Top thinning harvests the dominant tree for sale, releasing other trees to grow to eventually produce merchantable logs. Entrance into a stand is usually every five to ten years. Visitors sat on the back of pickups as volunteers drove through the tree farm. Guides explained how the Udells work their tree farm. Note the thick grove of trees in the background, with little ground vegetation.
Roads are just wide enough to bring ou t fallen timber.
The Udells bought their Happy Valley Tree Farm in 1957. They replanted goat pastures to trees, thinned out already standing timber and put in graveled roads to gain access to all their acreage. The Udells marked stops on the visitor tours by presidents, beginning with Calvin Coolidge. Each president's stop denoted something noteworthy about that president, by the way the particular trees on that site were growing. When trees are not growing close together, their bottom limbs continue to grow, rather than self-prune, creating larger knots.