Tree farmer experiments with eco-friendly harvest

Mark Nussbaum is a third-generation farmer who's going against the grain.

The soil under his fingernails comes from the same land near Jackson that his grandfather, Leo Nussbaum, bought as a cattle and crop farm in 1935.

Mark's father, Rudy Nussbaum, made the decision to shift the farm's primary yield from beef and soybeans to timber. They harvest oak, hickory, cherry and walnut trees from the 600-acre woodland.

Now Mark Nussbaum has decided to leave his own legacy on the farm by incorporating a method of forest management that is much studied but seldom applied.

The method Nussbaum has implemented is termed by conservationists and foresters as timber stand improvement.

"It's cutting trees according to quality instead of just size," Mark Nussbaum explained.

The Nussbaums used to follow the forest thinning method that is still the mainstay of the nation's timber industry. Forest thinning is done by selecting trees according to size, then removing the larger and presumably older trees to make way for smaller, younger trees. This thins the canopy of leaves, allowing more sunlight to filter down to smaller trees and eliminates root competition for water and soil-based nutrients.

The problem with this method, says biologist Peter Becker, is that it is based on a false presumption. Becker works for the Eastern Ozarks Forestry Council, and he said when one actually examines the age rings, smaller trees are often just as old or even older than some of the larger ones that are cut down. That happens because each tree has a different genetic makeup.

Ultimately, that means after years of thinning out the large trees, stands can be left with an infestation of old, small and generally worthless trees that probably aren't going to grow at all. At that point, the forester who can squeeze little return out of the brush-covered land tends to clean the slate by clear-cutting. This makes the land barren for wildlife, which had relied on the woods for shelter and food.

In contrast, timber stand improvement preaches closer examination of the trees before thinning occurs. This entails assessment of the form, condition and size of different trees, which are then placed in three categories.

The first is the final crop. These are the desirable and lucrative species like hickory, oak, cherry and walnut, all of which should have tall, straight and clear trunks free of disease and decay.

The second group includes those trees that will be removed in a future thinning, but must be kept so that the land produces its maximum yield of wood.

The last group has the culling trees that will go in the first thinning. These include elm, sycamore and undeveloped maple that are decaying or deformed. These can be cut as firewood, or if dead, left to decompose and put nutrients back into the soil.

Mark Nussbaum said this method not only makes business sense by promoting healthy growth and consistent cycles of timber, but it's also ecologically responsible, maintaining the forest as a habitat for wildlife.

"It's a no-brainer," Nussbaum said.

If it's such a no-brainer, then why aren't more foresters doing it?

Becker said that the reason timber stand improvement is so slow in catching on is that tree selection takes highly-skilled woodsmen, who are simply hard to find. The average forester would be better served finding contractors to do the selection and evaluation of the stand, and that is an added expense. Educating foresters of the method's existence is another problem.

While the Missouri Department of Conservation is working to solve the latter problem through outreach publications, Nussbaum has educated himself and found educated woodsmen -- brothers Dustin and Jeremy Lindgren of Jackson -- to help.

Mark Nussbaum first made a commitment to timber stand improvement in 1997, after noticing patches of his woodlands that had become overgrown brush patches producing less valuable wood. His plan was to selectively thin 80 acres each year.

He's already seen positive results. Hickory and oak are thriving on the newly-thinned land. Ecologically, he's watched the wildlife population explode, especially deer and turkeys. But as for overall success, Mark Nussbaum's children may have to be the judges.

A typical crop farmer can plant soy beans and expect to survey his yields after 190 days. A tree farmer must wait 60 to 80 years to see the yield of a patch of seedlings. But that's why Mark Nussbaum is doing this. He wants the farm to endure and stay successfully in the family.

"It might have been a lot easier to just let it go," Mark Nussbaum said of the farm. "But like any large asset, I couldn't just hold on to it. I had to get something out of it. Now my family will be able to enjoy it."

trehagen@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137