Maple for browse?

[Needmorebrush82]

I have a creek bottom that is full of hardwoods and mature eastern red cedars. My thought is hinge some of this area to thicken it up and plant it with young maples. The maples would be protected until established and then stump cut for re sprouting. I am thinking this would create optimal browse with a fast growing tree and also thicken the area even more. Has anyone done this? The place is loaded with deer so it's more about getting them to spend more time on my place and more food options than the neighbors.

 

[H20fwler]

I hinge some hard maples along my woods and the tips get browsed hard in winter, and they are good bunny cover when the summer grasses grow up in them.

 

[144]

Never done that, but I know the regrowth of the red maples I had mulched as part of clearing this past winter got hammered all through the summer. The deer wouldn’t even let leaf out again before it was just bare stems again.


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[Bowsnbucks]

We haven't PLANTED any maples at camp - we have plenty of them naturally. But I can tell you that when we logged, and had lots of maple stumps, I set cages over some of the stumps. The caged stumps put out lots of sprouts and they grew pretty well. The un-caged ones got eaten down to the ground. If you have a lot of deer, I'd suggest you cage some of your maples until they can get established.

If it's a creek bottom, have you thought of red osier dogwood ?? Those can be started with cuttings that you just dip in rooting hormone and stick them in the ground. FWIW.

 

[Tap]

And freshly fallen maple leaves in the fall are a major source of food for deer.
The downside to maples is that they can completely shade out the ground. But if kept under control they offer great bud browse when hinge cut or fell and the leaves are a food source that most hunters overlook.

 

[KDdid]

And while not preferred by the experts, maples are fast growing, require little care to establish, and can be a valuable component of a reforestation strategy. I’m planning on establishing some soft maples as a fast growing buffer on the east border of my farm, and letting them fill in from the fence to a parallel row of oaks bordering my NWSG field. As they mature, I will thin/hinge them and fill the openings with shrubs.


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[j-bird]

Keep in mind "maples" is a general term. Soft maples like silver maple and red maple will grow fast and stump sprout fairly well. Hard maple (sugar maple) don't grow as fast and don't stump sprout as well. Hard/sugar maple is VERY shade tolerant and can produce a dense canopy as well..... From what I have seen soft maples do better in damper soil and hard maples will do better on drier soils. My personal experience is also that soft maples tend to hinge far better than hard maples will. Sugar maple in my area is also a decent timber tree from a value perspective where soft maples are typically just pallet and crate wood and don't bring as much money.

Look at what trees and shrubs are native to your area and look at the soils and site conditions and plant what will be the best fit for that area would be my advice. Many shrubs like buttonbush or elderberry could be suitable considerations as well.

 

[Needmorebrush82]

This will be in a creek bottom that flash floods randomly so a food plot could be washed away some years or it could thrive. The area has been hinged to let in some light as it was bare ground before. The idea of the silver maple was to tube a bunch of them and let them get established and then take the tube off and let them get hammered. If they are hammered the way that they should be stump sprouting should begin to take over and make the area thicker and offer much more food. The area may go months without rain and averages 38in per year. The creek bottom is the only area I feel this would be possible, new oaks have to be watered on a weekly basis when its 100+ and the wind is roaring. Once trees establish and grow down into the sandstone they tend to do very well and ground water is shallow, it's just getting them through the first summer and there is no practical way to get into this area to water. This is a for them type project. Sand plums and sumac are two shrubs that grow on the place and more will be planted. This year I have a cabin to complete and another quarter mile of fence in sandstone so keeping the shrub/tree planting around 500-600 total as I just do not have the time this year. To much to do before it gets hot!

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Sorry to jump in, but do deer like silver maple? Do they eat the silver maple seeds? I have one at home in my yard, and I can tell you it is about the most annoying messy tree, but it does grow fast, and the seeds grow on anything. I considered in the past planting a few of the seeds on my hunting land, but I wasnt sure if I wanted the hassle of having all of those damn helicopters flying all over the place. Just wondering if they are a preferred food, or just something they will eat when there isnt anything else?

 

[nitro27]

According to the Beltrami co. MN SWCD - It is highly susceptible to deer browse, and protective measures should be taken in areas of high deer population.

 

[Bill]

Sorry to jump in, but do deer like silver maple? Do they eat the silver maple seeds? I have one at home in my yard, and I can tell you it is about the most annoying messy tree, but it does grow fast, and the seeds grow on anything. I considered in the past planting a few of the seeds on my hunting land, but I wasnt sure if I wanted the hassle of having all of those damn helicopters flying all over the place. Just wondering if they are a preferred food, or just something they will eat when there isnt anything else?

I was wondering that myself. I've got one in a pasture that no longer gets mowed and there thousands of little one coming up all around it. There growing through heavy grass so their prolific. One next to the house too and I clean thousands of helicopters out of the gutters every spring. I could just broadcast the darn things.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I would be more afraid of the damn things taking over my woods, then over taking Northern Wisconsin.


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[Bowsnbucks]

Silver maples are known to be very weak when it comes to wind and snow loads. They snap very easily. Red maples are stronger than silver maples when it comes to either wind or snow. We have a batch of red maple all around camp and I have one in my front yard ( that is a male clone and doesn't throw off " helicopters ". ) Great fall color without the spinners.

Deer hammer red and sugar maple seedlings and saplings at camp. After logging, if we don't cage some stumps, the stump sprouts get eaten to the ground.

 

[Needmorebrush82]

Silver maples are known to be very weak when it comes to wind and snow loads. They snap very easily. Red maples are stronger than silver maples when it comes to either wind or snow. We have a batch of red maple all around camp and I have one in my front yard ( that is a male clone and doesn't throw off " helicopters ". ) Great fall color without the spinners.

Deer hammer red and sugar maple seedlings and saplings at camp. After logging, if we don't cage some stumps, the stump sprouts get eaten to the ground.

I am all for the fact they break off and the storms around here will destroy them. Saves me time not having to hinge cut to keep the browse down low! This is an area for the deer so the thicker and nastier I can make it with added food is all the better.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Needmorebrush - Yep - if it works for you ......... It's all good !! ^^^^^^

 

[MojoRisin]

This is an interesting topic for me too. I own some cedar swamp that is incredibly dense (non-navigable basically without crawling) with alders and stunted cedars and is really a waste of space. I plan to have a few acres run over and through by a dozer leaving the trees in a tangled mess. I will leave around a 20 yard border of the crap to an area I had cleared last year that I plan to plant this year after some additional leveling on it. My goal is that some of those trees stay alive with their roots in the moss and serve as browse. Some of the trees could be used for bedding areas if some spots are dry. Opening this should allow some sun to let some form of browse grow. I plan to bring bags full of helicopters from my silver maples from home to spread around this new opening. Those things grow in the cracks of my deck, sidewalk, and rocks in the flower garden and I am sure they will grow in the moss and crap of this opening. I doubt any of them would grow to maturity given my deer density and I am thinking they would be good browse for my situation.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Mojo - I've seen silver maples growing in some very wet areas. They seem to tolerate all kinds of conditions. ^^^^^