The clear-cut and the redwoods
The harvested part of the Sullivan Family Tree Farm is entering its next generation. The 2025 harvest was followed by planting coast redwood plugs in 2026. Now we need to learn what survived the first summer and where replacement planting is needed.
The harvest record
The January 25, 2025 agreement with Treeline Logging described a final harvest of approximately 18 acres. Later owner descriptions referred to roughly 25 acres, and a mapped brown area was described as 26 acres. Those descriptions may cover different boundaries. The survey must measure the actual 2026 planting unit rather than treat them as interchangeable.
The Forest Management page preserves the longer history, the 2012 plan and 2022 update, and how the harvest fits the tree farm. The earlier Douglas-fir/grand-fir planting prescription remains part of that history; the current field question concerns the redwoods actually planted.
What the planting record confirms
In a February 27, 2026 email, Dave reported that he and Eli had planted about 2,000 of 9,000 coast redwood plugs during the preceding week and expected the remaining work to take much of March. This confirms planting in progress. It does not establish that all 9,000 were subsequently planted, or that they all went into the same unit.
Dave’s August 5, 2025 email describes a separate one-acre trial of about 300 redwoods planted that April. That trial belongs in its own record. Keep the trial’s planting year and boundary separate from the main 2026 planting so older trees do not inflate first-year survival.
An archived Brooks Tree Farm acknowledgment lists 1,000 Coast Redwood S8 plugs for March 1, 2027 pickup. Treat that as a lead to reconcile with the nursery: it is not proof of a currently confirmed reservation, payment or delivery. It should be checked before any additional order.
What we still need to learn
- The actual 2026 planting boundary and net acres.
- The completed planting count, dates and seedling lots for that area.
- Living, damaged, uncertain and dead seedlings after the first summer.
- Where gaps are concentrated and what conditions need attention before replanting.
- The future stocking and species mix Dave and the forester want in each area.
The stocking survey provides a proposed way to collect that evidence. Its maps are explicitly provisional; its sample calculations are examples. No survival result has been measured or entered yet.
This season’s sequence
Confirm the planting record and boundary, prepare the final sample points, survey the seedlings, review gaps and uncertain observations, then select a suitable planting window and reconcile the nursery order. Record any replacements by planting year so next year’s survey can distinguish them.
Sources: signed 2025 logging agreement and maps in the Timber archive; Dave’s February 27, 2026 and August 5, 2025 correspondence; Brooks Tree Farm acknowledgment emailed July 23, 2026; recovered September 7 survey packet. Updated September 7, 2026.