Woodlot Wisdom, 2015 Volume 15, Issue 1

Tennessee Tree Farm 2015 By: Diana M. Gennett, 2015 Tree Farm Chairman

Tennessee Tree Farm

Program, as part of the

American Tree Farm

System (ATFS) com-

pleted a 3rd party as-

sessment by Pricewa-

terhouseCooper

(PwC) this past April.

Eighteen Tree Farms

were visited across the

state, their Forest

Management Plans

and on-the-ground

management activities

were reviewed for

compliance under the

AFF 2010-2015 Stan-

dards of Sustainability

(Standards). These

Tree Farms and the Plans written by their Forester were found

to be in compliance with only few infractions. Four Tree

Farms needed some updates with more in depth data to cover

the requirements. The core elements identified as most com-

monly missing from the management plans are High Conser-

vation Value Forest (4), special sites (2), IPM (2), and invasive

species.

A final review identified three areas of emphasis to ensure that

current and future Tree Farms meet the Standard. The items

for Tennessee to work on were:

1. Forested Acreages were incorrectly reported: Need to

clarify the actual forested acreage and apply this to all

parcels.

2. Noncontiguous Tree Farms: Separate

(noncontiguous) parcels need to have unique Tree

Farm numbers and

location descrip-

tions. Non-

contiguous parts of

a single Tree Farm

ownership can share

a single manage-

ment plan. To sepa-

rate noncontiguous

Tree Farm parcels,

please contact the

Tennessee Tree

Farm program for

instructions and

forms.

3. Invasive Species;

Where present, in-

vasives need to be

identified with rec-

ommendations to

prevent, eradicate or

otherwise control the invasive species. This may be

done by mechanical, biological, silvicultural, or

chemical means. This can also be accomplished by

identification, observation, and preventing the spread.

If no invasive species are known to be on the prop-

erty, a negative declaration in the plan is sufficient.

Overall Tennessee’s Tree Farms and Inspecting Foresters have

been doing a good job. Tennessee passed the Assessment.

NOW AVAILABLE!!!

A Field Guide to Identification of Invasive Plants in Southern Forest USFS Publication SRS-119 with Companion book-A Management Guide for Invasive Plants in Southern Forest-SRS-131

Order from USFS or by telephone: Ashville, NC Publications

Southern Research Station, 200 W.T. Weaver Blvd., Ashville, NC 28804-3454

Publications Mgr. Ms. Pearly Simmons: 828-257-4832

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

It’s Your Woods (So

know your AGS and

UGS)

2-4

Forester Certification

Training Dates Set!!!

3

2015 Tennessee For-

estry Annual Meeting

5

It’s Your Woods (So

know your AGS and

UGS) Continued

6

Tennessee Tree Farm

2015 Continued

6

Photo is of a Spider Lily Wild Flower

(Tennessee Tree Farm 2015...Continued on Page 6)

Woodlot Wisdom, 2015 Page 2

As once a young forester trundling through the woods nearly 30 years ago, there are three memories that vividly stand out: 1) only a brisk cadence allows one to keep pace with the forest supervisor, 2) property lines aren’t always accurate, and 3) forest management begins with defining the “AGS and UGS.”

Forests, and trees in particular, are often classified, grouped, evaluated, and judged based on many characteristics. These characteristics, in the simplest and most broad sense, can be either acceptable or unacceptable. Professional foresters are com-plete with their own vocabulary, and quickly refer to those trees with favorable qualities as AGS, short for “Acceptable Growing Stock.” Trees that don’t meet forest ownership objectives are termed UGS, or “Unacceptable Growing Stock.” So AGS are good; UGS are not so good (or so it may seem).

In your woods, there are many AGS and UGS. Knowing the difference and taking the time to separate them can be chal-lenging. In order to create a clear picture let’s begin by explaining the term “growing stock” and how growing stock can be either acceptable or unacceptable.

GROWING STOCK

We’ve all been taught that when the meaning of a phrase is not understood, first break it into its parts. The word “growing” needs no explanation, but “stock” might. Think of stock as the amount of something held in reserve for future use. So in the cattle industry, livestock are not yet ready for market. As consumers we stock our cupboard for future consumption. Retailers make sure that they are well-stocked with salt prior to an anticipated ice storm, and so on. In forestry, we refer to live standing trees in a forest as growing stock. Growing stock is acceptable when it meets the landownership objectives. Typically AGS includes trees that are not yet ripe for picking and that are still adding wood volume. These trees are retained for future benefit or sale.

That’s the simple part. The picture becomes a bit foggier when we seek to describe what constitutes the word acceptable. How is acceptable classified? Says who? When left to our own training, knowledge, and experience, foresters typically refer to AGS as follows:

Desirable species (such as oaks, walnut, maple, poplar, cherry, hickory etc.)

That are with good form (relative straightness) and grade (few defects)

Vigorously growing with expanding crowns

Of the right size,

Found on the appropriate site, and

Meeting the demands of the local wood industry.

There’s a lot to consider. Indeed defining AGS is complicated, especially when the above considerations are melded to-gether. For instance, white oak (Quercus alba) is commonly considered AGS. However, if a certain white oak tree is deformed, or suppressed from overhead competition, or was damaged or hollowed-out by previous abuses (such as fire or livestock), or growing off-site (for instance on a site that is too wet), then that tree is tallied as an UGS. So, a would-be AGS can be relegated to UGS. The environment and human interaction can be tough on trees!

Of course calling out AGS vs. UGS depends on the standards by which the trees are judged. And who’s the judge?

WHO’S THE JUDGE?

One of most fascinating features of our grand democratic experiment is that individuals, not just governments, have the pleasure of owning land. Private family-owned woodlands are the largest ownership class in the United States. Landowners, much like the woodlands they own, are a diverse group. Ultimately it is the owner of the trees has the say on which trees are acceptable and which ones aren’t.

The previous criteria that foresters use to constitute AGS is only a template. It assumes that the primary ownership objec-tive is to grow top quality trees, of high value, as rapidly as possible, to meet the demand of the local wood using industry. Many landowners embrace these criteria. But some do not. And that’s okay. In fact, reports have continuously showed that woodland owners often place wildlife and non-consumptive uses of their forest higher than monetary return. Non-consumptive can include: aesthetics, recreation, mental restoration, heritage, etc.

It’s Your Woods (So know your AGS and UGS)

Provided by: Dr. David Mercker, University of Tennessee, Extension Forest

(It’s Your Woods/So know your AGS and UGS...Continued on Page 3)

Woodlot Wisdom, 2015 Page 5

INVENTORY YOUR GROWING STOCK

By now you are likely beginning to imagine your own woodland, what it presently looks like, and what it could become. Perhaps your

ownership objectives are more in focus too. But before you can achieve your objectives, you must know what your woodland currently contains.

What do you have to work with? So let’s return to the example of “stock,” specifically the metaphor on stocking your cupboards. Before you can

properly stock your cupboards, you must first know what is already there. You could say that you inventory your cupboards before making the list

of wares that are needed. The same is true of your woodland. A timber inventory, like any inventory, involves taking stock of what is already avail-

able.

The process of inventorying your woodland is much too involving to cover here. You are encouraged to read the following publication

for more information:

Henning, J. and D. Mercker 2009. Conducting a Simple Timber Inventory. https://utextension.tennessee.edu/publications/documents/PB1780.pdf.

Professionals are needed and recommended. But private woodland owners can conduct a cursory inventory to help in taking stock of what is

present. Follow these steps:

Establish your AGS and UGS criteria and have a tally sheet;

Randomly traverse your woodland and measure 1/10 acre plots; these are circle plots with a 37 ft. radius.

Record your AGS trees and UGS trees; use a simple slash-tally; each tree tallied represents 10 trees per acre;

Add up all your plots then divide by the number of plots taken; do this for both the AGS and UGS; the results will give you some baseline

information that will aid in achieving your objectives.

OFTEN IT’S NOT EITHER/OR

There is a tendency (and it is a misconception) to think that woodlands are managed solely for crop trees - or for wildlife - or for aes-

thetics. But they are not mutually exclusive. Indeed they can occur at the same time. More often than not that is the case for most small land-

owners. For instance, even the most hard-core timber producers can leave occasional UGS to benefit wildlife and aesthetics.

And the opposite can be true too for those landowners whose objectives focus primarily on non-timber uses. With this option, often the

AGS favored are the lower value “D” trees: defective, dying, deformed, diseased, damaged and just duds. Beware though. Not having some higher

value crop trees could limit the utility for future generations and even lead to woodland conversion to non-forest uses. In other words, if the

woodland has such poor quality trees that it can’t pay its way, it may be converted to a use that will. And that defeats our purpose.

So for a more holistic, stewardship-centered focus, the criteria for AGS and UGS could be broadened.

A WOODLAND EXAMPLE

To help you visualize some of what has been discussed, here’s an example of AGS and UGS as it relates to a typical forest. This assumes

all the trees tallied on a 1/10 acre plot (37 foot radius) located in the hardwood region. Note: this example only includes one inventory plot. For a

more accurate representation, several plots would be required.

One of most fascinating features of our grand democratic experiment is that individuals, not just governments, have the pleasure of

owning land. Private family-owned woodlands are the largest ownership class in the United States. Landowners, much like the woodlands they

own, are a diverse group. Ultimately it is the owner of the trees has the say on which trees are acceptable and which ones aren’t.

(It’s Your Woods/So know your AGS and UGS...Continued from Page 2)

FORESTER CERTIFICATION TRAINING DATES SET!!!

Dates have been set for Forester Certification Training to the 2015 Tree Farm Standards. Tree Farm recently endorsed new certification

standards, and as of March 2015, only active Tree Farm Inspectors are qualified to either enroll new Tree Farms or to inspect existing ones.

Active inspectors are those who have either completed updated training, or at least one inspection, or have enrolled a new Tree Farmer

since 1/1/2013.

To become active (or active again), foresters will be required to take an updated, full-day classroom training. Training dates have been set as

follows: Jackson (Sept. 21), Nashville (Sept. 23) and Knoxville (Sept. 24). To register for one of these trainings, contact Dr. David Mercker,

Extension Forester, at dcmercker@utk.edu or 731-425-4703.

(It’s Your Woods/So know your AGS and UGS...Continued on Page 4)

Woodlot Wisdom, 2015 Page 2

EXAMPLE 1

Objective – grow top quality hardwood timber to produce periodic income

Condition and Recommendation: 7 of the 11 trees are considered AGS and since this is a 1/10 acre plot, that would yield approximately 70 AGS

trees per acre. This is a very favorable stocking level of AGS. However, the 40 UGS trees per acre are competing with the AGS and to enhance the

vigor and insure the survival of the AGS, timber stand improvement (TSI) is recommended. With the TSI, the UGS trees should be harvested (if

possible) or deadened (if not). The reason the UGS trees did not meet the ownership objectives are as follows:

20 inch elm -elm are subject to Dutch elm disease, have low monetary value, produce little wildlife mast

14 inch box elder -very low market value, produce little wildlife mast, growing off-site

8 inch white oak - a stunted (overtopped tree) that is dying due to broken top

30 inch beech - although potentially a good wildlife tree, it is so massive that it is completing heavily with the AGS, plus,

other excellent quality beech exist on the site to produce wildlife mast.

WHERE TO GO FROM HERE

I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see

a man live so that his place would be proud of him.

Abraham Lincoln

Feeling a bit overwhelmed? That’s not necessary. There’s help. Foresters often state that forestry is not rocket science. It’s more com-

plicated than that. Sure there is much to be known, but that’s why professional foresters exist. Trained broadly in the natural resource disciplines,

professionals can help you establish your objectives. From the objectives, comes the inventory. The inventory determines the AGS. Then from

your AGS action steps are established. Action steps ultimately help you achieve your objectives. Just like putting one foot in front of the other.

Take a moment to read that again. It summarizes what this is all about.

Finding a professional forester isn’t that difficult. Foresters are either publically or privately employed. Tennessee Division of Forestry

employees public foresters who administer conservation programs, fight wildfires and assist landowners in the development of forest steward-

ship plans. The plans contain steps to help achieve objectives. Normally landowners are then turned over to private foresters to assist in carrying

out the stewardship plan. Private foresters are either independently employed consultants or are employed by forest industry. As always, it is

beneficial to seek the counsel of many.

CONCLUSION

Some days, if you stop, attentive and listening real close, you can hear the sounds of foresters way off in the woods, their tools rattling,

their persistence as they scurry across the hills, and the thunder as they sound off trees in their plots.

Species Diameter (in.) Condition AGS UGS

White oak 14 Excellent x

Elm 20 Cull x

Red oak 12 Excellent x

Hickory 10 Average x

Box elder 14 Cull x

Tulip tree 18 Excellent x

Tulip tree 8 Average x

White oak 8 Crooked, broken

top

x

Red oak 14 Average x

Beech 30 Cull (hollow) x

Beech 14 Excellent x

Total 7

(or 70 per acre)

4

(or 40 per acre)

(It’s Your Woods/So know your AGS and UGS...Continued from Page 3)

(It’s Your Woods/So know your AGS and UGS...Continued on Page 6)

Woodlot Wisdom, 2015 Page 5

TFA would like to

congratulate Mr.

Philip Beech and

Mrs. Debra Beech

on their 2014-

2015 Tree Farmer

of the Year award

and recognition.

The Beeches are

5th generation

land owners who

have lived on and

managed their

own forests in

Humphreys &

Houston County.

Phil & Debbie

Beech purchased a 1,837 acre property formerly owned by

Westvaco in 2006 and added land to the tree farm in 2010,

enlarging their tree farm to a 2,000 acre tract.

Since purchasing their property, Philip & Debra have worked

closely with their local area forester and NRCS to improve their

the forest.

Philip & Debra began to create many supplemental wildlife food

plots, started making several permanent wildlife openings, and

walked the perimeter of the property after it was surveyed and

painted boundary marking on trees. Overgrown fields were strip

cut into habitat for quail. They put fire lines around pine tree

stands and began conducting prescribed burns on a rotational

basis. This has really helped wildlife habitat and promoted pine

stand development on their approximately 367 acres of pine.

Many of the pines received their first thinning in 2010. Today,

fire lines encircle their entire tract and divide the larger hard-

wood stands into several sections to prevent fire from spreading

to adjoining areas. In 2011 a 67 acre clear cut piece of their

property which “looked like nuclear winter” when they pur-

chased it was replanted with pine seedlings. In the winter of

2012 Mr. Beech cleared a previous clear-cut field of stumps and

they put a chestnut tree orchard on the approximately 4 acre

tract. In 2013 a stream bank stabilization project, along White

Oak Creek to minimize soil erosion was completed and is main-

tained with the help and direction of NRCS.

Portions of the upland hardwood stands which were misman-

aged in the past received patch clear-cut harvests in 2014 to

regenerate the areas in desirable hardwoods and create early

successional habitat. A sizeable portion of this area also houses

a University of Tennessee hardwood research project. Timber

stand improvement in the form of crop tree release was also

executed on a select portion of the tracts.

It is not all work on this woodland tract by any means! Phil &

Debra look forward every year to playing host to both of their

families for vacation time on their farm. The kids, their brothers

and sisters, nieces and nephews come and spend time on the

land; hunting, fishing, swimming and really getting away from it

all! Both of the Beeches feel that the only way to truly enjoy

your land is to share it with people you care about. It is their

hope that perhaps one day one or more of their grandchildren

will share this love of the land enough to take over the manage-

ment of this family forest.

Mr. & Mrs. Beech have been one of the most pleasurable land-

owners TFA and Stephen Peairs, former Area Forester for the

Tennessee Division of Forestry have had the honor to recognize

and it has been a privilege to work with them.

Note: Article was edited to be shorter due to spacing

Tennessee Tree Farm 2015 By: Stephen Peairs, Former Area Forester with the TN Division of Forestry

2015 Tennessee Forestry Association's

Annual Meeting Details Announced

Wednesday, October 14-Friday, October 16, 2015

Chattanooga Downtown Marriott

Two Carter Plaza

Chattanooga, Tennessee

Reservations: (800) 841-1674

Room Rate: $115.00 Single/Double including Parking & Internet Connection

Room Cut-off Date: September 23, 2015

OUTLOOK FOR TOUTLOOK FOR TOMORROW...OMORROW...

In the forest, In the forest,

on the harvest site, and in the mill.on the harvest site, and in the mill.

Published Bi-Annually

c/o Tennessee Forestry Association

PO Box 290693

Nashville, Tennessee 37229

Phone: 615/883-3832

FAX: 615/883-0515

Tennessee Tree Farm 2015 By: Diana M. Gennett, 2015 Tree Farm Chairman

PwC Lead Auditor Ms. Joann Cox, enjoyed meeting our engaged landowners and Foresters. This

was a somewhat arduous undertaking for the four day whirlwind visit by Ms. Cox for all involved.

We thank all of our Foresters and Landowners for helping the Assessment go so smoothly.

Thank You Foresters: Jonathan Boggs, Bryan Huglett, Pete Moditz, Terry Tynes, Ben Myers, Emily

Stefanick, Mike Williford, Hugh Bullock, Kim Rohr, Jon Lindsey, Johnny Heard, David Mercker.

Thank You to all the Tree Farmers who provided time and access to their properties. Also, thank

you to ATFS Certification Manager Mike Burns for guiding me through my first administration of

an Assessment.

Keep working on increasing our quality Tree Farms in Tennessee.

Diana M. Gennett

2015 Tennessee Tree Farm Chairman

(Tennessee Tree Farm 2015...Continued from Page 1)

Photo is of a Spider Fire Pink Wild Flower

It’s Your Woods (So know your AGS and UGS) By: Dr. David Mercker, University of Tennessee, Extension Forest

(It’s Your Woods/So know your AGS and UGS...Continued from Page 4)

“Give me a white oak, 22” x 3 logs, AGS

. . . a sourwood, 16” x 2 logs, UGS

. . . a red oak 18” x 2.5 logs, AGS . . .”

It’s the ways of woods people. And as a private landowner, you are one too. It’s your woods. Get to know it. The privilege of

woodland ownership also carries the responsibility of stewardship. Forest management begins by defining your AGS and your UGS. With-

out this knowledge, you’re just another landowner. With it, you’re one step closer to becoming a steward.