Tree thinning is an important practice in forest management.
Thinning is done to favour the best trees so that they can grow on well and also to allow sunlight penetrate through the canopy to the ground and allow vegetative growth on the ground. In thinning, there are guidelines that need to be followed and these guide on which tree should be thinned out and which one to be left.
Tree selection
To know which tree to thin out, you can use a general rule of thumb where you thin out one in three trees. This does not mean that you go mathematical by removing every third tree in a row.
During selection, have a panga that is used to mark on the trees that will be removed. The marking is done by putting marks/cuts on both sides of the tree such that the tree feller can easily identify which trees to cut out an which ones not to.
During thinning, it is recommended that you begin with bent trees, dead trees and those interfering with the growth of preferred tree spices. After selecting those, more trees can be selected to make up to the general rule of thumb of removing one in every three trees.
After marking the trees, you can decide to sell them to a contractor, a term known as standing sale.
