How to age a clear cut?

[JerryKern]

How do you know the age of a clear cut? I can’t really find pictures or any info on how to age a clear cut properly and tips will help

[Stein]

Look it up on one of the mapping software packages, most tell you the year it was cut.

[Grousehunter19]

You should be able to use the historical imagery feature on google earth to see what year it was cut. And if the clear cut does not show up, it was most likely cut in the past year or two.

[elkboy]

In the field, you can count branch "whorls" or clusters of branches on Douglas-fir, Sitka spruce, any of the pines, and a number of other conifers (but not western hemlock or western redcedar, among others). That will often get you within a year or two, depending on the age of the seedling stock planted in that harvest unit. If there is Douglas-fir, and there usually is, that is a good species to use for this approach. On poor sites, the branch whorls may be 12" or less apart, while on good sites, there may be 30" or more between whorls. That is the amount of vertical growth in a given year.

Hope that helps!

[okie john]

How do you know the age of a clear cut? I can’t really find pictures or any info on how to age a clear cut properly and tips will help

I found a couple that had just been thinned then counted the rings on the stumps. The trees they cut were about the same height as the ones that were left, so I can't age one exactly but I have a decent idea.

These trees look to be 7-8 years old. They had been cut within a week of taking these pictures. Similar trees near them were 15-20' tall.


Okie John

[highside74]

Open Google earth then turn on history imagery. You can then cycle through years of images of the area and see when that cut was done.