Predictability

                                                            Click on photo to enlarge.

3382 Belknap and 72 Sharon soils are riparian soils you find alongside streams in southern Illinois, and they always are sites worth looking at.  Most of these sites were cleared for growing corn on small farms long ago, but modern farming methods have caused them to be abandoned.  Seed sources around the fields determined what tree species came up, and often these fields came up in river birch or soft maple, but sometimes you get lucky. 

Black walnut, with companion boxelder trees are a nice surprise that I find on a fairly regular basis.  Most landowners consider boxelder to be a weed tree, but they are a valuable trainer in a young walnut stand, forcing the walnuts to go upward for light, and they block light out of the understory, which helps shade off the lower branches on the walnuts. 

The trees in this stand have grown from about 14" diameter fifteen years ago to 20" now, or about five growth rings per inch; which is a respectable growth rate, in valuable trees.  On rare occasions when someone asks for my advice on buying timberland, I recommend that they consult soil maps, and look for timber that is pole size, which most sellers do not recognize as having any value.  Productive soils, and a thinning can take a pole stand into sawtimber size in a short time, allowing the landowner to retrieve some of the investment in a relatively short time.