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Having a woodlot map makes planning silvicultural treatments easier and gives you a better idea of what you have in your woodlot. Woodlot mapping is often done by a registered professional forester when developing a woodlot management plan, though it can be created on its own. A woodlot map shows where your boundary lines are and generally displays the different stands existing on your woodlot. Aerial photos can be useful to include with woodlot maps.

Weeding refers to the trimming or removal of small, herbaceous plants in a stand, as well as non-crop tree species, which are competing with desirable tree species. Plants like raspberry bushes can out-compete seedlings and limit their access to nutrients, sunlight, and other necessary factors for growth.

Silvicultural contractors provide a variety of woodlot management services, not just harvesting. These can include selection harvesting, thinning, road building, wildlife management, management planning, boundary line work, and many others.

Precommercial thinning (PCT) is done in overstocked stands of younger trees to free up space and resources for selected trees and improve overall stand quality. PCT treatments are done in both natural stands and plantations. The goal is to remove less desirable trees (like non-crop species, or damaged and diseased trees) as well as create appropriate spacing in the stand for healthy, higher quality trees to grow. PCT work is generally done manually with clearing or thinning saws.

In stands where natural regeneration is lacking, it is often advantageous to plant seedlings. This can be done after both even-aged management treatments (like clearcutting) and uneven-aged management treatments (like selective cutting). Desirable species are planted at specified intervals to fill in the gaps in forest vegetation and provide a continuous forest cover. Both softwood and hardwood species can be planted.

Characterized by removing the forest cover from an area where a land use change is desired by the owner, such as conversion to agricultural, commercial, or residential land. This can include removal of all forest vegetation, stumps, debris, and sometimes top soil.

Having a woodlot management plan is an important tool for effective forest management and is a requirement for most forest certification schemes. Management plans include: the goals and objectives of the landowner, a detailed description and inventory of the woodlot (including a map), and a plan for carrying out silvicultural treatments to accomplish the landowner’s goals. The plan should be reviewed and updated every 5 to 10 years to remain relevant and to stay in line with the landowner’s wishes and needs. While it is very useful to have a registered professional forester create the management plan, it is important that the landowner be involved in the process as well to ensure that it conforms to their own unique needs and values.

Herbicides are a type of pesticide that are sometimes used in the forest industry to control, discourage or kill unwanted or competing plant species in certain kinds of stands and treatments. Forest contractors are hired to apply these chemicals. In many areas, approval is required by the provincial Activities Designation Regulations under the Environment Act before any pesticides (and thus herbicides) can be applied.

In forest stands primarily made up of hardwood species, many owners/operators manage for harvesting firewood commercially or for private use.

Forest Certification is a tool that was developed to promote sustainable and ecologically responsible forest management, and has gained considerable popularity over the past several decades. Though certification schemes differ, most require adhering to a set of forest management principles, having a detailed management plan, submitting regular updates to the certifying body, and agreeing to periodic site audits by a third party. The most common schemes used in Canada, and Nova Scotia in particular, are governed by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the Canadian Standards Association (CSA), and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI). For small private woodlots in the province, the relevant certification schemes are FSC SLIMF and CSA Z804, and there exist several certifying bodies through which a woodlot owner could certify his/her woodland.

A commercial harvest is completed with the goal of harvesting and selling the final timber product (saw logs, etc.). It is the final stage in commercial forest management, taking place several years after precommercial thinning and commercial thinning treatments.

This treatment is used to promote the growth of desirable crop trees. The trees around selected crop trees are thinned out to allow the more desirable trees more space and nutrients, which in turn can increase the health and future value of the stand.

Ideal for middle-aged stands, commercial thinning removes some of the more mature trees to allow room for others to grow, and to open up the canopy for regeneration. The trees removed are often those that are: damaged or diseased; growing too close to desirable trees; or less desirable species.

Chipping is a method of removing brush and branches from a stand after some types of treatment. Branches and small trees are fed into a chipper, which shreds them into small chips. These chips can be left in the woodlot as nutrients or removed and used for other purposes like home heating or livestock bedding.

Knowing where your boundaries are is an important step in woodlot management. Contractors will often mark woodlot boundaries by using flagging tape or painting blazes on trees along the boundary lines and removing brush from the lines to promote line visibility.