Arbuckle Mountain Area Chapter
 Tree Canopy Cover

Updated Items below... 6-26-07 new page

One of the first questions asked when considering the thinning of a densely forested area is "How many do I cut?"  It can be somewhat subjective as everyone has an idea of what looks good to them.  Looks are important, but unless the lands can be managed more easily, the trees will grow back, much quicker and thicker than liked if not done within a plan and we'd like to benefit quail in the process.

The tree resprouts or stumps can be sprayed with herbicides to hamper regrowth, but can be costly in terms of time and chemical expense.  Fire has been a natural tree controller, and along with the other benefits of prescribed burning, fire can control the forest understory.  So one of our goals would be to increase the burnable material in the forested area.  Ask a burner how easy wet leaves are to burn and in the process you will find that dried grasses burn much more readily and is quicker.  The trick is getting the grasses to grow in a forest and is done be letting in the sunlight.  How much sunlight is the key and goes back to how it should "look".

Canopy cover is a term used to help define the "look" and describes the amount of sunlight hitting the ground in terms of shade made by the trees at noon.  If it's densely shaded at noon, you have 100% canopy cover.  If about 50% of the area is shaded and 50% sunlit, you have a 50% canopy cover, 30% shaded - 30% canopy cover.  Tall Timbers Research Station in Florida suggests a 30-50% canopy cover for optimal quail habitat.  One benefit of the oak forests common to our area is that the resprouts for 2-3 years provided excellent quail bugging and loafing areas and can be controlled by prescribed burns.  Another benefit is that the nutrient and water is more available for the mature oak trees which should lead to better acorn crops for your wildlife, whether deer, turkey or quail.

A graphic was found to illustrate the dominant to suppressed types of trees in a forest and would be typical to some of the photos below.  The bottom of the illustration shows how certain trees could be removed allowing the sunlight to hit the ground to allow grassed in the seed bank to sprout. 

Videos Tree Thinning Forests After Thinning 1 (video) After 2 years of drought and 1 wet year
After Thinning 2 (video) After 2 years of drought and 1 wet year
After Thinning 3 (video) After 2 years of drought and 1 wet year
Canopy Cover Photos  - the lower photos illustrate a staged approach to thinning which appeals to those fearful of cutting too many trees.  The real benefit of stepping the thinning by doing say 25% reduction for several years is that the brush and logs can either be burned, harvested or moved for brush piles.  Piling up the brush for burning can be done, but runs the chance of creating varmint houses which are nest predators.  The slash must be correctly placed, so you can get your equipment in and out of the area and to allow ingress and egress during prescribed burns....
 
Dense Forest Before Example (below) Dense Forest Before Example (below)
Thinned Forest Maybe 70% Canopy Cover (below)
....more to thin		 Thinned Forest Maybe 40% Canopy Cover at clearing (below)
....more to thin in the distance
Thinned Forest Maybe 70% Canopy Cover (below)
....more to thin		 Thinned Forest Maybe 70% Canopy Cover at clearing (below)
....more to thin