Want to improve the growth and quality of trees in your forest?  Do timber stand improvement (or TSI for short).  TSI simply put, is a weeding of the woods process.  It removes unwanted trees and vines that compete for sunlight with desirable trees you want to grow.  By releasing “crop” trees in your forest, you can increase their growth, prevent these trees from becoming deformed as they search for more light, and reduce unwanted competition to maintain a healthier and more vigorous forest.

The most important time to complete TSI is immediately following a harvest.  Most of the harvests we mark are improvement cuts; removing economically mature trees, defective trees, and trees with little current or future value.  Following an improvement harvest, there are still trees that need to be removed, but that have no merchantable value.  To complete the total harvest, you must return and the forest to deaden these non-merchantable, unwanted trees in a post-harvest treatment, or TSI.

Delaying the completion of TSI can result in slowed growth rates, adding time between harvests.  It can also increase the cost of doing the improvement work, because it’s more difficult to move around in the forest.  During the second growing season after most harvests, vegetative growth increases on the forest floor.  This increased vegetation makes it harder to move around, adding to the cost of labor to get the job done.

If the TSI is completed immediately following the harvest, the cost can be kept down, and the time between harvests can be shortened.  This adds additional savings to your management expenses, and increases your earnings from the forest.

The cost of having Multi-Resource Management complete TSI usually averages between $70.00 & $80.00 per acre.  Want more information on TSI or to discuss whether you would benefit by completing this management treatment?  Give us a call or send us an E-mail.