June was a very busy month for Choctaw Land & Timber. Below is a snapshot of a Harvesting Tract project we’ve been working on as well as how we’re growing to better support our customers …

New Harvesting Tract – Third Row Thinning – Coffee County, Alabama

This is a larger tract that consists of very high quality un-thinned planted pine timber. The tract was accessed using an existing property opening by removing every third row or approximately 50% of the standing volume. The tract is being thinned to approximately 200-300 trees per acre. The harvesting consists of accessing the pines and removing every third row, then thinning the remaining rows. This is a beautiful tract of timber and the goal will be to remove any of the weak or diseased trees to allow room for the stronger, healthier trees to continue to grow and mature into quality log timber. Below are some pictures of the property. We will continue working on this project into July.

Addition of New Harvesting Crews

This month has been very big for us in the sense that we have added on several new harvesting crews. These harvesting crews come with many years experience and a solid reputation in the forestry industry. There has been a mutual interest in teaming up for the last few years but the timing never was quite right. Fortunately, this time around, all parties were able to make everything work and we couldn’t be more excited about this addition.

This means added production for Choctaw and our landowners as well as quicker harvesting times. We will now be able to move quicker from one tract to the other without the added time of waiting on our other harvesters to finish their prospective tracts. The addition of these crews has expanded our territory westward, allowing for new tracts and possibilities.

The reputation and efficiency in harvesting of these new crews is one of the main reasons we wanted to bring them on. Having extra loggers with this type of reputation will only help bring value to our company and our landowners. We’re excited about the possibilities and look forward to what the future will bring.

Our New Intern, William

At the beginning of this month we took on a new intern, William, who is currently attending Mississippi State University where he’s pursuing a degree in Forestry. We’ve started helping him gain hands-on experience by allowing him to cruise several tracts of timber, coordinate with landowners, flag lines, and organize harvesting operations. So far he has been nothing short of a success and a huge asset to our company.