WOLF TREES AND THE MARKET FOR TIMBER.

WOLF TREES AND THE MARKET FOR TIMBER. Gaige points out that there was a period when wolf trees were regarded as “”ugly” and “worthless space fillers”. Gaige says: “Foresters preferred tidy, well-managed timberlands and loathed the gnarled, snaking wolf trees for their unmarketable form.” Wolf trees reflect the economics of small New England farms. By the late 1800’s and through the 1900’s, small-scale livestock farming declined as northeastern farmers moved west to less rocky and more fertile ground. Timber replaced livestock as a marketable product. The name “wolf trees” is attributed to the metaphor that “the spreading trees were like wolves, preying on forest resources and preventing the growth of smaller, marketable timber trees”.