Hickory Trees

[GoldenTriangleIL]

Much of the lands of West Central Illinois that I frequently roam and hunt are covered in various hickory trees. Is there any reason to leave hickory trees standing if one is only seeking to create deer and turkey habitat? I can't think of a reason to have them, and they crowd out a lot of mast producing oaks.

 

[MoBuckChaser]

Same in NW Missouri. I hinge or girdle everyone I see!

 

[gunther89]

When we clear cut part of our woods, our certified forester told us we should leave hickory trees cause deer ate the nuts. We told him we had never seen deer eat them and had them cut every hickory tree in the area. We have another section that is majority shagbark hickory and some day we will be cutting them down as well. They are a pain in the butt to hang stands in and I don't think they do anything for deer.

 

[Someday isle]

To build on this question - Do hickory trees hinge well, and do they survive?

 

[Maddog3355]

Hickory trees hinge very well and deer seem to browse them well.

 

[Someday isle]

Thanks!

 

[Bill]

Yep I hinge them also. The new shoots are browsed heavily at my place.

 

[Someday isle]

Good to know. I have plans for some hinge cutting this year. I have lots of oaks and hickory. I don't think it's a big deal in my area to hinge smaller oaks since there are so many of them but I didn't know what to do with the hickory.

Golden triangle - thanks for this thread!

 

[Redonthehead]

The only thing keeping me from girdling the bigger hickories is they have some value as saw logs:
https://mdc.mo.gov/sites/default/files/downloads/TPTJulySept2016.pdf
Hickory flooring is quite nice.

 

[yoderjac]

Much of the lands of West Central Illinois that I frequently roam and hunt are covered in various hickory trees. Is there any reason to leave hickory trees standing if one is only seeking to create deer and turkey habitat? I can't think of a reason to have them, and they crowd out a lot of mast producing oaks.

Squirrels hammer hickory in years when acorns are few. The shells on hickory (at least the varieties growing on my farm) that deer can't crack them and don't use them. Several years ago on the other forum and elsewhere, I started asking folks about there experience with deer using pecans. The answers I got were very mixed. Some folks reported heavy use and others reported zero use. When I started looking into pecans, I found that some have thin shells that are easy to crack and others have much harder shells. Also, the nut separator in some can have a very high tannin content.

Since it is possible to graft pecans to hickory, I tried bark grafting some of the disease resistant pecan variety scions like Kanza to some of my hickory trees as an experiment. My grafting results were poor compared to persimmons. Only about 30% of my grafts took. I think this may be incompatibility between some hickory varieties as rootstock for pecan. The scions that took grew pretty well in the first leaf but slowed down in the second leaf and grew even slower in the third leaf.

I have not nuts so far. Even if these trees eventually produce pecans, it will take a while to assess deer usage. Even if deer do use them, I question whether the results are worth the cost and effort compared to other alternatives.

While native hickories do have a place in wildlife management and diversity, if the species you are primarily managing for is deer, I could certainly see removing some of them in some circumstances.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Bill]

Good to know. I have plans for some hinge cutting this year. I have lots of oaks and hickory. I don't think it's a big deal in my area to hinge smaller oaks since there are so many of them but I didn't know what to do with the hickory.

Golden triangle - thanks for this thread!

With bigger oaks around I'd be willing to bet when you open the canopy there will also be oak regeneration.
I did a ridge a few years back that is now producing many white oaks naturally.

 

[H20fwler]

I've got a bunch of shag bark in one of my woods, they definitely have value for wildlife I see squirrels/deer/turkeys and wood ducks feeding under them. They also are very prone to having hollow spots in them which creates den sites for squirrels/owls/woodpeckers and coon and because of that the tops often get blown off creating stove pipe trees that die slow feeding lots of woodpeckers and birds. Also good money in logging the big solid ones when select cutting, used for flooring and cabinet wood.

 

[Mike Castillo]

Hickories may not be the absolute best tree for deer...but remember we are managing for a healthy ecosystem in general. The nuts are relished by squirrels and rodents, and the bark of the shagbark provides important nesting cover for certain species of birds, bats, and owls. I have lots of shagbark on my property, and I do hinge some of them...but I leave a lot also/

 

[Tap]

I've lived in "hickory land" since 1986. My woods are full of them. My yard is full of them. Here's my take on them...
Deer do not eat the nuts. I watch deer in my yard daily and have only watched one young buck even attempt to eat a hickory nut in all the years I've been here. It was comical. He tried over and over to crack it between his molars but he just couldn't keep the nut from slipping out of his mouth.
Deer will eat freshly fallen hickory leaves in the fall and the only browsing I see is when a mature tree ends up on the ground, and then they hammer all the buds.
It hinges well but I don't have good success with the upper tree staying alive. It usually dies above the cut, but re-sprouts very well below the cut.
Hickory is my absolute favorite species for the wood burner. High BTU's and holds coals all night long. It's a bit miserable to process it into firewood, though. Hard to split without a hydraulic splitter, and the branches are a royal pain to clean-up. There's a zillion of them and the grab ahold of everything when you try to drag them away.
I also get a lot of saw flies in the wood pile...they don't really ruin the wood for burning but they make a ton of sawdust. Gets a little messy bringing it into the house.
I like having hickory for future firewood, and shade for the house, but there are much better trees as far as deer are concerned.