Put your wooded land to work! This comprehensive manual shows you how to use your woodlands to produce everything from wine and mushrooms to firewood and livestock feed. You’ll learn how to take stock of your woods; use axes, bow saws, chainsaws, and other key tools; create pasture and silvopasture for livestock; prune and coppice trees to make fuel, fodder, and furniture; build living fencing and shelters for animals; grow fruit trees and berries in a woodland orchard; make syrup from birch, walnut, or boxelder trees; and much more. Whether your property is entirely or only partly wooded, this is the guide you need to make the best use of it.

Whether you have a few acres of trees in the suburbs or a small commercial forest, you can encourage a healthy and sustainable ecosystem through proper woodland management. This introductory guide shows you how to identify the type, health, and quality of your trees and suggests strategies for keeping your woodland thriving.

Learn how to fill forests with food by viewing agriculture from a remarkably different perspective: that a healthy forest can be maintained while growing a wide range of food, medicinal, and other nontimber products. The practices of forestry and farming are often seen as mutually exclusive, because in the modern world, agriculture involves open fields, straight rows, and machinery to grow crops, while forests are reserved primarily for timber and firewood harvesting. In Farming the Woods, authors Ken Mudge and Steve Gabriel demonstrate that it doesn’t have to be an either-or scenario, but a complementary one; forest farms can be most productive in places where the plow is not: on steep slopes and in shallow soils. Forest farming is an invaluable practice to integrate into any farm or homestead, especially as the need for unique value-added products and supplemental income becomes increasingly important for farmers. Many of the daily indulgences we take for granted, such as coffee, chocolate, and many tropical fruits, all originate in forest ecosystems. But few know that such abundance is also available in the cool temperate forests of North America. Farming the Woods covers in detail how to cultivate, harvest, and market high-value nontimber forest crops such as American ginseng, shiitake mushrooms, ramps (wild leeks), maple syrup, fruit and nut trees, ornamentals, and more. Along with profiles of forest farmers from around the country, readers are also provided comprehensive information on: • historical perspectives of forest farming; • mimicking the forest in a changing climate; • cultivation of medicinal crops; • cultivation of food crops; • creating a forest nursery; • harvesting and utilizing wood products; • the role of animals in the forest farm; and, • how to design your forest farm and manage it once it’s established. Farming the Woods is an essential book for farmers and gardeners who have access to an established woodland, are looking for productive ways to manage it, and are interested in incorporating aspects of agroforestry, permaculture, forest gardening, and sustainable woodlot management into the concept of a whole-farm organism.

A landowner's manual for forest management in New England

Cliff Seruntine describes his family's adventures living on a secluded homestead in Nova Scotia.

The complete guide to maintaining your own personal woods. Who owns our forests? We do. And it’s up to us to care for them. More than 10 million ordinary citizens own over half of the forestland in America. The vast majority of landowners want to do right by their land, but until now, there’s been no single resource to help them do so. Backyard Woodland is a comprehensive guide to nurturing the land in your care, from soil and water protection to fostering wildlife diversity and keeping the land whole. Backyard Woodland also features tips for the financial considerations that come from land-owning, including how to save money on your taxes and how to make some extra income from responsible timber sales and viable farming. Owning a piece of the forest is a rare privilege, and this complete guide will help you get the most out of the experience.

Common Sense Forestry relates thirty years' experience of an environmentally conscious woodland owner. Much of the book is devoted to starting a forest and how to maintain it. It answers such questions as: What seedlings to buy? Should your forest be monoculture or a mixed forest? What is the payback for planting and maintaining a forest? Is seeding a good way to start a forest? What kind of seeds work best? Does it pay to hire a consultant? What should he/she do for you? Does it pay to do much maintenance in your forest? How should I prune? Is timberland improvement worthwhile? How, when and whether to thin? How to herbicide and when? Can the damage done to nature by chemicals be justified by the benefits to your seedlings? What are the economics of woodland ownership? The success and history of German forestry methods is discussed and suggests what can be learned from these age-old practices. It will tell you how to file your income taxes, what equipment to buy, what works--and does not work--and why. It also provides guidance on how to deal with state and federal programs. Although intended for private woodland owners, the book is used as a classroom text in universities. The book is more practical than technical, yet still imparts knowledge of basic forestry, explaining terms such as succession and shade tolerance and how to apply these concepts in practice. Even sophisticated concepts are covered in plain, non-technical terms. Hans Morsbach, the author, believes that forestry is an art more than a science. Competent foresters may apply different methods of managing their forests and achieve comparable results. Still, it is important to be guided by natural forest principles. Doing nothing may sometimes be a better course of action than doing too much. The book suggests ways to gauge your involvement with your woodland to time available and your personal preference. It is most important that you enjoy your forest.