Timber Stand Improvment

[IowaBowHunter1983]

Grant Woods from GrowingDeer.tv talked about this in one of his episodes. His suggestion was to cut them all down, leave them in place, wait 1-2 years, and then start a fire. This will create an explosion of dense cover and native browse perfect for whitetails.

 

[LoessHillsArcher]

Grant Woods from GrowingDeer.tv talked about this in one of his episodes. His suggestion was to cut them all down, leave them in place, wait 1-2 years, and then start a fire. This will create an explosion of dense cover and native browse perfect for whitetails.

I imagine that'd make for some crazy new growth! I've got some buddies that work for the county park and they do this quite often to restore some prairie to the Loess Hills. Works great for them. The only thing that can happen from time to time, and it isn't a show stopper for what you suggest, but some spots get so hot it can kill any natives seeds that are stored in the seed bank. Great idea! I can think of a few areas on the farm we may try this eventually.

Snap some pics when you get to working on your farm Hopp! I'm curious what your steep hills look like. Like your forester said, I think we'll have to end up killing more of these cedars in the next year to let more light to the forest floor. We don't want to kill them all but definitely need to thin them out. But now that the bottom branches are gone it's so simple to girdle any tree you want so killing them will be the easy part.

 

[gundog870]

Did a lot of Hinge cutting today, and it is hard to show the mess that I made, but am very excited about it! These are mostly stands of Oak and Hickory and used to be very open because of cattle being in it in the past, so I went through and nailed pockets of Elm and Iron wood. One area is about 9 acres total that I did three 1 acre pockets in; and the other is a long ridge that I just walked and did areas as I deemed fit. It should really take off I hope!

Because it was so open and I am hoping for some instant cover, I opted to hinge all of these vs hack and squirt.

 

[Hardwood11]

How is your chainsaw blade after cutting ironwood??

See any sparks?

 

[gundog870]

Mines great, send my brother and Dad in that direction

 

[gundog870]

I would say 90% of what we cut today was elm

 

[LoessHillsArcher]

That's some great looking stuff! Timber work seems to be never ending, you've got a heck of a start there for sure!

 

[LoessHillsArcher]

Snapped some pics after wrapping up the "TSI" cedar job. Main goal was to open the timber just so it was more easy for wildlife to move through. We'll see how the forest floor growth responds because right now there is nothing there for wildlife to eat. So if we don't get stuff growing we'll girdle some of these cedars next year.

Notice the brush piles I made from the cut dead cedar branches, hopefully the deer like bedding by those

If the bottom branches still had green growth I'd leave them for thermal cover and for deer to bed under, but I'd still cut the dead branches out to make it easier for them to get in and under the lower live branches

Lots of room for improvement yet to get some good ground cover going in here but at least we've made it easier for us and wildlife to get through this thick timber and now we can girdle and plant trees as needed

Now the rest of these pictures are from this same timber but in an area we did some major TSI a couple years back, lots of girdling done and dropping and hinging of other trees... notice a difference?

Still left some larger cedars in this part of it too, and they shade out the bottom growth in the timber but they make great thermal cover

More areas of this timber to work on improving in the future but for now we are done here, maybe transplant some cedars in this opening in the next few weeks I suppose

 

[Jbohn]

Going to be doing some timber work this week end, last year on the area I did had a good bit of Brush Honey Suckle pop up. , Any good mixes to spray or techniques to kill the stuff .. Only want to have to do this once.. Planting 200 cedars in the area 3 year old trees.. Thanks guys

 

[JayEC]

Snapped some pics after wrapping up the "TSI" cedar job. Main goal was to open the timber just so it was more easy for wildlife to move through.

Those are some gnarly looking areas, thanks for sharing the pictures! I like seeing what other people are doing for changes to their property. It keeps me motivated!

 

[LoessHillsArcher]

Going to be doing some timber work this week end, last year on the area I did had a good bit of Brush Honey Suckle pop up. , Any good mixes to spray or techniques to kill the stuff .. Only want to have to do this once.. Planting 200 cedars in the area 3 year old trees.. Thanks guys

I have never treated honey suckle but had a friend asking me the same question about treating it this weekend. I'd say do a google search but I bet that you'll find out people use either Garlon or Remedy to control it. Possibly could get by with doing basal bark treatments. We've learned the hard way trying to control black locust that there are two key things; 1) the timing of the herbicide application and 2) picking the right herbicide (there are some options here tho so don't think you have to have a certain one)

 

[LoessHillsArcher]

Walked through a TSI timber that we worked on in 2011 so that makes 4 years of growing since we hit it with the saws, some big changes in here since then!

This timber had a lot of big bur oaks, that was our #1 crop tree. We'd save a few bigger hackberry and any hickory or cherry trees if present (but I don't think this timber had any). There were also a ton of elm in here so we dropped all we could and girdled 99% of the rest. Those dang elm are such aggressive growers, some even survived the double girdle! Must not have gotten deep enough

And you can see a pocket of larger ones here that need girdled

But for spending a few hours in here over a weekend this place has made some big changes! Some spots we focused heavy on hinging...

Some spots we just cut the trees clean off and drug them away. Trying to encourage the deer to walk through here

This is what this entire timber used to look like... wiiiiide open

But here you can see where we started hinge cutting just in the distance, major change in habitat once you walk into that thicket!

This was probably our most aggressive TSI work, we really got a chance to drop some big trees and girdle others and that really opened up the canopy

Open up the canopy, free up the good oaks, and let sunlight to the forest floor. That's a recipe for creating whitetail heaven!

 

[DannyBoy]

Fire, Jordan!! THEN watch the oak regen go nuts.

 

[LoessHillsArcher]

Fire, Jordan!! THEN watch the oak regen go nuts.

Oh man we love a good prairie burn... but are too nervous to do a timber burn yet. We've got some smaller TSI'd timbers we want to try them on. What time of year do you suggest?

 

[scottonbuck]

Timber burns are way slower and easier than grass burns. A lot of times in the fire dept. we will let the grass burn to the timber and use a leaf blower to make a fire line. A steel tooth rake and or a leaf blower is your best friend when burning timber. You will have logs or piles that will burn longer than a prairie burn but as long as they are well into the black (burned area) let them burn. Actually hoping to do a little prescribed burn on a farm soon.

 

[Daver]

Timber burns are way slower and easier than grass burns. A lot of times in the fire dept. we will let the grass burn to the timber and use a leaf blower to make a fire line. A steel tooth rake and or a leaf blower is your best friend when burning timber. You will have logs or piles that will burn longer than a prairie burn but as long as they are well into the black (burned area) let them burn. Actually hoping to do a little prescribed burn on a farm soon.

A timber burn sounds imposing, but I feel like they are quite a bit easier than a field burn to manage, particularly a field with taller grasses in it like switch. As Scotton said above...a leaf blower is a big key to preparing for a timber burn. I will go through the area that I intend to burn ahead of time and quickly blow any concentration of leaves away from good trees or anything that I would prefer not get burned and it is quick to do and very effective.

I have also used a simple riding lawnmower to make fool proof fire breaks in the timber too. Go one direction and blow all the leaves one way and turn around and come back right along your first line and blow the leaves the other way and presto...you have a 6'-8' fire break line all ready to go!

All that said...if you have done extensive TSI or hinging in a timber area then you may need to take additional precautions not to burn all of your snags up. I have NOT run fire through a timber area with a lot of "downed" timber...that could present additional challenges I would imagine.

 

[DannyBoy]

Whenever it will burn Jordan but depends a little on objectives. Fall or later spring burns will help set back invasive suckers/regen if burned when it's got some life above ground. That being said we've already started burning timber at work, taking advantage of conditions while they were good last week.

If you're comfortable with prairie burns, a timber burn will be a walk in the park after you've done it a time or two.

 

[Forestryguy]

I just started reading the last few pages of this thread and thought I would through what I have done and seen success with, on a few of the last topics that have come up.

Locust: You need to distinguish between Honey and Black Locust, they are two different animals to deal with. Honey Locust is far easier to deal with, double girdle it about half a bar deep and it should do the trick. Black Locust, girdle and treat in the fall with 100% Glyphosate. The later you get into winter bump it up to Garlon and then Tordon. I would not even mess with treating them in the Spring or Summer.

I'll finish this later tonight, just got called out for work.

 

[Forestryguy]

Honey Suckle: Wait till Fall and apply 3% Glyphosate to the foliage after the other plants have died off for the year. You can also cut stump apply Glyphosate during the summer.

If you are going to burn after doing TSI, be ready for some higher flame lengths for one or two burns. Fall burning will give you better fire activity. But Spring burns will do a better job of top killing smaller undesirables.

Someone was wondering why girdling did not kill Elm, I believe. The reason for this is that Elm, Basswood and a few other species can transport sap in wood that is deeper in the tree. I would suggest applying chemical on these to make sure you get the kill off that you are looking for. I caution against girdling to deep, you may inadvertently create a tree that will snap off at some point and time. A few months ago I was girdling some Black Oak that snapped off while I was in the area. I only girdled the trees about a fourth of the bar deep. The trees were punky in the centers and came apart when the wind kicked up.

 

[LoessHillsArcher]

Thank you very much Forestryguy! Great advice on all points!

I was the one who noticed the double girdled elm did not die and that is what I figured the issue was, the girdle was not deep enough. I also ran into a dangerous situation girdling an oak... I was doing a double girdle on this junky, half dead but oak that I didn't really want to fell. I get the first girdle done and continue on around it the 2nd time. Just as I get on the bottom side of the tree I hear a snap (through the chainsaw running and headphones on) and notice the tree slowly falling towards me... got the heck out of there real quick! Dang thing was rotten part of the way through. I hate cutting trees and finding out they are rotten, makes me nervous.

Thank you again for the input, very much appreciated!