Blue Ridge Country Jan/Feb 2025 - 6

LITTLE LESSONS IN LOGGING
Stewardship
The interplay of trees is a key to happy wildlife.
TEXT AND PHOTO BY BRUCE INGRAM | PHOTO STYLING BY JANETTE SPENCER
T
he time is an early Saturday
morning in February,
and Elaine's and my 38acre
woodlot in Botetourt
County, Virginia, needs tending. I call
our daughter Sarah and ask her to
send grandsons Sam and Eli across the
hollow. It's time for the boys to learn
another lesson in
stewardship-a rural
landowner's responsibility
to do what's right
for the land and the
wildlife that live on it
in these mountains.
First, I ask Sam and
down the sassafras, and they seem
confused. But when I explain that
the tree's openings supply homes for
nesting tufted titmice, Carolina chickadees,
white-breasted nuthatches
and woodpeckers, they understand.
Our next sojourn is at a dead ash,
Eli if they remember
how to gas and oil a
chainsaw. At ages 11
and 9, respectively,
they're too young to
actually operate it, but they are old
enough to see how a saw can help us
manage the land our two families live
on. Sam holds the funnel while I pour
in the oil, and after I replenish the gas,
Eli, when prompted, recalls that
the
primer bulb has to be pumped a dozen
times and performs that chore.
Then it's time to trek down the path
that leads to our seeded logging road
which winds around most of the land's
perimeter. Our first stop (and lesson) is
at a dead sassafras tree pocked with
openings. I ask the grandsons if they
know why we're
not going to cut
6 BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM
The decisions
and cuttings we
make today will
positively benefit
the forest and its
wildlife many years
from this day.
much taller though considerably smaller
in circumference
than the sassafras. I inquire
if the boys know
why we're going to
level the hardwood for
firewood, and both recall
how the emerald
ash borer decimated
the ash trees native to
the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Sam, always
thinking, suggests that
we cut the ash in sixfoot
lengths and later haul those out of
the woods...instead of slicing it into
woodstove fitting lengths and making
multiple trips to the woodpile-a prudent
recommendation.
Then we trek to a dead Virginia pine
that has fallen across the path near its
intersection with the tote road. I expound
that this pine species often only
lives 60 or so years, and its soft wood is
no good for firewood. We will only cut
enough of the evergreen so that it no
longer obstructs the trail and leave the
rest to rot and return to the soil.
We next amble to a fairly dense stand
Eli, Sam and Granddad prepare the
chainsaw for a morning in the woods.
where white and post oaks and Virginia
pines and red cedars predominate. I tell
the grandsons that, by far, my favorite
part of managing a woodlot is conducting
activities that make the land more
hospitable to wildlife. All four species,
I explain, are native trees to our region
and offer value to wildlife.
But, I continue, that though the
two evergreens provide thermal cover
to birds and mammals, we have many
other pines and cedars on our land
to do the same. And after we daylight
those
oaks, the increased sunlight
reaching them will allow their crowns
to expand-which will allow the oaks
to bear acorns much sooner. The result
will be that those nuts will one day
feed deer, turkeys, bears and numerous
other species of birds and mammals.
Indeed, I conclude, the decisions and
cuttings we make today will positively
benefit the forest and its wildlife many
years from this day.
We then begin the process of levelling
the Virginia pines and red cedars.
I show the grandsons how to notch a
tree so that it falls away from a hardwood
I am daylighting. A half hour
later, we admire a newly created grove
of white and post oaks ready to respond
to spring's sunny days. All that's left is
to return to the ash lengths, haul them
to the woodpile, cut them into 14-inch
lengths, and use them as our firewood
for the day - a most productive one.
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Blue Ridge Country Jan/Feb 2025

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