Another 13 acres of FSI done this winter.

[White Birch Farm]

Happy to get another good winter project done, the $4500 check for completing the work is just a bonus. I have completed 25 acre myself in a little over a year. A good number of 100-200 year old white and red oaks fully released.

 

[SwampCat]

Are you spraying the stumps later this spring? With what herbicide. Going rate NRCS signup paying here for injection is $120 per acre.

 

[White Birch Farm]

Are you spraying the stumps later this spring? With what herbicide. Going rate NRCS signup paying here for injection is $120 per acre.

I am not, the way I actively manage they will provide valuable winter forage for the next couple years and killing them is counterproductive at this point. Until such time that they cause meaningful competition to oak regeneration, they are an asset and not a liability.
That being said, I understand in a commercial operation where active management is not to be expected, stump spraying at the time of cutting makes sense.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

Running a fire through there in a couple years?

 

[White Birch Farm]

Running a fire through there in a couple years?

Not likely. In most areas I usually end out planting back trees, including oaks, persimmon, apple and pear in tubes. A fire would destroy them.

 

[SwampCat]

The are of the injection contract on my place this year has 1400 stems per acre. They will inject everything less than six inches in diameter - which amounts to 1200 stems per acre. There is very little big mature trees except in a couple of creek bottoms. This 40 acre tract was cleacut in 1998, and allowed to grow back up without replanting. Most of the bigger oak - 6” to 8” in diameter - are stump sprouts from the original cutting. Most are three stems per stump. I know every piece of ground is different, but no way would I burn my 40 acres three years after the tsi work with all that dead fuel on the ground - for fear of killing or scarring the remaining oaks. What I am doing will most likely create an almost impenetrable bear’s den for about ten years as the dead trees rot away and the native grasses and forbs respond to the more open canopy. It we become great bedding area - of which I dont need - but a means to an end.

No doubt, that is a lot of chainsaw time on your ground. I appreciate the resiliency of your back - that would have finished mine off.