I've got this one section of woods that I haven't done too much with. Its a past-mature white pine forest yielding to maple, ash (dying) and hickory. Pines are falling, canopy is opening up and its got the potential to be a nice chunk of sugar bush with a decent western exposure and a good slope for 3/16 tubing. There are lots of sugar maple saplings dispersed over this couple acres, but they're thicker than ideal and really need to be thinned out, however, that thinning process is a job that won't get done for a few years.
So I got to thinking...I'm going to run the lines though my regular trees this weekend and am tempted to tap a certain percentage of the trees on this new section. Maybe 30%? But, I'm talking about saplings maybe 2"-3"DBH. Normally I would never even consider it but I'm going to be thinning out probably half the saplings on this chuck anyway.
Will this kill the trees? If it does its not the end of the world as they're going to be culled anyway. And what if they live? Is it worth using these trees as an experiment for that alone? If I understand it correctly, Dr. Tim whacks the crown out of saplings every 5 years or so and they seem to recover quite well and come back for more. If so, what's the harm in tapping these little guys? If they die, I don't really mind as they're probably going to be pruned at the stump anyway.
Will I ever be able to look a respectful producer in the eye again?