Tree Sentry .Net

From rehabilitating fire lands of hundreds of thousands of acres to the landowner who just needs to know that they can spend their time and money efficiently on a gardening or landscaping project, the applications for the Tree Sentry are very broad. While no single shelter is ideal for all applications, the evolution in the Tree Sentry design does make it fit the broadest range of application. We invite you to educate yourself on the aspects of shelters, before selecting one for your project. What follows are several unsolicited responses from customers about their own experience with our product.

The original site planted 5 years ago (1998) has an 80% survival rate, while unprotected seedlings on the same site show less then 5% surviving. Our worst, toughest sites yield a 60-70% success rate with the Tree Sentry in heavily browsed areas with precipitation that is well under norms here in the southwest. Don't think you can afford them? You can't afford not to have this kind of protection.

My husband and I would always pick up 20-25 seedlings from the SWCD each year. We have a lot of rabbits that would much on them and some seedlings got hit by the mower because you couldn't see them a few weeks after you'd planted them.  After a year or two, the count would always drop to 4 or 5. We then used the Tree Sentry on 30 hardwood seedlings and It's now been a year and we still have every one! Thank you!

In a riparian project in spring, 2001 I planted 500 various hardwoods.  We have heavy browsing problems and the plots along the bank here have very little break from the hot winds coming off the plains. After three years, the stand looks just great. The trees look very healthy and they're all growing out of the tops of the cones.  We've lost just 11 seedlings, which I believe may have been a problem with the stock, because they were the same species. Unbelievable!!

We have very little precip in these parts of Montana. The soils are dry and trees don't like to grow. I've tried a number of products but the TreePees (Tree Sentry) work the best. With the shelters we get better growth and survival. What I like about the TreePees is that I can get a lot more of them on in a short time. In the time it takes me to drive a stake, fish wire ties through a tube and get ONE of the other shelters all situated, I can pace off and install 5 or 6 TreePees (Tree Sentry).

When I planted 15 trees and couldn't get back to them to install shelters, it only took two weeks before I came back to them and they were all lost to rodents. In these same plots I see over 90% survival when I install a TreePee (Tree Sentry) over them at planting.

We decided to try shelters because we were not getting the necessary results on our planting projects. Since we've had drought conditions for the last several years, we expected it was going to get tougher. We used Tree Sentry and ((another brand with a straight tube wire tied to a stake). We also planted some seedlings as we always had, without shelters, all on the same sight. To our amazement, after only 2 months we saw a measurable increase in the growth of the seedling in the Tree Sentries! We measured an average 2.5cm growth inside the Tree Sentries, compared to 0.5cm growth in the other shelters. Unsheltered seedlings showed no measurable growth.

We welcome all responses. It has been customer feedback that has been integral in the continued evolution of our product, from the design of it, to the selection and development of materials, to shipping and packaging methods.

We've heard many accounts of how "for years" customers had tried to plant a windbreak, or create a timber stand, or simply initiate a long term landscaping project with seedlings, etc., etc., only to be disappointed with the results. If they planted 200 trees in the open field, only 10 or 12 would remain in just a couple years.  If they didn't lose them to the deer - being out in the open and very visible to browsing animals - the dry, hot summer winds would desiccate them.  Or, it would be the spring water runoff that would mangle them with husks and debris coming off the fields.   Even those who have used other products attest their marked improvements in their planting experience with the Tree Sentry.

Since we've done very little advertising, relying instead on word of mouth and the experience of one farmer or forester relayed to another, the latest generation of Tree Sentry has been out of the spotlight.

The heightened national focus on forestry methods has been brought about by a number of concerns. With the extensive wildfires the United States has battled though the west and southwest regions in recent years, forest managers and environmentalists are gaining understanding of the need to intelligently balance the interests of industry, community and the environment. No single interest can have supreme control. 

An environmental thrust which seeks to singularly preserve forest wilderness or deer populations or can result in deer or other wildlife populations that are out of control.  There are eastern forests where protected deer populations have all but completely eliminated browsible vegetation below 4 or 5 foot.  These woodlands have very little or no seedling populations which can follow the more mature forest around them as the trees of the forest reach the end of their natural life span and die. 

In the west and southwest teams of foresters (trained and regularly certified in firefighting) are kept busy all season long protecting forests, property and human life from the ravages of fire, often putting their own lives in peril. The personal accounts and photographs some of these foresters return home with are astonishing. How they will work to contain a wall of fire 100 feet tall only a short hike away is simply incredible.

It's simple to understand we must all support the protection of human life and property in fire situations. Foresters also recognize that if they are directed to put out all fires but prohibited - in the interest of having a "pristine" environment - from intervening in wilderness areas to remove fuels and actively manage them, we will continue to have catastrophic, unmanageable fires.  Truly protecting forests does not mean putting out all fires in wilderness areas and then staying out of them in the interests of "natural beauty".  Fires are a natural process with a vast number started by natural causes such as lightning.  The fires have many healthy affects for the woodlands, including controlling the amount of fuel that stays on the forest floor. An excessive amount of fuel - such as deadfall, the fallen leaves of deciduous trees and the debris of other species make a thick organic layer which can be difficult for younger seedlings of the various species to penetrate. If young seedlings are not promoted here, eventually the trees will reach the end of their natural life span with too thin a younger population behind them. This is actually happening in a number of our woodlands faster than you would like to think. Remember, not all species live for many centuries, as a sequoia or redwood.  The long term health of these woodlands requires that they be actively managed protected from fire by fuels reduction programs, controlled burns, thinning and the like. Our wilderness areas need this type of management, when protected from fires.

On another front of the same topic, If industry cannot use effective methods for harvesting timber, the price of their products escalates.  Forestry, as it relates to timber harvesting, is a labor intensive industry.   Everyone relates to the low cost of products brought into this country from abroad.  Just visit Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes and the like.  Do you notice how many products are not made here any longer?  It's about the cost of producing things in our own country.   What about our baseline building materials?  It won't be long before most of our timber products will be furnished from abroad as well.  No one likes to see a landscape stripped bare by a logging operation.  There are concerns for soil erosion, landslides and wildlife to name a few.  And there are many other harvesting methods which preserve the view of the landscape without laying a bare scab on the   hillside. The point is, this challenge requires to best thinking from all sides of the discussion on forest management. 

You might know that offshore interests have introduced prime seed stock of some our favorite north American species of timber  - Douglas fir and ponderosa pine for example - into their own woodlands.  These are some of this country's most prized building materials.  With a labor intensive industry like forestry,  one of our most abundant, renewable natural resources will become difficult to cost-justify harvesting.  It's not the object of this page to become a "political forum", but it's important to understand that some of these challenges facing our nation are very difficult and very complex.  

This discussion comes full circle to the need for efficient means to support the growth and health of our woodlands.  The use of native woodlands has been integral throughout US history in the building of communities and entire cities.  We must act wisely to preserve this capability of this renewable resource. We believe the Tree Sentry in specific (and shelters, in general), to be one of the elements which can promote this interest.