Red Oak Management

Our hardwood trees don’t grow in lines because they are not planted by man. They are grown by nature, often planted by squirrels. So they come to maturity at different times and the whole forest is populated by trees of different ages and sizes. The standard approach to sustainable hardwood forest management in the U.S. is selective harvesting of mature and poor trees, leaving healthy and young trees to improve constantly - the so-called “take the rest and leave the best” policy. The planned and orderly removal of individual or small groups of trees is also typical for harvesting of American red oak. Clear-felling is carried out only occasionally for specific management objectives; for example to open up a section of the forest for grazing purposes.

Most American hardwood forests, and all American red oak stands, are renewed through natural regeneration, which simply means that species are allowed to grow naturally where they do best. And in best management practice a sufficient number of healthy seed trees are left untouched, in order to ensure that enough American red oak seedlings are dispersed to guarantee continuing natural regeneration. This is the tradition and the essence of sustainable forestry in America. It depends on planning, harvesting and re-growth, in accordance with Federal and State regulations, so that American red oak stands are managed to perpetuate.

The diversity and extent of small private ownership of the US hardwood forests has made large scale chain of custody certification difficult up to now. However, this situation is changing as the leading certifying schemes find ways to include and encourage cost effective certification for small landowners. But the reality at the moment is that availability of chain of custody certified American hardwoods is limited. Having said that supplies can be obtained although volumes produced will vary from species to species. As far as red oak is concerned, the scale of production and its widespread availability means that there is probably a better chance to find certified supplies.

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