On K-B Spruce 1 the 8 cut strips totaled 33 acres, and all areas had an excellent seed bed for Black spruce and Tamarack, consisting primarily of sphagnum moss (as opposed to the feather mosses). The cruise for this initial harvest showed 805 cords of Black spruce and 80 cords of Tamarack. The harvest regulations called for utilizing all trees 4”dbh and larger and 2 sticks or more to a 3” top diameter. All Black spruce or Tamarack over 5 feet in height were required to be felled, to avoid an uneven-aged subsequent stand. Any Cedar within the stand were reserved from cutting due to wildlife (primarily deer) considerations. Landings were established on an adjacent upland area. This first sale was harvested in the winters of 1987-88 and 1988-89, by two different logging companies.
As stated earlier, due to administrative area shake-ups in our department, instead of coming back 4-5 years later to harvest the initial leave strip areas, it wasn’t until 2004 that the second sale, K-B spruce 2, (82.3 aces) was set-up. On this sale, landings were allowed in the harvested type (not an upland setting), and logger was required to full tree harvest, with randomized skidding for maximized cone/seed drop on site. The cruise for this sale showed 1625 cords of black spruce, and 670 cords of Tamarack to be harvested, with minor amounts of Aspen, Birch and Balsam. With sale extension, it didn’t actually get harvested until late winter of 2008-09 (20 years after the initial harvest of strips). It was finished just prior to break-up setting in…way too close for comfort, but it turned out fine.
Although we might have done quite well with natural cone/seed drop from the harvest, it was decided to take out an insurance policy on the regeneration of the harvested areas of K-B Spruce 2, and do an aerial seed drop. In the spring of 2009, under the State of MN-DNR seeding contract, we were able to drop 2 ounces/acre of Black spruce seed onto the final cut strips/areas.