Forestry & Wildlife Workshop Coming to Talbot County GA!

A great event is planned by the Talbot County Chamber of Commerce on April 24. The itinerary is shown below. This should be an exciting event with topics including buy not limited to:
1) Market Outlook for Southern Timber
2) Forestry Genetics
3) Managing Bob White Quail including a site visit
4) Prescribe Burning forestland
5) GIS/GPS for Forestry Applications.

Space is limited so registration is required. The Chamber of Commerce can be reached at

Phone: 706.665.8079

Email: talbotco@pstel.net

If you are interested in seeing my listings, visit AllSouthLandandHomes.com   Buying or Selling LAND, contact G. Kent Morris, ALC, RF @ 706.457.0090

What You Need to Know About Forestry Genetics!

I have been riding around looking at property and something just jumped out at me one day! I sell a lot of timberland in west central Georgia and after all being a ‘Registered Forester’ this topic is important to me. Some  trees look great, others, not so good. Some trees are straight, few limbs and generally look good. Other properties have trees with lots of cankers, lots of limbs, lots of sweep….you get the idea. I am sure you have noticed the same thing if you are interested in timberland. Let’s look at some photographs.

 Wild Trees - Notice the number of limbs

 Wild Trees - Notice the sweep

Genetically Improved - Notice the straightness and lack of limbs!!

Generally speaking, the differences have to do with genetics. Like the color of your eyes, height etc, trees characteristics are to a large degree determined by genetics. Forest Genetics is the subdiscipline of genetics concerned with genetic variation and inheritance in forest trees. There has been lots of improvements in tree characteristics including: lack of limbs and the ability to self prune, volume gain, straightness and taper and resistance to fusiform rust.

Improved trees are generally referred to as 1^st Gen, 2^nd Gen etc. Let’s look at the differences.

1^st Generation  – cuttings from superior wild trees. These trees generally experience about a 10% gain over wild trees.

2^nd Generation – best trees from 1st  Generation were crossed. These trees generally experience 10-20% over the 1st Generation.

3^rd Generation – best trees from 2nd Gen were crossed. Usually experience 10-20% gain over 2^nd  Generation.

A forest nursery man once explained to me that Seed Orchards are open pollinated, which means you can identify the mother tree but the pollen blows in so there is no way to control the father tree. You have probably experienced your car covered up with that yellow pollen in the spring!

Tree improvement is moving in the direction of cloning which is taking tissue from a tree and growing seedlings.  One of the largest companies involved in cloning tree seedlings is ArborGen.

OK, this blog was probably a little to scientific for most but here is your take away…..Reforestation is EXPENSIVE and it is a long term investment. If you are going to invest all that money is site preparation (such as spraying herbicides), perhaps burning, then either hand planting or machine planting your trees….then for heaven’s sake….USE THE BEST SEEDLINGS. Some trees are better suited to the piedmont, others are better suited for the coastal plain. Choose a genetically improved tree suited to your area!

If you want to see my listings, visit AllSouthLandandHomes.com.  Buying OR selling LAND? Contact G. Kent Morris, ALC, RF @ 706.457.0090