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Tale of Three Planters
Article #354 January 2024
By Bill Cook

Managing forests for specific outcomes almost always yields greater satisfaction, and a wider range of benefits, than doing nothing.  Not managing is sorta like letting children do whatever they want, whenever they want, without any guidance.  Sure, they’ll grow-up, probably.  But they’re likely to be monsters!

    There were three neighbors who one day, a quarter-century ago, decided to plant trees on their land.  Each were considering small plots sized from about a half-acre to just over three acres.  They weren’t interested in carbon, or timber, or afforestation.  They simply wanted some trees to diversify their home environment. 
    These neighbors lived on the same soil, a fine sandy loam, a good agricultural soil.  Each site was covered with old field, all having once been an active farm. 
    Each had, independently, selected white pine.  Each had procured their bare root seedlings from the same source.  Each planted their young pines on nearly the same days, at nearly the same spacing.  At the end of the planting, they shared a small celebration, happy with what the future might promise for their efforts.  It was a fine spring day. 
    Fast-forward 25 years.  Owner number one sat back on his porch and admired the tall pines, now about 45 feet in height with diameters approaching a foot.  He liked the sound of the breezes as they passed through the boughs, and the occasional stroll under the canopy.  The trees provided habitat for a range of critters.  Tweety-birds were his favorite, as they bounced around among the greenery and made regular forays to his feeders. 
    Owner number two had a smaller patch, but his trees were far more slender with stunted crown sizes.  Understory shade provided for little in the way of shrubs or forbs.  He enjoyed the visual barrier the pines provided but that had waned over the years.  The sun-starved lower branches failed, the needles died, and much of the tree height was adorned with an interlaced gray tapestry. 
    Owner number three had few trees left, although he had planted the greatest number on the largest area.  They were scattered rather widely and looked more like over-sized bushes than trees.  Nevertheless, he enjoyed the way they punctuated the horizon and the how the sun filtered through them, especially on hazy mornings.  However, he often found himself looking at the small woodland of neighbor number one.
    What caused the wide variability in planting success among these three friends? 
    Owner number one had tended his baby trees.  He had knocked down competing vegetation for several years using both herbicides and a mower.  He liked the herbicide better as it was a whole lot less work.  He had protected the terminal buds from marauding deer until the pines grew out of reach. 
    Once the trees reached a thrifty pole-size, the individual crowns began to wrestle with each other for access to light.  The owner then removed the weaker trees, allowing the taller, better-formed trees to utilize those resources.  He even pruned the dead branches from the lower part of the trees, where the shade of the canopy strangled the foliage from green to brown.  The pruning didn’t particularly advance the health of the pines, but he liked the columnar appearance of the stand. 
    Owner number two had mowed the grasses and prevented deer browsing.  With that, he ended his care.  As the trees grew, few had full access to light and growth slowed.  Diameter is a function of light availability.  Height is more strongly related to genetics.  The pines were struggling. 
    Owner number three sometimes grumped at the few large balls of green scattered across his planted area.  He had done nothing to help the newly planted trees, figuring that he would let nature take its course.  Nature did.  Nearly all his trees had died.  He was not particularly satisfied with nature’s outcome. 
    I, too, have watched these three plantations grow over the years, as I also live in the area.  Each of them had asked for my recommendations.  Each had variably implemented some form of that advice. 
    The upshot of these comparisons is how important management can be in the quest to achieve goals, whether that effort be applied to small patches of planted trees, or across the wider forest resource.  Those who actively pursue a course of action are not guaranteed success, but those who fail to manage almost certainly end-up disappointed.
     It took many years for owners number two and three to realize that they probably should have put more work into their bits of woodland.  Owner number two might still be able to improve the fate of his pines.  More important, perhaps, is that owner number one can sit on his porch in the morning, with a rich cup of coffee, and feel grateful that his effort and planning yielded unending dividends. 
    Forests do not change rapidly, but they are always changing.  Forestowners can nudge that change in many ways to move towards a range of goals.  The long game needs to be played.  As some say, Rome was not built in a day.  Neither are healthy and productive forests. 

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Crowded white pine canopy prevents healthy access to light.

Unthinned white pine are stressed by too little light.

Properly thinned and spaced white pine grow quickly.

TRAILER- This website was created by a consortium of forestry groups to help streamline information about forestry and coordinate forestry activities designed to benefit the family forest owner and various publics that make up our Michigan citizenry.  This website is maintained by Bill Cook, Retired Michigan State Extension Forester/Biologist.  Direct comments to cookwi@msu.edu.