Vegetables and Flowers We Raise Today at The Tree Farm How To Find Us

HARDWOOD LUMBER

Grown On The Tree Farm

We sell hardwood lumber cut from trees grown in our own woods. We are a certified tree farm. Lumber from our woods qualifies for "green building".

Available now:

• Oak
• Air dry. Mill run red/black oak. Smaller quantities of white oak and burr oak. 4/4 (nominal 1" boards).
• Cherry
• Kiln dry.
• Mill run. 4/4 and 8/4 (nominal 2" boards).
• Air dry.
  • Mill run. 4/4 and 8/4.
  • Figured cherry. These boards have a very striking stain pattern in the grain.
  • Turning stock. Limited quantity of turning blocks and aerial burl material is available.
• Elm
• Air dry. Mill run grey (American) elm. 4/4.
• Maple
• Green. Mill run soft maple. Generally good quality.

Our woods

More than half of The Tree Farm is wooded. We manage our woods for hardwood timber production, wildlife, and recreation. Our management is "light on the land". Logs are pulled to trails with a winch, and then skidded with small tractors that travel only on established trails through the woods. In our timber stand improvement program, trees that are no longer growing rapidly, or are interfering with growth of other trees are removed to thin the stand and make way for taller, straighter, healthier young trees. In this way, net production of wood is kept high.

Snags and brush piles are left to enhance the habitat for wildlife. The lush undergrowth in recently logged areas provides deer browse in the winter. (We would like them to eat there in the summer as well, but they prefer our vegetables.)

Species common in our woods are black oak, white oak, burr oak, American elm, red elm, black cherry, hickory, hackberry, trembling aspen and black walnut. We have smaller quantities of hard maple, soft maple, eastern red cedar, ash, red oak, big tooth aspen, eastern cottonwood and other species native to this area.

The lumber available each year depends on what part of our woods we logged and what trees needed cutting the preceeding winter.

We saw logs into boards with a small band saw mill. The resulting green (high moisture content) lumber is then air dried to around 12 to 15% moisture. Air drying takes several months. Although air dried lumber will do for some applications, further drying to 6 to 8% moisture in a kiln is desirable for such applications as quality furniture or interior cabinetry.

Most of the trees that we harvest today were already established and growing when we first began to manage these woods. When we bought this land nearly 40 years ago, most of the woods had been pastured. Slopes were eroding, and tree health was affected by soil compaction. Regeneration of many species was limited.

We removed the cattle, and have worked to improve the health of the woods. Unproductive trees have been removed. A few trees have been planted, and natural regeneration of desirable tree species has been encouraged. Improving the health, diversity and productivity of the woods is a slow process. Today, erosion is much better controlled, tree roots grow in loose soil, and a mixed hardwood stand of varied size and age is producing wood, wildlife habitat and will remain a place for recreation for years to come.

The Tree Farm
The Pick Your Own Vegetables Place
Cut your own Christmas Trees on December Weekends
In Northwestern Dane County, Wisconsin
8454 Highway 19
Cross Plains, WI 53528
608.798.2286

Updated Feb 15, 2007

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