes you an offer to buy your standing timber can be called a timber buyer. The offer to buy your timber may be legitimate; however you should not confuse the offer to buy your timber with the management of your forest. Timber buyers come in all shapes, forms and attitudes. They often utilize various methods to convince you that they pay the highest prices and are the only game in town. When discussing the sale of timber, you should always ask yourself if your best interests are being served. What follows is a brief description of the different types of timber buyers currently making the rounds.

First, there is a broker. This is a timber buyer who will offer to sell your timber for you. They generally do not work for a saw mill but it's not uncommon for them to have a relationship with one or more sawmills. Generally, they will ask you to sign a contract and then sell your timber to someone else. Their sales pitch may go something like this: "I noticed you have some valuable timber on your property. I would be willing to market your timber for you. I can get you top dollar because I am familiar with who is paying the most for the type of trees you have on your property." He or she will charge you a percentage of the value of the timber sold from the sale. This approach happens quite often. The bottom line is this method has a tendency to high grade a forest far more times than manage the given site.

Next is the industry buyer. This is someone who works for a single sawmill. They are paid by the sawmill to bring wood products into the mill. Their job is to buy the timber products they need as cheap as they can. They are often paid on commission. An industry buyer differs from a broker in the fact that they do not typically charge for any services. However, there are sometimes hidden costs associated with the purchasing of your timber such as trucking, skidding, or some sort of handling cost. Do not deal with industry buyers who tell you they will deduct these costs from the sale revenues.

Industry buyers are generally not foresters, that is, most do not have any formal education or background in forest management. They are trained to purchase a specific product such as veneer logs, sawlog products, pine, or pulpwood products. There sales pitch may go something like this: "I work for XYZ Sawmill, we noticed that your woodlot contains the types and size of trees we are currently looking for. We can selectively harvest the trees so there is minimal damage to your woodlot. There are approximately 150 trees we would be interested in and we could pay you $10,500. My company can pay you up front if you sign a contract today." He or she will sometimes mark the trees they want or leave the contract open regarding the tree selection. In either case, the proposal results in a buyer's choice marking approach. Additionally, the landowner won't know if the price offered is a fair market price or not.

The third type of buyer is the independent logger or producer. Often they will buy timber on shares, on a cut and scale basis, or a lump sum. It's not uncommon for these individuals to sell their products to a number of mills. A typical proposal from a logger may go like this: "I am Jack Pine, l am a logger. We are cutting next door and noticed that you have some trees we would be willing to purchase from you. We only do selective harvesting and would be willing to cut your trees on shares. You will receive 60 percent of the market value for the trees we cut. We will sort all the log grades and products and sell them to various sawmills in the area." In this situation, you are again allowing the buyer to choose which trees are removed. Also, you are relying on their ability to merchandize and market your trees.

The next buyer is often referred to as a timber snoop. These are individuals who make an initial contact and refer you to a sawmill representative. He or she is generally paid a percentage of the timber value from the referral. Similar to a broker, many sawmills pay a finders fee to individuals who refer wood products to their mill. If you are approached out of the blue by someone you do not know, and they refer you to a specific company who they say pays top dollar, be wary, they are likely just trying to make a fast buck at your expense.

Lastly, more recently, some of the larger forest product companies have been hiring foresters to administer the purchasing and harvesting of raw materials for their sawmills. Industry foresters have a formal education in forest management and generally have a better understanding regarding tree selection and forest management in general. You should keep in mind, that, they are employed by a forest products company and operate as such. Industry foresters do not charge for their services and often offer other services such as long-term agreements, plan writing, inventories and general technical assistance.

So what should you do if you are approached by a timber buyer? Do not rush into a deal or sign a contract. Do your homework and visit with a professional public service forester. Their job is to arm you with information so you can make wise choices for your forest.

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY EXTENSION
By Bill Cook MSU Extension Service Forester

MANAGEMENT OPTIONS FOR JACK PINE TYPES

Forest management practices vary considerably across forest types, site conditions, market availability, and many other factors. There simply is not any single way or best way to manage all forests, or even a particular kind of forest. While nature is a dynamic system that defies simple categorization, there remains a body of knowledge and experience that can be very effectively applied.

Jack pine is one of our more common northern forest types, especially on sandy, well-drained soils. It's also one of our more interesting types, especially because of its adaptation to wildfire. Like many Lake States forest types, jack pine regeneration requires full sunlight to grow. This is true throughout the life of jack pine. Even moderate shade will significantly reduce tree vigor, adding to stress and increasing vulnerability to insects and diseases.

Historically, wildfires were the primary agent of jack pine reproduction. A major jack pine conflagration is an awesome sight to behold, and frightening. As stands would burn, the heat would cause sealed cones to open up over the subsequent few days. The seed would fall on mineral soil, laid mostly bare by the fire. These are the ideal conditions to secure jack pine regeneration. With full sunlight, jack pine grows very rapidly.

Today, forest managers work to prevent jack pine fires, which tend to run hot and fast. They are usually very difficult to control. However, most jack pine cones still need heat in order to release the protected seeds. Forest management uses clearcutting to create the needed environmental conditions.

Summer temperatures within a few inches of the sandy soils get high enough to cause jack pine cones to open. So, following a clearcut, leftover tops, called slash, are chopped to get the cones close to the ground. In this way, most jack pine stands regenerate naturally. When this sort of technique fails, a landowner can resort to planting.

Not all jack pine cones are "glued" shut. In mature trees, about 25 percent may open without the aid of high temperatures. In younger trees, this percentage is higher. Not all jack pine stands burned regularly, so the species employed a back-up strategy where some cones open without heat. Jack pine also produces cones at a young age, just in case that fire returned sooner than the average.

Jack pine budworm is another neatly fitting piece of jack pine ecology. When trees reach ages around 50 years, budworm populations begin to build. Given the right conditions, populations will reach epidemic proportions and will eventually feed even on the younger trees. Large portions of stands can be killed. The dead and dying timber create a very flammable situation. Of course, this feeds right into the regeneration strategy of the species.

Insect epidemics and wildfire do not fit well with human habitation. Natural is not always desirable. People who live in or near jack pine forests should be aware of the natural hazards. Dead trees should be removed. The forest should be set-back at least 100 feet from any structures. The "Firewise" program has suggestions to help reduce the risk of fire damage to homes.

Using clearcutting to create a patchwork of age classes across a jack pine landscape is a good strategy to minimize the risk of fire and insect outbreaks. Even if a fire does happen, when it reaches younger trees, then firefighters have a chance to control the fire. In larger timber, if crowns begin to burn, there is little that humans can do except get out of the way.

The mix of age classes is also the recovery strategy for one of the finest success stories of bringing an endangered species back from the brink of extinction. The Kirtland's warbler breeds in Michigan jack pine, and has fairly exacting requirements. The bulk of the Kirtland warbler management has been in the northern Lower Peninsula. Warbler populations have reached their recovery goals and breeding pairs have recently been sighted in Upper Peninsula jack pine stands.

Jack pine is an excellent example of where forest management has helped maintain a valuable forest type, reduced risks to people, and has played a critical wildlife recovery role. Jack pine timber is valued in making high quality paper, oriented-strand board, and new technologies that produce dimensional lumber. Together, these benefits serve to illustrate the advantages of managing a renewable and sustainable natural resource. Forest management, in many ways, is a key to our future.

Bill Cook Forester & Biologist
MSU Extension, Upper Peninsula 6005 J Road
Escanaba, MI 49829
906-786-1575, voice •
906-786-9370, fax
Email: cookwi@msu.edu

RESEARCHERS LEARN FROM EMERALD ASH BORER-INFESTED TREE IN THE UPPER PENINSULA

EAST LANSING, Mich. - An ash tree infested with emerald ash borer (EAB) from Michigan's Upper Peninsula is giving Michigan State University (MSU) researchers insights into the pest's habits.

The tree, harvested from the Brimley State Park in the Upper Peninsula on Whitefish Bay, had been girdled and used as a detection tree in 2004. It was taken down in September 2005 and brought to MSU.

"This is a white ash tree that showed no outward signs of EAB infestation, but when we peeled off the bark, we found 99 EAB larval galleries," says Deborah McCullough, lead EAB researcher and forest entomologist at MSU. "Any larvae that were found were saved and will be used in genetic studies to determine how closely related these larvae are to each other or to EAB from other locations found in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio."

The tree was one of 60 ash trees that MSU researchers sampled at Brimley State Park this fall in cooperation with the Michigan Technological University, the Michigan departments of Agriculture (MDA) and Natural Resources (MDNR) in an effort to understand more about EAB. Of the 60 trees sampled, only three had the D- shaped EAB emergence holes.

"Using dendrochronology [The study of tree-ring patterns which can be used as the basis for dating a site or assessing its environment], we can determine that trees in the Park were first infested in 2003," says MSU entomologist Nate Siegert. "Those EAB required two years to complete their life cycle, and the exit holes were a result of adult beetles emerging in 2005. We find that most EAB develop in one year on stressed ash trees but many larvae take two years to develop on healthy trees."

The dendrochronology study also helped pinpoint when EAB came to Brimley State Park. Siegert says that EAB-infested ash firewood brought into the park sometime between the fall of 2002 and the summer of 2003 was probably the culprit.

After emerging, beetles did not have to travel far to lay eggs, McCullough says. The other infested ash trees in the park were less than 1/4 mile from the ash trees with EAB exit holes.

"This is the youngest EAB outlier infestation that we've dated," she says. "The earlier we catch an infested site, the better. Early on, the larval densities are low, and there is a good chance that the population can be eradicated."

Seventy-five percent of the larvae were found in the branch crotches. Researchers believe that EAB like to lay their eggs on rough bark. The branch crotches are where the bark gets rough and furrowed, especially on white ash trees, which often have smoother bark than green ash trees.

"What was also important about this early EAB find is that the trees looked perfectly healthy," McCullough says. "Trying to detect a recent EAB infestation by visual survey only is very difficult. The adult beetles seem to spend most of their time in the canopy of ash trees, where they feed on the leaves. Because most females deposit eggs near the leaves where they feed, the emergence holes, often the only obvious symptom, are more common in the tops of trees. This makes it difficult to find EAB emergence holes on taller trees.

"We are getting better at detection," she says. "We are getting better at finding EAB infestations when there are fewer larvae in the trees."

Populations of EAB do spread on their own, especially when populations are high. But McCullough emphasizes that human movement of infested ash wood or trees, not natural beetle movement, is responsible for spreading the pest to many areas of lower Michigan, as well as areas of Ohio and Indiana.

"Most of the outlier infestations we are finding now are more than two or three years old," she says. "Many are a result of ash nursery trees, firewood or logs that were infested and moved to the area before we knew about EAB. Transport of ash nursery trees and logs can be regulated and monitored. At this point, firewood is probably the biggest concern. We know infested ash firewood can spread EAB as well as other pests and tree diseases. As more people learn about EAB and the dangers of moving firewood, we hope the number of new EAB discoveries will drop."

Working cooperatively, the MDA and the MDNR removed a total of 940 ash trees to eradicate the U.P. infestation. Detection trees will be used as part of an intensive monitoring strategy around the area for the next three years.

For more information on EAB, see the EAB regional Web site at www.emeraldashborer.info