Shingle Oak Opinions

[aimfirst]

Hi All....I let a few acres of pasture "go" when I bought my place years ago. It turns out these two areas are all shingle oaks and it is very dense and almost impossible for me/deer to walk through. Most of the trees are 1-6" diameter and 8-20 feet tall I'd guess. I left the shingles go just due to acrorn production and I had other things to tackle. I have started clearing a small area and putting tordon rtu on the stump, but thought I'd ask you all what you do with shingle colonies? Letting it go made more work for me in the end, I just don't see the benefit of hunting in that area and I can't imagine any other trees having a shot since it was so dense. I am finding it a tough decision balancing between trying to control areas like this so I can get to fencelines for repair etc and creating habitat. I have plent yof other timber to hunt out of, but found these areas of small trees not appearling and was going to continue my chainsaw madness next weekend, but thought I'd see how you guys handle shingle oak areas.

 

[Hardwood11]

Personally I'd leave it

Anytime someone says it's so thick you cannot walk in it, that's what deer want!!

 

[Sligh1]

Nothing wrong with Shingle oak. Ok, they can dominate an area like you you speak of I guess. If it were me, I may keep them somewhat thinned, remove some here or there but nasty thick is a good thing. To the point where a deer literally can't walk thru - ok, thin some. I'd pick some areas in there and keep them freed up enough to plant some other trees.... Apples, chestnut & maybe some cedars for thermal cover. Keep them from being overtaken & just keep the area just free enough deer can get thru and I wouldn't mess much with it.

 

[Daver]

A couple of thoughts...

I had an area just like you described when I bought my farm. It was truly impenetrable, for man and deer, so I took my chainsaw out and cut a "hallway" down through it so I could get through. It took the deer about 2 nights to adopt that new pathway as a pretty heavily used trail for them.

Soooo, you could leave it and cut a path or two through it to lead deer right by your stand/blind. If you build it, they will come.

Since my "shingle oak colony" was in a CRP field and the NRCS changed their tune and mandated that all volunteer trees had to be removed from the CRP acres to continue to comply, I subsequently had them bulldozed out. Since there were so many and they were SO THICK, that's really what it took to eliminate them. Nowadays, I have switchgrass where the shingle oaks once stood.

 

[Hardwood11]

I know Skip as at least one or two shingle oaks on his farm

Good idea (Daver) to create trail system if it is that thick. You'd be surprised how deer can find openings in what looks like a jungle

 

[goatman]

Like they said maybe thin a little but they hold their leaves most of winter for a thermal screen. Also when the wind blows they are better than cornstalks for covering up noise. Turkeys also like the acorns. Tough as nails.

 

[aimfirst]

Thanks for the info guys. I think i will create a hallway in my back section wher i tend to hunt more and try a total removal on the acre or so near my pond/shack. I would like to put in some switchgrass to replace that area. Next up is to improve upon my hickory desert in my timber!!

 

[letemgrow]

I'd start by cutting the smaller ones and leaving the biggest ones. If they are that thick, the larger ones could benefit by thinning for better acorn production. Far as treating the stumps go, I leave those for browse while the other trees are growing higher and spreading out over top the sprouted stumps.

I have a few areas on my place that is predominately shingle oaks with some cedars. Great areas for turkeys in the winter as they clean up those acorns all winter long.