Transitioning Pine Forest

Hey all,

I have a 10 acre plot of land in zone 3b (Northwestern Ontario, Canada) 9 acres of my land is treed mostly with thick stands of relatively thin pine trees. As its part of the Canadian shield, there is lots of exposed bedrock and loose stones throughout. the stands are made up of almost 100% pine trees that range between 2" and 8" thick and about 30 feet max. Except for the spots where nature has taken a few trees down or the old path goes through, all the ground is bare.

I want to make the space feel brighter and encourage ground growth and new tree species but not sure the best way to go about that. Should I just start selectively thinning pines?
Or is it more the ground itself? there are lots of fallen trees, pine needles, leaves and other debris. Do I just need to give it a good rake and spark some new growth?
A mix of both?

The ultimate goal would be either enough ground coverage for chickens, goats, or sheep but eventually planting some shade-loving crops.

I have attached a few pictures.
Thanks!

The first thing I thought of when I saw your shady forest of pines is to plant hostas.

These plants love shade.

The hosta plant is pretty, edible, and comes in a variety of different colors.


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Here are some threads you or others might enjoy and find interesting:

https://permies.com/t/162078/perennial-vegetables/edible-hostas

https://permies.com/t/32937/Edible-hostas

Yep, if it was me I would cut down 9/10 of those little trees. Get those straws out of the ground and let the sun shine in and I bet you will get exactly what you are looking for.

From the pics you gave, it looks like you have mostly a monoculture of Hemlock, so thinning them out & getting some different kinds of Native pines would be a good idea.

The thing tha sucks about this is that Native pine forests in the Eastern Woodland were so badly decimated by settlers, it's hard to know what one is really supposed to be like, but from the Native accounts we have, they probably have to be routinely thinned out anyway- especially the undergrowth, when it is healthy. It had a tendency to grow in way too thick, so the Natives would make routine efforts to keep parts of it clearer & more open.

Looks like prime biochar material to me.  Check out the link below to see my pine thinning/biochar project.

Some of our woods look similar. From what I've found, our property was farmland 100 years ago, but was planted out to pine in the 70's in a grid that seems far too tight. Some of the trees have gotten to be 14" or so in diameter, but many have stayed smaller. This also seems to have led to an abundance of shoestring rot, which has left many dead/diseased trees.
I've selected some existing small clearings to start, with the intention of planting some new plants as well as letting the existing raspberries, blackberries, spiny gooseberries, beaked hazelnuts, maple, oak, and beech trees, etc.. grow with less competition.
I use a pole saw to clear all/most of the lower branches and pile them into strategically placed, slowly evolving hugel-mounds. Then I am able to see more clearly, to be able to fell dead/dangerous trees and add them to the piles. Sometimes I decide to dig a trench by the pile and cover the logs with the soil. I end up with a ditch for better drainage when we have a large spring melt, and a hill to plant into that usually gets an initial seed mix of radish, peas, mustard, buckwheat, carrots, clover, random squash, along with anything that may still be growing in the sod.
Eventually if/when the time is right, the plan is to do a larger thinning, and open up more garden space where the soil/keystone species are slowly being prepared. Meanwhile the remaining pines are growing, to be potentially more useful in future projects.
If I had the time to turn more of the pines I process into bio-char, I probably would, as it seems really useful in the sand we have.  

derek said, "Or is it more the ground itself? there are lots of fallen trees, pine needles, leaves, and other debris. Do I just need to give it a good rake and spark some new growth?
A mix of both?

Under all those leaves, you will find great black gold aka hummus, leaf mold.

If you plan to garden all that black gold will make a great start.

So I would suggest leaving the leaves as is until needed.

The woody stuff would make great hugelkultur beds.

Unless you have a need for biochar then that wood might be better stored as is.

I think your forest is lovely just as it is and with some hostas or other shade-loving understory plants.