Welcome to Southern Tier Specialties!!!

We decided to start this venture to take advantage of the products we could develop from our property and to promote products that we enjoy ourselves. We own 56 acres in the hills of southern New York – referred to as the “Southern Tier” - near the Pennsylvania border. The property is about 2/3 woods and 1/3 field.

Our online business is one piece of the larger picture we are painting for the land we own. The support you provide through your business helps us to achieve the goals we have established for our property.

Our goals for the property include:

• Wisely and sustainably harvest products from our woodlot.
• Establish a long-term plan to reforest our land and promote conservation efforts.
• Work to enhance the wildlife habitat and the diversity of plant and wildlife species living on our property.
• Develop future woodland products that can be sustainably harvested.

We are currently working with a professional forester to assist us with making wise decisions on how to manage our property within the goals we have set.

THE PLAN BEGINS…

Reforestation
Since the spring of 2005 we have planted over 5000 tree seedlings on our property. The plant species ranged from hardwood trees, conifers, and wildlife beneficial trees and shrubs.

Almost all of the seedlings were planted with tree shelters, with the exception of the wildlife shrubs like the dogwoods and swamp rose. The tree shelters serve a variety of purposes:

• They identify the location of the seedlings – according to the research I conducted, the greatest reason for mortality of newly planted seedlings is due to the owners mowing them over!
• They protect the seedlings from browsing by deer and other animals (which there are plenty of here in the Southern Tier!).
• If the tree shelter is made of a solid material or tube, then the shelter will act as a mini-greenhouse helping to trap moisture and oxygen within the shelter leading to stronger and more vigorous growth.

I used two types of tree shelters for my plantings:

• A solid tube (composed of rolled up blue plastic film with a plastic sleeve to maintain the shape).
• A open mesh tube (which only provides animal protection).

The main reason for using the two different style tubes was cost - the mesh tubes are significantly less expensive than the solid tubes. The mesh tubes were exclusively used for the wildlife beneficial shrubs. Here are a couple of pictures of the larger plantings:

Opening up the canopy
Besides reforesting our property by planting seedlings, our woodlot management also includes working with the existing vegetation on the property. By necessity this requires selective logging of some species of trees that are of low timber value or are shading out everything else. Its amazing what happens when you remove a couple or Red Maples with large canopies. After these trees are removed and the sunlight hits the ground again, there is an explosion of a variety of plant species that sprout up and a corresponding increase in wildlife diversity.

Target the invasive species
We are also working to remove some invasive plant species such as Mulitflora Rose and Tartanian Honeysuckle, although I think this is somewhat of a fruitless effort. I have had some success in areas where I've been able to keep an area mowed down, but for the most part these plants keep coming back up. I've planted some of the wildlife shrubs in these areas in hopes that if these shrubs can take hold, then maybe they'll outgrow the invasives. This is going to be a long battle though...

Pruning the apple trees
A good example of this is the work we've been doing pruning up our apple trees. It seems like everytime we walk through the woods, we find another apple tree hidden in the bushes. We have been aggresively opening up the canopy and letting the sunlight shine in for these lost souls! The results of this aggressive pruning have been excellent! The apple trees are coming back with full vigor and producing good crops again. We only prune them and cut away surrounding vegetation or taller trees. We don't spray the trees with anything.

The main reason we are doing all this pruning is to promote growth of the trees so they produce more apples for the wildlife and a few for us. The apples are very good, we haven't had a chance to find out what kind they are, but plan to take some samples up to Cornell University to find out the varieties - some are definitely Macintosh, Red Delicious and Golden Delicious. At some point we may make cider! Right now though the biggest benefit we're deriving from the apple trees (besides the apples for the wildlife) is...you guessed it...Apple Wood Gourmet Grilling Chips!!!

Once we started grilling with the apple wood, and later cherry wood, and realized how incredible the difference was in the taste, we decided to market the chips. I have used other wood chips before, but for some reason, this apple wood is particularly good. Maybe its due to the varieties of apples, or the age of the trees, or even due to the fact of the different varieties of apple trees. One theory I have is because I don't keep the different apple chips from the trees separated - I mix the wood chips together.

Pruning the new seedlings
Once the new seedlings have grown enough (3-5 years or more?), we will be undertaking an aggressive management program that includes pruning these trees in an effort to increase growth, while minimizing lateral branching - in hopes of developing veneer quality timber. A side benefit of all this pruning, besides the exercise, will be the addition of more varieties of Gourmet Grilling Chips and other woodland products!

As our business continues to grow, we'll continue to update this page as part of our website. Pictures will continue to be added showing the growth of our trees and of our property and more technical information about what we are doing on our property. Check out our Links webpage for information to assist other landowners in managing their woodlots and promoting conservation efforts.

Southern Tier Specialties would like to thank you again for your interest and business. Your support is a key factor in helping us to continue the work we are doing on our property…