Q:	When you harvest a forest, how many of the trees do you cut?
A:	Our goal is keep the forest naturally regenerating itself forever, and therefore we do not cut any more trees than can be grown in a year. We harvest less than 4% of the acres under our management. In most cases, we work in 70-150 year rotations. That means we go into a forest every 10-15 years during that period and thin the forest — removing the weakest, poorest quality trees each time and giving the healthier trees the room, sunlight and moisture they need to thrive. After the final thinning, we are left with only the largest, healthiest trees. We call these the “seed trees,” because they are the trees that we want to provide the seeds for the next generation of forest. Finally, when the seed trees have done their job and the new forest has been established, we harvest the seed trees, opening the forest canopy and allowing the new trees to thrive. This is the beginning of the new forest cycle.

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