Forest inspection paths for Forest access
Having a good timber crop at the end of a forestry cycle is dependent on many different factors. Obviously, one of the more important factors is the land that the trees are planted into and the availability of water, nutrients, and sunshine. Sometimes, especially in Irish forestry, some of these factors are missing, especially the sunshine, so we have to try and compensate for this by trying to get all the other processes achieved to the highest standards. This starts out at the planning process and continues all the way through until the trees are finally harvested.
One of the most important factors in producing good quality timber is to reduce the overall amount of trees in the forest as a forest ages. When a commercial forest is planted first, the trees are planted very close to each other with the stems being about two meters apart from each other. As such trees grow in height, and they also can grow in width and eventually the trees will begin to touch each other, at which stage the bottoms of the trees will be smothered by each other. This means that the only direction and that the trees can grow is upwards. This upward growth will produce a long thin stem as the trees are trying to compete for the available sunlight.
The trees need to be thinned at this stage to allow the remaining trees a chance to broaden their trunks. There are two or three thinning stages during the life of a tree but it is this initial thinning stage that is very important. The site inspector needs to be able to get into the heart of the Forest in order to ascertain whether the trees are at the stage where they can be thinned. If the thinning is done too early it is not good for the trees. Forest inspection paths must be put throughout the forest to facilitate Forest access.
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