Do young cottonwoods take hinge cutting well.....also intro. blackberries to ground?

[ryang]

We literally have thousands of cottonwoods in our river bottom and would like to try hinge cutting in some areas to make some spots a little less visible to truck hunters...I'm hoping cottonwoods would be an acceptable species for this?

Have blackberries growing in the backyard and thought about introducing these and raspberries to our ground. I'm thinking they'd take off like wildfire...just not sure if it's a good idea or not??

 

[dbltree]

We literally have thousands of cottonwoods in our river bottom and would like to try hinge cutting in some areas to make some spots a little less visible to truck hunters...I'm hoping cottonwoods would be an acceptable species for this?

Have blackberries growing in the backyard and thought about introducing these and raspberries to our ground. I'm thinking they'd take off like wildfire...just not sure if it's a good idea or not??

All you can do is tip some over and see if they survive or not? Either way you'll open up canopy and thicken up your habitat.

Deer love blackberry leaves!

 

[ryang]

Thanks for the response Paul...appreciate it.

 

[Hardwood11]

cottonwoods

ryang: You have lots of possibilities with cottonwoods, tip some, cut out an area and you will get re-growth, either way, they are very underrated for deer habitat. Some of the biggest bucks that I have ever seen were shot in a river bottom with nothing but cottonwoods, ash, boxelder and a few dogwoods...

 

[FarmlandQDM]

We literally have thousands of cottonwoods in our river bottom and would like to try hinge cutting in some areas to make some spots a little less visible to truck hunters...I'm hoping cottonwoods would be an acceptable species for this?

Cottonwood have very short wood fibers that tend to snap off if you try to hinge cut them. You might be able to hinge small ones but anything over 5 or 6 inches in diameter will probably break off instead of staying hinged to the stump. The colder the temps the more difficult it is to keep the hinge from breaking. If you have any large cottonwoods trees, they can be pretty dangerous to hinge fall. Cottonwood holds more water than most species which makes them one of the heaviest live weight trees. The extra weight and the good possibility of breaking your hinge wood increases your odds of getting seriously hurt. It would probably be smarter to face cut then back cut any larger cottonwoods.

Not sure what part of South Dakota you are from but there are two common species of cottonwood in your state. Black cottonwood and eastern cottonwood, the eastern species is pretty unlikely west of the Missouri River in SD. Black cottonwood usually regenerates well from stump and root sprouting, eastern cottonwoods are more inconsistent with coppice regeneration.

Look at the younger seedlings and saplings in your stand. If they appear to be sprouting up from the roots of nearby trees or growing in clusters, you probably already have good coppice regeneration taking place and cutting the overstory trees will likely have the affect you desire. If most of the trees are about the same age and it looks like each tree was planted seperately, you may just be looking at seed regeneration and cutting the overstory might not produce many new tree sprouts.

Good luck with your project and be careful if you fall any large cottonwoods ... it's not a pretty site when someone gets driven into the ground by a tree that falls in a different direction than was planned.