Figure 1. A microlandscape, or close up view (left), as compared to a macrolandscape, or broad view (right).
People own forestland for a variety of reasons. Some think of their land primarily in terms of timber production or investment potential. Others value the land primarily for its recreational or aesthetic value. Frequently, landowners seek a combination of benefits, using the land for wildlife habitat and recreation as well as a source of income from timber production. At the same time, most owners want to be good stewards of the land they own - that is, they want to protect and enhance their forest resources.
Good forest stewardship can be achieved through careful forest planning and management. Some landowners may not realize that most forestry activities are compatible with maintaining the aesthetic quality and recreational value of their land. In fact, properly planned forestry activities can enhance visual appearance, provide improved recreational opportunities, and sustain and often increase wildlife populations.
Managing forestland to achieve multiple objectives requires careful planning and an understanding of the methods available. Often the assistance of forestry professionals is needed to achieve the best results. As a starting point, this publication explains some common techniques that can be used to enhance the natural beauty and diversity of forestland. These techniques will help you set goals for your forestland, identify resources, and develop a management plan based on scale and diversity. In addition, you will learn several different ways that you can manage for diversity including using open spaces, managing forest edge, using prescribed burning, caring for roads and trails, and conducting a final harvest to regenerate your forest.
Before you begin improving forestland for recreation or appearance, you should specify objectives and formulate a plan to achieve them. Remember, however, a management plan is valuable only when it matches the needs and resources of the landowner or forest manager. Goals should be clear, direct, and attainable. For example, one goal might be to maintain a forested appearance around your home or along access roads. Another goal might be to manage timber stands for scenic beauty, recreational trails, and reasonable profits. Once goals are defined, you should review your options to see if they are compatible with other land uses. Include several options during the planning phase to allow for changing markets and future resources.
The first step in stewardship planning is to develop a complete resource inventory of your property. One of the best ways to take inventory is through the use of aerial photographs, which provide birds-eye views of the land uses and vegetative cover within your boundaries and on adjacent land. Resource professionals can even use aerial photos to measure bodies of water, seasonal changes in vegetation, timber stands, fields, clearings, and boundaries.
Your tax department, local Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), or Consolidated Farm Services Agency (CFSA) offices should have aerial photographs of your land on file. Once you obtain an aerial shot of your land, you can use a sketch or photocopy to develop it into a working map that can be taken into the woods for closer survey.
Before heading into the field, know which resources you plan to catalog on your map. The features you select will likely guide future activities on your land. A useful resource map might include clearings; property boundaries; prominent land and water features such as ponds, creeks, ridges, or swamps; and current or past land uses. It might also include roads, trails, and developed areas such as houses or recreation sites; soil types or classes; unique and sensitive areas such as waterfalls or vistas; and the location of special projects such as wildlife improvement areas, firewood reserves, or wildflower meadows.
Fitting all of this information onto a single map can be difficult. Choose a workable map scale, and be selective when compiling the map. Put the most important features in plain view. To avoid clutter, you may choose to make several copies for separate resource maps, or create separate, clear acetate overlays and use transparent markers to highlight features. Overlays are especially useful, as they put the total resource puzzle together and simplify your management decisions. Regardless of your approach, always display and record resources with enough detail to make sound decisions later.
Note that not all resource information is suitable for map display. Timber and other high-value resources usually require detailed inventories. Seek professional assistance when establishing tax value, timber basis, and boundary lines. Likewise, registered foresters and consultants can provide valuable help when marketing timber and establishing a basis or timber value.
Integrating forest management for scenic beauty and diversity can be viewed as landscaping on a grand scale. Just as you might consider the size, color, arrangement, texture, and form of plants in your home or business landscape, so should you consider these factors when surveying forestland.
Forestland can be viewed at two levels or scales at the same time - as a number of small microlandscapes or as one of a few macrolandscapes (Figure 1).
Figure 1. A microlandscape, or close up view (left), as compared to a macrolandscape,
or broad view (right).
Microlandscapes are distinct areas within a forest that are usually visible from a single vantage point. For example, a dense pine stand, a shady oak grove, or the view of a hillside are all considered microlandscapes. Microlandscapes break up the uniformity of the forest. Slight differences in light, tree density, and species composition characterize the forest and affect the way the land is viewed and appreciated.
Macrolandscapes, on the other hand, refer to primary landforms and their scale, texture, contour, shape, and space. Macrolandscapes are fixed by natural formations and by the vegetative patterns established by traditional land use. They are usually visible from many vantage points and thus should be managed carefully. Evaluate the effect that topography has on your management options. In mountainous forest terrain, management activities are elevated and on display for all to see. Visual and spatial impacts must be considered during the planning process before any harvesting occurs. Remember, management activities that affect or alter the visual appearance of familiar landscapes must conform to the macrolandscape.
One way to visualize the outcome of various management options is to make photocopies of the panoramic photograph. With colored pencils, you can mark proposed clearings and harvest areas on these fresh copies (Figure 2). This inexpensive process depicts potential visual impacts without physically removing any trees. Use this simple method to orient and create openings on hilltops, ridges, and adjacent roadways before making final decisions.
Figure 2. Sketch the outline of proposed harvest operations on photocopies
during the planning process.
Your aerial photograph can also be used to create a diversity map, which can help identify areas where more than three vegetational or successional types converge. These areas are associated with high wildlife activity and can be easily managed or reworked to improve diversity. The map can also help you identify and maintain corridors, important travel routes for large game animals and songbirds.
Forest openings, pastures, cropland, clearings, and young stands have important ecological and visual value. Planned spaces can enhance views, improve wildlife habitat, and increase plant variety. Large tracts of similar age or species composition can be made more diverse with the use of well-planned clearings. Openings and clearings are beneficial in that they can accentuate vistas and other natural sites, concentrate or attract wildlife, maintain historical and traditional landscapes, create and maintain habitat diversity, add to recreational opportunities, and soften existing linear spaces such as roadsides or utility rights-of-way.
Note, however, that establishing new forest clearings can be costly. Therefore, try to avoid creating new clearings by protecting existing open areas and farmland. Several maintenance methods are:
The shape or outline of a harvest area, field, or clearing has a dramatic effect on the visual appeal of a forest setting. A natural forest edge may have indentations, such as scalloped edges or irregular shape. The tree density may decrease from forest to field edge, and additional shrubs and open-field species may grow in the border area. Outlying trees sometimes grow in small clusters near the edge, softening the boundary.
While many forest edges are set by existing fences and property lines, their function and appeal can still be enhanced. One good way to manage the forest edge is to imitate the natural patterns just described (Figure 3).
Figure 3. The use of indentations along forested roads has a dramatic
visual effect
The primary goal in managing the forest edge for scenic beauty and some game species is to minimize the contrast between openings and forested stands. This results in a softer transition, with mature trees tapering to low shrubs and then to grass. For other wildlife species, try to maximize contrast by creating an edge between extremely different types of vegetation or successional stages in which areas of high edge contrast will exist where grasses and forbes meet mature trees.
Managing the forest edge should be a part of your ongoing management activities. With proper planning and layout, all thinning, harvesting, prescribed burning, and reforestation activities can be tailored to meet your needs (Figure 4). Here are some options to consider when harvesting timber.
Reforestation activities will set the direction, shape, and appearance of the ensuing stand. The reforestation process provides an opportunity to establish attractive, diverse forest edges by adjusting the mixture of species planted, the spacing, the new alignment, and the intensity of site preparation and competition control. One primary goal of reforestation activities might be to regenerate native species in their natural position in the landscape.
Existing incentive programs aimed at reducing soil erosion and protecting water quality can provide financial assistance for beneficial landscape and wildlife improvements. Seek professional assistance in planning your reforestation activities for multiple benefits. To minimize the "man-made" appearance of a managed forest, follow these guidelines:
The controlled use of fire for beneficial purposes is the least expensive tool available for forest management. Prescribed burning helps remove underbrush that can fuel a wildfire and help it spread. In the coastal plain and piedmont, the method is widely used for silvicultural and wildlife purposes. Prescribed burning offers greater visual penetration into forest stands, increased numbers of flowers and annual plants, and increased diversity and variety of fire-dependent plants (including many endangered species). It also offers improved access for recreation and disposal of unsightly logging trash.
Prescribed burning should be conducted only after a plan has been prepared by trained professionals. A prescribed burning plan lists desired outcomes, procedures, and the safe weather conditions under which the burn can take place. When aesthetics are a consideration for prescribed burning, be sure to:
Well-constructed access roads and trails are essential to the enjoyment, use, and management of forest resources. Planned roads should be designed and constructed with proper drainage systems and adequate slope and grade to minimize erosion and maintenance. Proper road placement can optimize tract coverage while minimizing harvesting and other forest management costs.
Control unwanted use of your logging and access roads with gates or highly visible cables. Placing gates across access roads reduces road maintenance costs by restricting access during wet periods. Restricted access also minimizes wildlife disruption, poaching, and littering. For best results:
A final or regeneration harvest is more than just a way to obtain timber to sell. It must produce a new, vigorous forest composed of desired species. Knowledge of the various methods of regenerating a forest can help avoid undesirable outcomes. Regeneration systems are summarized in Table 1 and illustrated in Figure 5.
Table 1. Regeneration systems and their consequences.
Figure 5. Regeneration systems.
When harvesting for aesthetics and diversity, avoid rectangular cuts whenever possible. Where rectangular grids exist, schedule modifications during future operations. Then, favor teardrop-shaped harvest areas that taper away from prominent viewpoints, roads, and paths. Next, maintain "connected islands" within harvested areas. These "fingers" can minimize the appearance of an abrupt forest edge and also maintain a protective corridor where wildlife can travel between stands. Finally, keep harvest blocks as small as economic goals, wildlife goals, and visual constraints allow.
Properly planned and executed forest management activities can improve and enhance the aesthetics and plant and wildlife diversity within the forest. Attention to detail and exposure to natural and managed forest activities will help you select the practices that will best meet your objectives and needs. In addition, professional assistance and advice can help you take advantage of your natural resources while protecting them for the use and enjoyment of future generations.
Other Woodland Owner Notes Available:
Prepared by
Mark A. Megalos, Extension Forestry Specialist
Fazio, J. R. 1987. The woodland steward. 2nd ed. Moscow, Idaho: Woodland Press. 207 pp.
Haussman, R. F., and E. W. Pruett. 1978. Permanent logging roads for better woodlot management. In: U.S. Forest Service Series SP- NE 383.1. Bromall, Pa: U.S. Forest Service. 43 pp.
Lucas, O. W. R. 1991. The design of forest landscapes. New York: Oxford University Press. 381 pp.
North Carolina Division of Forest Resources. 1989. Forestry best management practices manual. Raleigh: North Carolina Division of Forest Resources, Dept. of Environment, Health, and Natural Resources. 67 pp.
Patterson, G. 1989. Forest landscape design guidelines. Edinburgh, Great Britain: Forestry Commission. 32 pp.
Wade, D. D., and J. D. Lunsford. 1989. A guide for prescribed fire in southern forests. In: U.S. Forest Service Technical Publication R8-TP-11. Atlanta, Ga: U.S. Forest Service. 56 pp.
Published by
NORTH CAROLINA COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE
Distributed in furtherance of the Act of Congress of May 8 and June 30, 1914. Employment and program opportunities are offered to all people regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability. North Carolina State University, North Carolina A&T State University, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and local governments cooperating.
2/95-4M-DLZ-250095 (Revision)
WON-28