Hinge cutting

ksgobbler

5 year old buck +
2 part question. Here is part 1
This area is along a creek and regularly floods. It’s almost entirely green ash with a little hedge. Due to the COE water will be down here for sometimes a month at a time. It’s too thick for turkeys to feel comfortable in the spring, not thick for a halfway decent screen from the elevated road, no ground cover for quail, and no browse for deer. Thought about hinge cutting it. Other options include thinning it, thinning and planting buttonbush, planting some water tolerant oaks, etc. What do you think?
94EB2FDF-5F70-416D-8633-227AD36D7DB2.jpeg1F462B3E-3ED6-479E-A2D7-4AEBA576D62F.jpeg
 
Part 2
This area starts at the NE corner of my food plot and runs E and North east. I get a lot of deer coming down the trail you can see in the pic. Quail don’t use it but I do see turkeys in the spring so I am kinda reluctant. I thought about hinge cutting half and acre and making it thick. Quail would likely use it, and may give turkeys a nesting space. As a convient side effect it would also get the 20% protein leaves down where the deer could get at them. I’d make sure they still had a trail leading right into my food plot. What do you think?8BDB303E-F104-4FA6-BBAA-C4F921FF743E.jpeg402BAEE1-BAC1-431C-AC39-96360FA2516F.jpeg49D5CF8D-B692-40E7-9D92-44955C45F05F.jpegE53782DB-55D2-4FD8-A132-FC07F1D9DD38.jpeg
 

Attachments

  • 0F46F7C3-1ABF-4860-994A-74015E4BE556.jpeg
    0F46F7C3-1ABF-4860-994A-74015E4BE556.jpeg
    761.3 KB · Views: 39
hopefully someone who has some experience with Ash chimes in. I don't so I dont know how it responds to hinge cutting or if its safe to do. But from a general standpoint based on the pictures that place could benefit from it, if its feasible. I like the idea of planting some other things in there maybe some willows. Again no experience with Ash but I read the ash boring bug is bad and you may need a backup plan.
 
Never hinge cut it but cut a fair amount of green ash for firewood. It's a strong flexible wood that's not going to break off easily when you hinge cut small stuff but would caution against trying on larger trees. I would consider ash a much higher danger than most trees for barber chairing due to its straight grain and very easy to split (traits which make it easy to split for firewood). Get much about 6-7" and I would leave alone or wrap a chain around above the cut to contain. Do the chain thing sometimes on strong leaners, works well to keep things safe.

barberchair.jpg
 
I was a sawyer in wildland fire back in the day and worked for a tree service for a couple years as well so I am pretty handy with a chainsaw.
 
I’ve only got a years experience higher cutting but some of that looks like it could be dangerous. And since it’s not my money to spend, that looks like an area that a guy with a dozer could just drive right over and knock stuff down. Crush the brush as the book Grow em Right would say. It’d probably come in really thick after that. Maybe even a good size skid steer would do some work in there.
 
I would hinge cut a few half or 3/4 circles and see what happens. Grab some willow cuttings and tuck them in there. Plant spruce or red cedar along the top edge, just above the high water mark. Don’t use red cedar if you are planting apples.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I am currently ridding my property of most cedars leaving just a couple small thickets. Don’t see myself planting more.
 
I'd try hinge cutting sections, then maybe clear out areas and create big brushpiles. What grows naturally in adjacent open areas? It looks like a decent spot for wild plums if they grow in that area. It sounds like the area isn't great for wildlife now, so I'd make some big changes since you don't have a lot to lose. Good luck.
 
THere is lots of wild plums around that spot. I’d like to get native grass going again but flood water is tough on it. I was in there tonight clearing out a bunch of small honey locust and hinged half a dozen hedge over.
 
Gobbler, I had several areas in my creek I wanted to make bedding areas. The creek pasture has mostly hedge, locust, elm, and ash. It floods a couple times a year. For bedding areas, I basal sprayed the locusts with Remedy/diesel mix, hinge cut the elm, ash and osage orange where I wanted the deer to bed and have extra browse. It worked perfectly for what I wanted. The areas are 25-30 yards across. The deer definitely bed right there. It has really grown up thick with shoots and brush. I plan to do some more of this shortly.
 
I hinge cut these last winter53893A9C-4100-42DB-86E7-8F417E05734E.jpeg2DE28718-12AC-4C1A-AA5F-B4CFF920B125.jpeg220DE7CB-7049-48DC-A991-AB2AE97385A8.jpegA060E97E-3089-4C70-A88F-7A0545564F19.jpeg
 
I found an issue. The hedge is so thick you can’t get it to lay over. May need to cut some out for firewood, then use the open area to lay others down. I did find an area today on the edge of my field I can create some living brushpiles for the gamebirds.
 
Cutting a hedge is tough work. I have not tried hinge cutting a hedge row. Instead, I drop the tree - or cut it and pull it out, then cut out hedge posts. After I have cut as many as I want, shove the limbs back into the hedge row. Those limbs will last a long time before breaking down. In the meantime, the stumps sprout and grow fast. Most of my hedge rows are too mature to be good wildlife cover. They need to be cut. The brush piles are very good for birds and rabbits...and unfortunately, packrats.
 
1A9F192B-2678-4DBB-B803-6637B9EC4ED4.jpeg
 
KS going a bit off topic with this but still hopefully relevant.

Question about hinge cutting, being out in the relative open on the prairie.
Hinge cutting is not a management option that I have used or have the option to use on much of a scale.
Its tuff enough getting trees started, so cutting down the ones I do have just doesn't seem practical.

But, I do have one shelter belt that I am restoring per se.
The thought process was to hinge 3-4 trees per year, in the tree row ( probably about 40-50 trees total in length).
And immediately replant either a red maple,hackberry, or oak directly beside the hinged tree, to serve as a starter replacement.

Question is, will the new tree be able to establish itself in the direct competition of said hinged tree.

Edit: The hinged trees in question have relatively little to no value to wildlife outside the fact they are a tree in the middle of ag ground. Believe they are like Siberian elm or something.
 
Last edited:
If you are wanting to sexy it up for quail go along that outside edge and drop everything so it falls towards the field, cut thirty yards back the whole edge and leave it lay.
The rest of that looks like thick overhead cover, would hinge or just cut a bunch of it down. It looks like trees will catch on other trees bad, if you can open up some good sized areas you can let some light in and plant a little more diversity in there getting better ground cover and food options..
 
Just based on the pictures I think you could cut every other one to let in some sun light and the place will explode. Feathering the outer edges is a great suggestion as well. Plant trees and shrubs that will grow well in that location and you can add some diversity as well. Some clusters of conifers would be a great addition as well. I have had decent luck hinging smaller ash, but even better luck with it stump sprouting. I have a couple ash ....bushes!IMG_1411.JPG
 
KS going a bit off topic with this but still hopefully relevant.

Question about hinge cutting, being out in the relative open on the prairie.
Hinge cutting is not a management option that I have used or have the option to use on much of a scale.
Its tuff enough getting trees started, so cutting down the ones I do have just doesn't seem practical.

But, I do have one shelter belt that I am restoring per se.
The thought process was to hinge 3-4 trees per year, in the tree row ( probably about 40-50 trees total in length).
And immediately replant either a red maple,hackberry, or oak directly beside the hinged tree, to serve as a starter replacement.

Question is, will the new tree be able to establish itself in the direct competition of said hinged tree.

Edit: The hinged trees in question have relatively little to no value to wildlife outside the fact they are a tree in the middle of ag ground. Believe they are like Siberian elm or something.

That's certainly worth a shot. Since the hinged trees are still alive their root system would still compete with adjacent seedlings. Seedlings are pretty cheap though, so I'd throw a couple different seedlings around the hinged tree and see what happens. I've also found that brushpiles and hinged trees seem to attract birds that crap out berry seeds which might give you a little extra variety at no charge.
 
If I remove canopy and let light in I will get sericea lespedeza worse than it is in there already. I do need to cut out some hedge, but I am already a year ahead on firewood and already have wood down.
 
Top