About our Forest Land

Acquiring forested land in western Pennsylvania has been not only a wonderful asset to our woodwork, but also a dream come true.

The long-time previous owner of this land had not abused the forest by allowing diameter limit cutting, nor the typical “high grading” timber practices that have left much private forest land less diverse, habitat poor, and of diminished potential.

The soils here, moist and well drained, nourish hemlock, black cherry, red and white oak, maple, yellow birch, and beech, predominantly. Other species include black locust, cucumber magnolia, hickories, sycamore, sassafras, tulip, walnut and white pine. Perhaps our finest resource is the richly colored wild black cherry which grows so well here on the Allegheny plateau.

We care for different areas of our forest in somewhat different ways. There are areas of steep, more mature forest into which we rarely venture with a saw or machine. While others we manage with a comparatively heavier, although careful hand. Overall, our aim is to focus not on the economic maturity of trees, but on the biological maturation of the whole forest. The closer we look at things, the more there is to learn.