RJ Woodland Services offer a thinning service using our own equipment, which operates extremely well a thinning environment. Our 8.5 tonne excavator based harvester fells and processes the selected stems reducing damage to the remaining crop. Our forestry guarded tractor with forwarding trailer then extracts the timber to roadside.
Thinning is the removal of a percentage of the trees – poor quality, double stems and dominant trees which are suppressing the crop – in order to provide growing space for the remaining trees. This produces a better quality crop, which has a higher value come final harvest.
Generally income from thinning is modest because the harvesting costs are higher and the quality & quantity of timber is low. Nevertheless, it provides an income and will increase the value of the final crop.
RJ Woodland Services also specialise in Continuous Cover Forestry. CCF is a style of management, which by selectively thinning the forest allows seeds from the remaining trees to germinate and grow. The forest develops into a mixed age, mixed species stand, which will give a stronger resilience to pests, diseases, climate change and windblow.
The forest is thinned on a regular cycle, removing the increment which it grows each year. Thinning interventions vary from stand to stand depending on species and growth rates. Thinning is ongoing with no clearfelling like in conventional management.