Vineyard Commercial Thinning

This stand of Douglas-firs was roughly 30 years old and had been machine-planted in extremely tight rows with limited spacing.  Trees were suppressing each other, resulting in tree mortality and restricted tree growth.  

 

We recommended taking out every third row to open up the stand and to use as designated skid trails.  By doing this it left two rows of trees between each skid trail so that we were able to reach from the skid trails and thin to the desired spacing.  All trees were limbed and manufactured inside of the stand to leave a slash mat across the ground, preventing ground compaction and acting as fertilizer as they decayed.  

 

As a result, the trees are now free to grow again and all dead and defected trees were removed from the stand.