About Woodlot Confidential
What Private Woodlot Owners need to know that Industry and Government don’t want you to know

Our Mission

The intention of this website is to provide landowners with ideas and information to help in making decisions on how to manage the resources of your woodlot for maximum benefit.

In the beginning

In 1984, my wife and I purchased a small plot of land bordering the Keswick River just outside Fredericton, NB. The deed says +/- 50 acres; however, the woodlot management plan estimates over 56, depending on how the river flows.

The lot is an original land grant from the Crown, and it is suspected the first settlers started near the river as it was probably the only means of transportation. Over time, as the land was cleared, the owners moved farther from the river and more towards the center of the cleared land. There is still some remaining evidence of old trash piles as you move uphill from the river.

In the early 1900s, the owners started a dance hall in their old barn. I have an ad published in the early 1920s from a newspaper in Fredericton, NB ) advertising a dance on Saturday night all the way in Burtt’s Corner. Rumour has it the owner was a bootlegger. There are several piles of bottles scattered around what would have been fields at the time.

The first dance hall burned down (date unknown), and a second one was built; however, it also burned when I was a teenager, in the late 1970’s. It was called “The Starlight Pavilion”. I heard many stories from people who stopped by while I was building my house about good times at the Starlight

Historical context of the land

Finding Value in the Land

During this time, I realized that the forest could also provide an extra income, but it would need work to maximize any revenue. The first priority was to seek out training. I went to the New Brunswick Forest Extension Service (no longer in existence) for Woodlot Management and followed that up a few years later with a Logging Contractors course. I had a Management Plan done by a licensed forester in 1995 and updated in 2006. Due to my activities over 40 years, neither reflects the current state.

The initial goal of the first management plan was to maximize fiber production. But as time went on it changed to restoring the Acadian Forest, which has all but disappeared in New Brunswick during my lifetime. I have also come to realize that wildlife is an important part of the forest ecosystem and can give clues as to what is going on within your forest.

Climate change and, more recently, wildfire mitigation are now playing an important role in the management of the forest. During my lifetime, the frost-free growing season here has increased by 4-5 weeks. As the climate changes even more, the forest here will have to adapt. It is even more important going forward to be properly managed as there are now signs that the Balsam Fir is being effected by the warming climate - see CBC article https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/balsam-fir-drought-9.7304912

The initial management plan listed a number of items that needed attention: trail development, boundary line maintenance, and thinning. Thinning was the most time-consuming, but it also provided a small source of revenue in the early years, which included firewood, pulpwood, lumber, and some thinning subsidies from the local Marketing Board.

From fiber to climate change

Since the property had been farmed at one time, a number of roads had been established between fields and needed maintenance, including the reconstruction of a bridge that crossed a small brook supplied by a number of springs located on the property. Further trail development was carried out over time during thinning operations.