MARKING GUIDE STANDARDS: • Do not mark below 60 ft2 /ac and no more than 40% of the initial BA, regardless of risk or quality. • GENERALLY RETAIN: Black cherry, hemlock, spruce, aspen, white pine, red pine, elm, oak and cedar, unless removal is needed for logging operability. • GENERALLY FAVOR ALL SPECIES OTHER THAN MAPLE AND IRONWOOD: Favor less common species, but not at the expense of the best quality trees - This is usually addressed in Step #3 below, where if most conditions are relatively equal, continue to improve the relative spacing by marking ironwood, red and sugar maple to meet the desired BA. MARK BY ORDER OF REMOVAL 1. HIGH RISK: Mark diseased/structurally damaged trees of any size class (die within next 15 years) that still contain merchantable products, unless needed for other resource values (cavity trees). Consider most mature aspen, black ash, red maple >15” DBH, fir and spruce as high risk. However, avoid marking large aspen (>16” DBH), especially if a large drop zone is needed to fell the tree. This effort will contribute to the 2-3 wildlife tree objectives. 2. QUALITY DEVELOPMENT: Identify the best crop trees in the stand and provide a release by marking two main crown competing trees of lesser quality. Generally allow competition among closely spaced crop trees to preserve as much quality as possible, while adhering to the desired BA. Oak should be released on 3 sides to an average BA of 60 ft2 .3. DENSITY/MATURITY/SPACING: If BA is still above the target, continue to improve stand quality and growing space by marking fair and marginal quality trees (mostly 6-10” DBH class). First identify trees that are: 3a – Unacceptable Growing Stock: Trees of any size that are likely to survive for decades but have structural/growth/disease issues; and/or exhibit signs of marginal improvement or significant volume loss; and/or trees that exhibit signs of suppression and are less likely to develop sawlog potential. If the BA is still above the target after addressing this step, then look at: 3b – Acceptable Growing Stock: Trees that have sawlog potential but possess slight quality issues specific to form, structure, soundness. Examples are sweep, low branching, old branch stubs or epicormic sprouting. This category can also include hardwood trees that are arriving at biological maturity and includes: black cherry >15” DBH; sugar maple and yellow birch >19” DBH; white ash and basswood >21” DBH. (Note: This step can come first in Step #3 if these large sawtimber sized trees form closely spaced groups.) If BA is still above the target, continue marking additional trees to improve the relative spacing and achieve the desired BA. 4. REGENERATION GAPS: Install approximately one 66’ x 66’ gap every three acres. Utilize the removal of large sawtimber trees and/or groups of poor-quality trees. It is recommended to do this first and then mark remainder of the stand to 70-90 ft2 /ac to achieve the desired residual BA.
