Expanding Swamp Cover

[younggun1849]

Our biggest hole in the bucket on this farm is lack of cover. Pines are too old for optimum cover, our clear cuts are regenerating, but don't have the holding power I want yet. The tag alders that grow along the creek is the best cover on the property, and a lot of deer utilize it. I believe large areas of tag alders have tremendous holding power, and I want to provide more cover. The outline in red is reed canary grass, and in my opinion is a huge waste of space. I want to turn this into bedding cover. You can see there are some small islands of cover in the RC, can I do anything to help these expand quickly and out-compete the RC? Thinking about planting willows in the RC too. Turning this into excellent cover will be a huge benefit to the farm. Any ideas are welcome!

 

[kabic]

Black Spruce? I guess it probably doesn't meet your quickly requirement.

 

[dipper]

Oust and whatever pine/spruce u want. White pine will b ure fastest route

 

[younggun1849]

Oust and whatever pine/spruce u want. White pine will b ure fastest route

Oust kills the RC but doesn't kill white pine correct? Will it kill tags, or willows?

 

[wiscwhip]

How "wet" is the area the RC is in. How long does the water stick around in spring? Can you post a pic of the RC area zoomed in as close as possible?

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

Kill the grasses and go in and plant some spruce - black for sure and maybe some white. Black spruce can grow in extremely wet areas and whites can handle wet feet occasionally. The downside is that both grow slow (might hit 10 feet tall in 7-10 years). White pines grow fast, but the deer will browse them heavily and kill them if they winter in that area, so I'd pass on pines. I think adding some shrub willows and hybrid poplars or cottonwoods would also be good. The hybrid poplars and cottonwoods will grow really fast and give you some cover while you wait for the spruce to catch up. Once the spruce are holding their own, you could hinge cut the hybrid poplars and cottonwoods.

 

[younggun1849]

How "wet" is the area the RC is in. How long does the water stick around in spring? Can you post a pic of the RC area zoomed in as close as possible?

You can drive across it pretty much anytime of the year except snowmelt, or after a really heavy rain. The first step is to kill the grass, does oust work well on RC? Will it kill the tags if I spray the tags prior to leafs budding? I'd like to spray around the tags and encourage them to expand naturally. Whats best way to do this?

 

[wiscwhip]

Oust XP should not affect your tag alder. I have done this multiple times using a few different methods. You do also have the option of mechanical control if you can drive out there and have a brush hog or tow behind ATV mower. Also, I have taken out smaller "planting pockets" of RC with fire using propane weed burners when there was still some snow on the ground in the spring. It is some labor, but it clears the ground and allows you to work with pretty much bare soil when planting and applying herbicide. Those tags will stump sprout and thicken up if you cut them about a foot or so off the ground, maybe leave one good branch below the "cut" to encourage green growth for quick photosynthesis once they "wake up". Usually they grow in clumps, you could cut every other one and leave some full height in between so as to not make it completely "barren" waiting for the regrowth. I have some other posts on what we have done in the past on some other threads here somewhere if you do a search. If you can't find them, let me know. Find the "highest" spots and work on those first. "Lines" of black spruce through that RC will be your friend in about 5-7 years. Deer will follow them like an Interstate.