Muskrats Build Lodges Too..

It is often assumed that only the beaver builds lodges. But this is not the case. I took this picture the other day of  a beautiful looking little muskrat lodge.  Roughly three feet tall and woven together and mixed with mud this mound is made from reeds, cattails and grasses taken from the surrounding  area. The inner part of it is hollowed out, with an entrance only accessible underwater. During the cold winter months it will become the home for roughly a family of five or more. Unlike beavers muskrats do not store an underwater food cache to get them through the winter. Instead they glean their food - various grasses and crustaceans - swimming along little canal like trails,  underneath the ice. These trails were created when ice was not present. On warmer winter days, if they can find a hole,  they will even come up above the ice and sun themselves and eat on little mounds of reeds and grasses adjacent to their lodge. These little feeding platforms are known as " pushups". Muskrats play an integral part in wetland ecology. Their foraging activity creates disturbances that allow for mature grasses and sedges to be replaced with younger growth sometimes of a different species than was present before. In the picture above you can see, both in the foreground and the background the open areas that were created by their activity. They are like little "roto- tillers " helping to revitalize the wetlands they live in. Usually, they recolonize old beaver lodges or burrows. However, sometimes when beavers are active in the same area they will just move into the same lodge where the beavers are present and peacefully coexist, even raising a family at the same time as the beavers. Pretty much just free loading off the hard work of the beavers! David Attenborough in his great documentary Life Of Mammals  does a great job of showing this all in action. However when beavers are not present and no defined banks ( with old burrows) surround the wetland ,the muskrats will busy themselves and put in the sweat equity to build one of their own lodges. Compared to a beaver lodge they're the equivalent of an old tar paper shack - but hey they work!

Wine For Wildlife

Its that time of the year when nature's bounty begins to show. With fall fast approaching evidence can be seen everywhere. From wild apple trees with their tart fruit ( many which are heirloom species  and no longer grown commercially) to wild grapes.
I took this picture of wild grapes while marking a woodlot recently. Wild grapes are a funny plant. Like the fruit they produce they are bittersweet to me. At times they can be a real nuisance - growing high into the crown of a nice hardwood crop tree - and ultimately snuffing the life out of it. These mature grape plants grew up with the tree since its days as a sapling. The tree's life consisted of being a natural trellis if you will. Other times I see the plant when they are young and existing in not so destructive of a manner, and its then that I realize how important they to wildlife.
Grapes produce fruit from late August  to October. Numerous songbirds along with the occasional mammal such as foxes rely heavily on grapes for sustenance. Once ripe, their fruit usually goes quickly. Although found throughout New England its rare for wild grapes to be found outside of the more southern parts of New England states. Rarely is it found, if ever, in the northern confines of New Hampshire, Vermont or Maine. Within those states its range is the southern portions - mainly river bottom areas. As mentioned earlier, their fruit is usually eaten before snow hits the ground. However occasionally a pocket will hang on longer than usual. However, once the bitter cold hits and wildlife is ravenous, they will be discovered and eaten.
I distinctly remember hunting  ruffed grouse, one late December, in the Finger Lakes region of New York. It was a bitterly cold day. I flushed and shot a grouse as it exited this tangle of vines. Its flight pattern was not your normal  quick - up and away. Instead it was rather sluggish and meandering. Upon opening its crop, I  discovered it crammed with wild grapes. This late in the season they were very fermented. This grouse was enjoying the buzz and was all set to roost the night away in an inebriated state, until I came along. This is why I refer to wild grapes as  wine for wildlife.  

Strong As An Oak

After a long period of depressed prices - the markets have come back strong and appear to be holding.
We have one client that we did a timber harvest for back in 2011. At that time we conducted strictly an improvement harvest. The woodlot is an Oak/Pine/Hemlock forest type. We took out most of the pulp grade hardwood, 70% of the hemlock and 35% of the Pine saw timber. Outside of the red maple, we left 95% of the hardwood  saw timber trees standing. Despite an average diameter of 20" - 22" in the Oaks,  it didn't make much sense to conduct a harvest when the prices delivered to the mills were only averaging $ 350.00  p/mbf.  To do so would have been a financially irresponsible act against our client - which is not what we are about. So we waited. And all parties are glad we did. This summer we marked a sale where we focused only on the Oaks in the 20" DBH + range. The total volume came to just under 100,000 mbf. of hardwood saw timber, of which the bulk was Red & White Oak. We then put the volume out for competitive bid. When the bids came in,  the winner paid over $46,000.  Two years earlier , for the same volume, we would have been lucky to have gotten $ 12,000.  Patience paid off with a much higher return for our client .
If you've been waiting to sell your timber - wait no longer. The high prices are not just specific to Oak saw timber - they can be found in all products and species. How long will they last ? That remains to be seen. All we know is that now is as good a time as any to harvest your timber. So give us a call - "The Timber Sale Specialists" here at Stillwater Forestry LLC will put their expertise to work for you.

The Sun Will Soon Shine

Recently, in the forest products industry there has been a prevailing atmosphere of doom and gloom. Being a commodity based business, ups and downs are a given. However it seems that in the the last five years, we have been  in a downward cycle that doesn't show many signs of reaching bottom. High fuel costs, poor markets for both logs and pulp etc...
Does this mean that the end of the industry is at hand. Does this mean that suddenly your timber is or will become worthless? Not hardly! We are going through  a period of change. This means that the old paradigm is falling apart and a new one is replacing it. Change is inevitable - there is no use fighting it. The key is to see the opportunity throughout the dust kicked up by the chaos.
I would argue that we are on the verge of some of the biggest opportunities ever to be presented to those who own timberland. If you are committed to holding on to your asset for the long term - you will reap great rewards in the not too distant future. The demand for wood is poised to grow. The largest areas of population growth in the world are in Asia. Outside of Indonesia this is a region with very little forestland relative to the overall size of the land base and its population. This means only one thing - as their populations grow so will the demand for lumber,  paper and any other products that are derived  from wood. Where will the wood come from? Some will undoubtedly come from Russia -however this region has huge hurdles to overcome before it ever becomes a steady producer of wood products. South America  is and will continue to be a huge producer. However, the largest producer of all will be North America. Nowhere else in the world do you have such vast of forestland, coupled with the modern infrastructure in place to efficiently get the harvested material to market.  Increasingly  business people are taking note of this and investing accordingly.
I was reading a good article today in the Daily Globe. It was talking about an  investor who just bought an old obsolete pulp and paper mill in Thurso Quebec and is in the process of reconfiguring this mill to begin producing dissolving pulp for export to Asia. This mill used to produce paper used in photographs -however the digital camera destroyed this market and the parent company Fraser closed it in 2007. A substantial volume of pulp for this mill came from private landowners in the northern and western Adirondack Mtns of New York. When this mill closed that clearly had a negative effect on those landowners who had pulp to harvest. One less market translated into that much less income for those with wood to sell. However for those landowners, in this region, who stayed the course and held on to their timberland - the rewards are just around the corner.  Although this is just one illustration  hopefully the point has been made. When the doom and gloom seems greatest we can say with confidence that the sun will soon shine.

Good Marketing

For most landowners, here in New England, they may only see two timber harvests during their entire time of ownership. In light of this it is crucial that when the time comes to  sell your timber -you receive the highest  possible value for it. As a  responsible landowner you have diligently cared for and held onto the land, payed taxes etc.. and the timber sale is your chance to see a financial reward for doing everything right.
Hiring a consulting forester to represent you in the process is a first step in making sure the process goes well. However it is not the only step.
Next you need to determine if the forester has a good grasp of the markets. Oftentimes consulting foresters neglect the marketing aspect of the process choosing instead to place most of their focus on the silvicultural implementation. They may think as long as the harvest is done correctly, looks neat and all the forestry goals are met and their client was paid in a timely manner, then it was success. However, what if by understanding the markets better the forester could have generated an extra  $ 5000.00 for their client. Suddenly we see how important, good marketing , really is. Ignoring it comes at the expense of the landowner client's bottom line.     
To determine whether or not the forester understands the importance of this , you need to be willing to ask some questions of him or her.
 Ask them , before the start of the harvest, what you can expect for value, by individual species. How did they determine this figure? If their answer is something to the effect " the logger we are going to hire has told me this is what he is willing to pay" or " the mill we usually sell to, told us this all its worth" your forester is probably not that savvy at marketing your harvesting timber. In short he/she  has neglected the good -marketing part of the timber harvesting equation.
Another area where good -marketing is neglected is on those timber sales where a large variety of species and products are present. Here in  the central and southern portions of  NH and VT this can be a problem.
The focus of the savvy marketing only takes place on the high grade hardwood sawlogs and veneer or high grade pine sawlogs while the hardwood pallet, hemlock logs,spruce logs and pulp are ignored. This shouldn't be. In many instances these ignored products and species can generate as much  income as two high quality loads of hardwood veneer - if these ignored species and products are marketed well.
Hopefully this information is beneficial and will enable you to make informed decisions about your forested asset..

Here at Stillwater Forestry LLC. we understand the importance of good marketing. In almost all instances we market the wood direct to the various markets. When we combine the  volumes from all of our different client's harvests that may be going at any one time the volume is significant. At times this large volume can be used to generate higher prices for our clients harvested timber. We also have contracts with 5 different pulp mills in New York and Maine. This enables us to avoid having to use brokers and in turn we are able to pass the savings on to our clients. If you have land in NH or VT and are in need of assistance please contact us. We are found on the web at www.stillwaterforestry.com