Rayonier Woods Tours
We spent the bulk of the morning on Friday in the plantation forests of the Rayonier Corporation. This part of the tour exposed teachers to industrial forest management and presentations on; Woodland management utilizing geographic information systems (GIS) and scientific research. We were fortunate to also witness a harvesting operation to see management decisions applied. For lunch we stopped in Crandall Pasture.
On Rayonier woodlands, teachers learned about Rayonier's industrial management practices and were also introduced to forestland research. Rayonier manages 670,000 acres in Florida and is actively increasing the productivity of their forests while still maintaining some other goals.
Teachers were greeted by Debi Barrett and her staff from Rayonier. Forester
John Spink talked about the process of Rayonier's forest management. He
discussed how even though Rayonier was a business whose primary goal was to
maximize cash flow, there were many considerations; economic, environmental
(endangered species, restrictions), and social, taken in the interest of
sustainable forestry.
One key consideration addresses the question, "How to meet wants and
need for forest products while protecting forest eco-system?" To do this
foresters must have accurate tools to accomplish the following tasks;
- Land classification and mapping
- Forest inventory
- Stand and yield predictions
- Harvest scheduling
- Plan monitoring
This is accomplished by the application of technology in the use of geographic information systems (GIS). John talked more about GIS and how it contributed to Rayonier's forest management. Growth and yield modeling provides data to make harvesting decisions.
Debi Barrett gave teachers a presentation about wetlands preservation.
After learning about how Rayonier's management decisions are made, we were able
to witness the
application of management plans by seeing a harvesting demonstration in action.
Rayonier had a tree length harvesting system consisting of a feller-buncher,
skidder, loader, gate delimber in operation. Teachers saw how a slash pine stand
was harvested and learned how it would eventually be replanted at about 750 trees per
acre after appropriate
site preparation. Since the site that we saw was harvested in June, it won't
be replanted until the following year to allow the slash and site time to dry out,
for fertilization and weed control, and the establishment of good seed bed.
Across the road were several examples of previously harvested stands showing significant regrowth after being replanted 2 years ago. The seedlings had already reached a height of at least three feet tall.
From here the tour moved to another site on Rayonier's plantation where scientific research was being conducted to optimize tree production - growing slash pine faster and more resistant to health problems (esp. fusiform rust). Teachers learned from Jeff Wright, Manager of Forest Research for Rayonier about how urbanization is the number one reason for loss of forest cover. Rayonier's mission is to sustainably produce the maximize financial yield for each timber stand within existing environmental considerations.
He then turned the podium over to Nathan, a biometrician or specialist in growth yield and predicting what the forest will grow, who explained about the growth study investigating the growth potential between management density and initial planning density. Two factors are under being considered; initial planting density and management intensity (whether they fertilize, thin, etc.) We saw some evidence from the study from where we were standing. Behind us the study trees were planted less densely and were managed more intensively. Before us were trees planted at a higher density and managed less intensely.
Lunch in Crandall Pasture
Crandall Pasture is on the south bank of the St Mary's River, which separates
Florida and Georgia, North of Yulee. It is home to some magnificent Live Oak
trees and made a nice backdrop for Friday's lunch catered by Chef Jeff and
sponsored by Rayonier.
In addition to a fine meal, teachers received goodie bags from Rayonier
filled with examples of forest products. Teachers also learned about the process
of timber cruising that foresters do to take forest inventory as well as forest
inventory equipment from forester John Spink who showed teachers some of the
tools used to collect forest inventory data like tree density, height (clinometer),
girth (diameter at breast height (DBH) tape), age (increment borer), compass,
map, snake chaps, prism.
Teachers got to try their hands at prism cruising, using a prism to figure out which trees are within a plot to sample. Foresters use statistical sampling when doing forest inventory instead of trying to count every tree. They can either sample fixed area plots (counting every tree within the radius of a chain length) or variable radius plots such as those dictated by prism sampling.
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