Improving River Bottom Habitat

[lovetohunt]

I have about 15 acres of ground along the North River that I would like to improve the deer cover. It’s mostly got some big cottonwoods and lots of 3-6” silver maples. Lots of trees but not a lot of cover under the canopy. I was planning to start hinge cutting to get some sunlight down to the bottom. The area does flood but water is usually off of it after about 5-6 days.

What else can I do to improve the habitat? Is there any trees that I can plant that could withstand the flooding?

 

[DannyBoy]

Lots of trees will take the moisture. Swamp whites are my fave. Be careful not to release a bunch of reed canary by opening up the canopy.

 

[Sligh1]

Hinge cutting junk trees (know your species!), like above- making sure junk doesn't fill it. I'd open some areas up and try some shrubs & trees that take water if you wanted to get nuts. Otherwise, hinging the junk will give you a great start (done with caution on safety issues). Get a forester out there if you can. Also, on bottoms that occasionally flood, you can spend 2 hours on a dry day with a dozer & clear 1/4- 1/2 acre and have a nice area for stuff like clovers which tolerate wet areas OR fall foodplots. Lots of options. I've even made berms with dozer above flood line and planted apple trees on em. Depends how extreme you wanna go but all those things are not that much work in all honesty.

 

[IowaBowHunter1983]

Do you have 100ish cottonwoods 20"+? I recently spent half a day with a forester for a pallet lumber timber sale. Yes a timber sale of cottonwoods. Other than 3 walnuts we marked (are going to fall into the creek anyway), everything we marked is junk (cottonwood, hackberry, and soft maple). Your not going to get rich, but if you have enough quantity and decent quality to have a sale (guessing 40,000+ BF) you will get a few thousand dollars in your pocket and save your self a TON of work and risk (cutting big trees is dangerous if you don't know what you are doing).

Swamp white and Southern pin oaks will get planted in my bottoms in place of predominantly junk.

Good luck!