Trees help with erosion control. Tree harvesting is best done when the ground is frozen and that is the time when farmers may be underemployed. The crops are in the barn, in sealed storage or at the market. Livestock chores at the beginning and the end of the day may not translate into a full day of work for a few months of the year. Trees can be harvested in stages.
Some trees provide excellent growing medium for shiitake mushrooms.
The remaining trees can be maintained for a later timber harvest. A oak will produce an average of two bushels per tree. There is even a special walk-behind wheeled unit that will pick up the fallen nuts, eliminating the backbreaking portion of nut collecting. Farmers with woodworking skills can turn the lumber from their trees into furniture, even signature design pieces, rustic yard furniture, even folk art which can be sold out of a shed or barn or at holiday shows by other family members. Dylan preferred the dried foxtail grass.