How to plant timber trees for Privacy and profits.
Hello Rob here from the Flanagan Homestead today's a pretty lousy day for Humans it's been uh raining constantly Not terribly hard but constantly and It's been in the 30s so it's yeah like I Said not a good day for humans but that Means it's a great day for Christmas or Not Christmas tree planting but timber Tree planting we're going to plant some Timber stock on my uh Campground Property and uh I got a young gentleman Coming up to help me today and I'll show You how we're doing it and why we're Doing it so let's go ahead and get Started Made a quick drive down to Lewis River Reforestation here in Woodland Washington They're prepping their fields for the Next Pierce plants so they grow a couple Million trees a year And they're going to sell me just a Couple hundred All right so here we are at the property Getting ready to uh plant why it's Holding the camera right now he's and uh So here's what 100 Doug Furs and 100 Cedars look like Um I paid 220 bucks for these 120 for The dugs and uh 100 for the cedar so That's a buck 20 for the dugs and I was kind of surprised and the guy's Selling it to me knows that I've done a Lot of trees and he felt a little the
Cheapest uh not sheepish but uh Apologetic for the amount that it's Going to cost to get these usually you Know when I buy buy the thousands I'm I've been getting trees 40 in the high 40s low 50 cents for three but these are About 20. but these are a 1-1 they are One year uh planted on the field dug up And then planted again so these are Doug Firs right here bare root and uh The Cedars are One plus one so they were grown as a Plug inside a greenhouse and then plant It and then moved out into a field and Grown a year out in the field so this is What our Cedars That we're going to be putting in look Like right here So uh as you can see right here what Does it say Do not expose to direct Sunlight and keep cool 33 to 40 degrees Temperature that's why a miserable day For humans is a good day to plant trees Good thing why it's tough because he's Going to be doing most of the work okay One of the things that I like to do when I'm planting the trees out here uh in an Area that's pretty woodsy wild there's Weeds and blackberry bushes and Everything that grow over it and so when I plant the trees I usually take some Orange flagging tape And Just tie it around the top of the tree
Loosely and leave it there and you might Say well what's that for if we want These trees to grow successfully we're Gonna have to clear out the brush and The blackberries there's a lot of places We're gonna plant today that by the end Of this summer if we let it the Blackberries will be eight feet tall Over the top of this so I'll come in With a weed whack or a chainsaw and Knock stuff down so these get sunlight And continue to grow if you don't mark This with orange I promise you if you go Back to do it you're going to end up Cutting down some of the trees that you Are planting so you don't want to hurt That which you're trying to grow so Until the trees get to about chest High I like this tree will grow up to here And up to here and then I'll put another Flag up higher on it and then once they Get about chest high and they're poking Through the blackberries then Then I don't need to flag them anymore So here we are start why it's putting Some trees in the ground you can see The orange Flags the ones we started This is the most open area that needs to Be filled in but you can see why we want To do it the road down there is Completely visible on this part of the Property and the sound comes up now These Maples and Alders will put a lot Of leaves out in the summer and Visually
It'll block more and actually those Leaves block quite a bit of sound but uh I'm trying to get some evergreen trees In one they'll be good Timber value and Two they will block Noise in the sight lines year round Uh just another point of Interest why We're doing both Cedars and Doug first And part of the reason I want more of These Cedars the Doug furs are going to Grow taller faster and they're more Worth more timberwise here or for Timber Production but the Cedars if you ever go Into a thick forest that's you know not Roadways but a true forest for acres and Acres the Doug Firs as they grow really Tall the branches that are shaded out Down below die off and then drop out That don't have as much sunlight but the Cedars keep their branches lower uh that Are not getting as much sunlight for Much longer so as I'm trying to block The View and I'm trying to block the Sound The Cedars that are in here are Going to keep their branches their lower Branches for much longer and keep them Thicker So in an area like this we're going to Plant I'll bring in a chainsaw today and Knock down some of these trees that Aren't much of anything but we're going To plant more Cedars back in here where It's more shaded Doug Firs out here Where it's more open The Cedars survive
Better when it's shaded and then as we Clear out more of this brush The Cedars Will take off some of the Doug Furs Would die back in there but uh anyway I I'll hopefully edit some video in that Of trees I planted many years ago where It was more shaded and back in the woods And how The Cedars did better than the Doug Firs but this is pretty common Right here I'm going to give an example Of how the trees that have more sunlight Grow a lot better so where I'm standing Right now all everything behind the Camera is open to the South uh there's Not a lot of trees this is where my Pasture is going back in this way there Used to be a lot more trees we cleared Out some and put the little shop back in There but you can see the trees with the White bark that's a bunch of Alders that Were in there in the summer they really Shade things so all these trees that You're going to see here were planted The same year So all these trees I'm going to show you Were planted at the same time so this is What was behind the camera this is the Southern Exposure plenty of sunlight as You turn and come into the woods the First tree Has plenty of sunlight out here and you Can see it is well over a foot in Diameter there's another nice big tree There that's out near The Sunny Side and
It Is very large and we've got some Alders That were established already You can see another fur that's fairly Strong But it is a little bit smaller you come Back in here and this one's smaller yet As you get back in here I use I had as Many Furs planted as Cedars but you Could see cedar tree cedar tree cedar Tree growing and they're have foliage And branches all the way down to the Bottom that's why I was saying they were Good in shady areas and good for privacy Barriers because they'll put out these Branches lower Back here there's more open space Because you can see the Alders are dying There's Alders falling and dying all Over the place every winter Okay we cut those up for firewood and These Cedars survived and they're going To take off now that the Alders are out Of the way there was just as many Doug Firs back here as Cedars but many of Them died out here's one for this Survived is doing reasonably well but You can see the difference in size from The one that was out there This is another one That is survived for a number of years But it's dead now I may just be pushing It over right now this tree uh has lost All his greenage
And then there's more Cedars Here's the farthest back fur pretty much That survived but it's really thin and Struggling And again all the way back in here we've Got Cedar branches nice and full filling In over here more Cedar over here and More Cedar and they're doing well with Stuck under these Cedars and you come Through we got more Cedars Growing up in here and these are all as They get more sunlight are going to take Off even faster And they also do well in wet areas so You can see we're down here By the Stream So I've flagged up a bunch of trees to Be planted while it's putting them in The ground right now I'm going to grab The chainsaw right now And run down the hill and knock down Some of this stuff that I don't want Growing up So the our new trees will do better One more thing about the process today Where this is my favorite shovel for Planting I actually worked on my Property it's a little bit thinner about Four inch uh thick blade but it's a Trenching shovel uh if you're planting Replanting the forest seal you've got a Spade that you just stick in pull throw The roots in stomp it back but we're Putting a little bit more care into this
Digging a little bit of a hole but when You're running into roots and rocks and Whatnot a big normal width shovel you're Running into too much stuff but this you Can make a quick little narrow hole get The roots in and plant it so love this Shovel Well it got Sunny for a while we thought It was getting really nice white ripped Off his rain jacket and as usual around Here late winter early spring We're wet again and we got A light hail storm going on It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood Let's see if we can Thank you Gotta get The drainage taken care of [Applause] I'm gonna plant a tree on the hillside And talk about why we don't just stick a Spade in and then stick the tree and Then push it back like you're going to Do if you're doing acres and Acres of Forest land we could take a little bit More care because we're only doing 200 Trees but I'm gonna instead of just Opening up a whole oh I'm gonna actually Dig a hole get this tree in there And then get it packed in good well I'm Sliding down the hill But then what happens is you end up with Dirt right above it like this and as Dirt sloughs down in the winter and dirt
Claws they hit the tree and push it or Branches fall off the tree above there That happens all the time in the winter A winter storm it hits the tree and it's Pushing it down now the tree is growing At an angle and has to grow up as a Matter of fact Wyatt was talking about a Tree farm he was working on instead he Planted the tree sideways well they Didn't plant the tree sideways they Planted them And uh gravity always wins and something Pushed it down so instead of having that Bank of dirt right here I just spaded This out or shoveled this out and moved This around here so there still could be Branches falling down causing a problem But if a little bit of raw dirt tumbles Down It's not pushing over my tree it'd take A lot of dirt to get my tree growing Sideways like I said it will eventually Grow straight up again but I want it Straight from the beginning So we clear out that space above the Tree And this should do really well [Applause] So how far apart are we going to want to Plant these um you know we're gonna Because of the Hillside and what's open In the brush not everything we're going To plant them where we have openings Typically you'll want to do them about
10 feet apart if you're going to be Doing uh Timber trees or Lumber but uh You even then if they all grow they're Going to have to thin out the trees Usually they can take some out for pulp And then let the rest grow at 20 feet Apart for the Big Timber or for the big Mill logs for privacy sakes where we Have a lot of opening a lot of sunlight And the trees will grow fine we're going To go ahead and put the trees closer Almost five six feet apart in places and Let them grow and thick and if we have To thin them out that's okay okay that Just means that we're building a nice Privacy Hedge Okay on this section of ground we do Want trees but we're going to wait we're Probably going to leave some trees the Weather's supposed to get nice at least A little bit drier in a few days and I Can get my excavator in here and there's More Excavating over here a lot of this Is fresh full up on top here and we do Want to plant in that but there's going To be a little bit more dirt pushed over The hillside so I don't want to plant Trees and push it over also I'm going to Bring the excavator in and lift a lot of This scrub brush and throw it on the Pile back there that I'm going to burn In a brush pile and if I plant trees in Here today we're going to kill all that So I'm going to save probably 50 trees
And then just peel them into the ground I'll show you what healing is later and Then But we'll get the dry days we'll Excavate this we'll clean up some more Stuff and then I'll come back in here And plant here and here and all this mud That's up on the hill here there's going To be grass seed on that this week and Then that's going to help from the Erosion and keep the mud mess down Here I'm clearing out blackberry's brush And small trees that are getting in our Way to access the plants also they will Compete with sunlight and the Competition toward the trees and make it So that they don't Thrive as much as Soon as we plant these trees you will Need to come through in these areas and Clear this out again so that again they Get sunlight and thrive This is why we really like to flag our Small trees with wines because if we do This in the late spring or early summer When everything's green then you see Those orange flags and don't slip off Your trees so we've planted uh Well we have about 30 Cedars and 30 dugs Left so we planted just under 150 trees Today we need to save these to plant on That Hillside there after I clean up so If you need to save them for a while but Not a super long amount of time you do What's called healing it in now I
Normally do this dig a trench that's About yay deep and just throw them in They could be at an angle and bury them Here I've been a little bit lazy I dug a Tiny trench right here and I laid the Trees out flat the remaining trees put The roots down here and I had thrown Some soft dirt up here recently with my Excavator so just to cover the roots I'm Just going to Slough this back down That cover the roots if we cover you Don't want to bury the whole tree but if You cover some of the greenage it's That's fine for right now because you're Only doing this for a little while like I said I plan to take pull these back Out in a week And plant these So now this is known as healing them in And I'll just press this down uh if it Was a drier day I'd get a bucket of Water and pour it over the top here if You know if it was going to be hotter And I was going to leave them here Longer I would probably try to use a Shady spot just so they don't want to Start growing here or drying out so this Is in direct sunlight so again if I was Going to do this longer this would not Be ideal I'd actually find a spot that's A little bit shaded to heal these in and When I'm ready to plant I can come back In here and just pull these out it'll Still be moist and they'll be ready to
Go So the question has been presented to me How fast are these snug Furs grow and it Takes them a while to get established When they're little tiny guys like this They might grow a foot this year foot And you know that'd be a good Brewing Year and then they get established They'll grow a little bit more but once They get above the blackberries and They're winning they grow a lot and I'm Going to show you how much they grow There so obviously this is the height of This tree And it grew from here last year so it Grew about four feet and you're saying How do I know that uh the Doug Firs put Out a bud at the end with several Lateral buds on the side and then that Terminal Bud goes straight up and then There's a whirl of Francis so you see This this is where at this time a year Ago this is where this tree was and then It goes here now this is a very fast Growing tree so it did four feet and Four feet so the last two years it's Grown eight feet and then if you come Back in here the previous year was in Here so it wasn't quite as fast I have Trees on my property they're well over 100 feet tall and I could look at them And usually they're doing about three Feet a year they established trees three
To four feet a year that they keep Growing so six inches to a foot the First year You know eight inches to a foot and a Half the second year and then they take Off so on this tree you can look at this One so here's the top here didn't grow Quite as fast but here's the world so This is where it was a year ago where The flag is and then this is where it Was two years ago at this time and then So you can see that was three feet four Feet and actually right here Is where the other world was so that was About two feet so in the last three Years it went two feet three feet four Feet and I don't expect it to grow more Than four feet a year last year it grew A lot a lot of these trees grew a lot Because we had an extended spring and The rains kept coming for a little bit Longer and so they grew a little bit Longer before they went dormant You're right So a recap we planted about 150 trees Today I really wanted to get them in the Ground today and not wait sometimes You're like I'll get it next year or the Year after that and uh if you put it off You lose it so my thought is uh if I Have 200 trees to put in the ground this Year that I could put in the ground and I don't I'm losing 200 years worth of Growth one year for uh
200 different trees and you can see on Those trees that I put on there that are Established they're putting three or Four feet out a year so if if you're Doing 400 trees At three feet a year If I wait I'm gonna be losing 1200 foot Of tree growth uh for every year that I Wait so it you know you want to get them In the ground as soon as you can and Start letting them do what they're Supposed to do Well you don't plant trees for several Hours in the rain and on the hillside in The mud and not get all muddy yourself So we're gonna try to get some of this Off here Close them off the pants It's times like this that I'm uh happy I Married a farmer's daughter I could see Somewhat understanding of me making a Mess I try to respect your wishes and Keep the mess outside as much as Possible I will undress outside before I Get home and somehow I'll bring a little Bit of dirt mud in and thankfully I have A Hot Mama's fairly understanding of That and but I'll try to keep as clean As I can so all those off when I can Here time to go home clean up sit in Front of the fire
