Resetting forest succession

Jaxon Holler

Yearling... With promise
Read through almost all the habitat threads, talked to our DNR forester, you tube videos and read pretty much anything related to this topic. Some things I just can't seem to find answers to fit certain situations so I thought I'd find answers here.
Been on our parcel about 3 years now. Started with 14 acres and added two adjacent parcels so about 40 acres now. Most of it is reclaimed stone quarry with ponds, gullies and limestone ledges. Mature red and white oak, poplar, ash, birch, Hickory, red and sugar maple. There's 30 inch DBH white pine and baby white pines here and there. The midstory is mostly hop hornbeam and ironwood. Tons of baby maples on the understory.
I'm trying to add forest openings with native grass and forbs and hardwood regen. We hike, cut firewood, atv, and hunt turkey, deer and do a little trapping.
My biggest problem is I want to cut the poplar and red maples to get strong regeneration and stems per acre in those areas. No logger wants to cut it the way I want( not enough acres and the mill shutting down took out our pulp timber market).
Do I just cut the poplar and let the whole trees rot on the ground? I've got more firewood cut than I need with plenty more oak ash and Hickory to burn when I need more.
If I let the poplar and red maple lay where they fall will it keep deer out and impede regen? How long would it look like a tornado blew the woods over? Any suggestions are appreciated.
Thanks!
 
Hinge cut the poplar and maple rather than just cut them down. Leave some areas untouched so that deer travel will still take place. You get instant pockets of cover and food this way without having to wait. As the hinged trees are slowly dying, you will get saplings emerging giving you the regen that you want,

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I wouldn't worry about poplar being around very long. I can't help you with red maple.

I'm in the same boat as you. Property is too small and not worth cutting. That's also a liberating position because now you know you can't hurt anything.

Whack away wherever you wanna do stuff, just have some intentionality to where things drop, what you're going to keep, and make sure you keep some travel lanes open through it if it'll be large. If the spots aren't too big, just drop everything to a common center and let the deer walk around your clusters.

Here's some spots I made earlier this winter. I dropped poplar, tag alder, diamond willow, and ash. I'm keeping all my small conifers, paper birch, bur oak, dogwood, maple, basswood, hazels, viburnums, chokecherry, and anything else in low unimposing density. I'm hoping the stuff I released will get some legs under it and fill in. I'm also blowing some white sweet clover into all this brush early this spring to provide some cover, bee feed, and help eat up that brush.

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So after i drop the big trees do I just go back and cut trails through? I've been reading about maze a pocket cover and thought that might work. The big poplar are 20 inch plus DBH. Curious how long those logs will be around. I cleared about an acre last spring and spent the winter burning logs and slash. I just don't want to create an area the critters won't utilize.
 
So after i drop the big trees do I just go back and cut trails through? I've been reading about maze a pocket cover and thought that might work. The big poplar are 20 inch plus DBH. Curious how long those logs will be around. I cleared about an acre last spring and spent the winter burning logs and slash. I just don't want to create an area the critters won't utilize.
Pick your trails first, and then try to drop your trees away from the trails. Drop it in the right place the first time, and it doesn't have to be moved again. I like leaving all that brush exactly where it falls to provide a year or two of wildlife cover and protection for stuff that doesn't do well unprotected, like dogwood. The stuff I cut goes from laying brush being 6-7' high the day I cut it, to maybe 12" high in 2-3 years. I wish it were more durable to be honest.

If you're worried about the poplar logs, just make sure they're touching the ground. And 20" poplar is a dangerous tree. Be careful out there.
 
Our camp logged about 22 acres about 6 years ago. We cut mostly (90%) red maple, and also some damaged / diseased oak, black gum, and a few hickories. The red maple limbs and brush were immediately browsed by the deer, and were rotted away in about 3 years. Oak limbs and brush last longer, as do hickory limbs and trunks of a decent size. Oak and maple stumps will produce stump sprouts readily. We caged some of our stumps to let them grow for browse & cover - the ones we didn't cage were eaten to the ground. Few survived without cages.

As for trails through the logged area, the deer made their own as they browsed their way through the tops and slash. It was NOT a clear cut - but rather a heavy select cut. We did pile some slash around stumps to act as "free cages" to keep deer away from the stumps so the sprouts could get some size to them. We were advised by several foresters to let the tops and slash lay if we wanted to provide browse and cover for deer and turkeys. The deer moved right into the tops the first night we started cutting. They browsed the twigs and shoots of the tops and bedded right IN the tops. They moved right back in the second night of cutting. Dusk arrived = deer IN.

As of now - since that logging - the only limbs left on the ground are larger oak or hickory limbs. Most of the good stuff has been cut up for camp firewood. The rest is all rotted away. The remaining bigger oaks, maples, hickories, tulip poplar, cherry, birch, and white pine trees are providing seed sources for regeneration. Stump sprouts are adding new growth. We also planted clusters and "lines" of Norway spruce in the logged areas to provide thermal, security, and bedding cover. Random weeds, forbs, berries, and grasses have all filled in where the sun hits the most.

A bit of CRUCIAL advice - if you get any ........... and I mean ANY sign of "tree of heaven" in your cut or on your property - cut them off and treat the stumps (no matter how small!) with Garlon AS SOON AS YOU CUT THEM !!! They MUST be treated within minutes of cutting or the stumps will self-seal as a defense mechanism. We ignored the handful (literally) of T.O.H. we had at first, and now we have THOUSANDS of them. T.O.H. spreads by seeds AND by root systems. T.O.H. is a MENACE!!! They'll suck up the nutrients of native trees and eventually overtake your forests. T.O.H. is a MAJOR problem in Pa. Foresters are at WAR with T.O.H. here. FWIW.
 
Thanks for the replies and suggestions. I've looked at this spot about a 100 times, trying to imagine the right way to drop which trees, how to lay them on contour to direct deer and screen stand approach/ food plot screen etc. Being cautious has been helpful in previous projects, an hour running a saw can completely transform an area. Sometimes for better sometimes for worse. I have found most "mistakes" can be adapted or fixed but I try to think it through before doing something that will take a generation to recover.

I've considered girdling the really big trees, reserving them for den trees and removing their impact on the canopy. Then the smaller trees can get dropped and manipulated to shelter regrowth and the other goodies I have plans to plant there. There's quite a few white oaks in the pole timber size in hoping will release and and I've got a few hundred white and Norway spruce coming in spring. Red Osier dog woods grow like crazy in the ditches and I'm planning on harvesting a few hundred cuttings to sprinkle around the parcel in sunny spots.
This is our first big parcel and I am having more fun doing this habitat work than I ever imagined. My overall goal is creating edges and habitat diversity. Food plots and an orchard are in and I've cleared and planted about a two acre Prairie plot.
 
Habitat work will get to be an obsession, most likely. It has for the bulk of us on here.
Just a thought - If you plan to girdle some trees to make den trees, consider the direction / circumference of area they may eventually fall in. You don't want to plant new things (apple trees, spruce seedlings, for example) if the den trees may fall on them and crush the new trees you have time & money invested in. We lost a couple nice spruce trees to fallen trees we paid no attention to prior to planting!!
 
Our camp logged about 22 acres about 6 years ago. We cut mostly (90%) red maple, and also some damaged / diseased oak, black gum, and a few hickories. The red maple limbs and brush were immediately browsed by the deer, and were rotted away in about 3 years. Oak limbs and brush last longer, as do hickory limbs and trunks of a decent size. Oak and maple stumps will produce stump sprouts readily. We caged some of our stumps to let them grow for browse & cover - the ones we didn't cage were eaten to the ground. Few survived without cages.

As for trails through the logged area, the deer made their own as they browsed their way through the tops and slash. It was NOT a clear cut - but rather a heavy select cut. We did pile some slash around stumps to act as "free cages" to keep deer away from the stumps so the sprouts could get some size to them. We were advised by several foresters to let the tops and slash lay if we wanted to provide browse and cover for deer and turkeys. The deer moved right into the tops the first night we started cutting. They browsed the twigs and shoots of the tops and bedded right IN the tops. They moved right back in the second night of cutting. Dusk arrived = deer IN.

As of now - since that logging - the only limbs left on the ground are larger oak or hickory limbs. Most of the good stuff has been cut up for camp firewood. The rest is all rotted away. The remaining bigger oaks, maples, hickories, tulip poplar, cherry, birch, and white pine trees are providing seed sources for regeneration. Stump sprouts are adding new growth. We also planted clusters and "lines" of Norway spruce in the logged areas to provide thermal, security, and bedding cover. Random weeds, forbs, berries, and grasses have all filled in where the sun hits the most.

A bit of CRUCIAL advice - if you get any ........... and I mean ANY sign of "tree of heaven" in your cut or on your property - cut them off and treat the stumps (no matter how small!) with Garlon AS SOON AS YOU CUT THEM !!! They MUST be treated within minutes of cutting or the stumps will self-seal as a defense mechanism. We ignored the handful (literally) of T.O.H. we had at first, and now we have THOUSANDS of them. T.O.H. spreads by seeds AND by root systems. T.O.H. is a MENACE!!! They'll suck up the nutrients of native trees and eventually overtake your forests. T.O.H. is a MAJOR problem in Pa. Foresters are at WAR with T.O.H. here. FWIW.

Good point on the Ailanthus (Tree of Heaven). What I use on it is Tryclopyr 4 mixed with diesel for basal bark treatment and it kills it deader than a door nail. My state forester recommended not cutting it and doing basal bark treatment but like you said if you are going to cut it make sure you hit it fast.

I didnt even know what that stuff was until I had my forester out and he basically gave me nightmares about it. Another benefit of having him out and learning about it was that i saved my brother in law from buying a property that was infested with it. I kid you not, around a 150 acre property that was at least 95% of it maybe more. It was winter time with no leaves and the property was thick and he thought it was good but i recognized that crap right away. We walked the whole property and I struggled to find anything but Ailanthus and a couple sweet gums....
 
Our forester was the one who pointed it out to us as well. We were marking trees we wanted to keep, and he saw about 10 stalks of "tree of heaven" in one spot (which WAS the only spot we had it at that time). He told us to get rid of every stalk of it - it was only about 1/2" dia. at that point. He advised us to cut them off with loppers and IMMEDIATELY treat the stubs with Garlon (which is Triclopyr) to kill the root system as well. We didn't heed his warning to kill it right away, and put it off for 2 years. Now we have THOUSANDS of T.O.H. spread all over our logged area. T.O.H. is HORRIBLE stuff - it overtakes other native trees and you end up with no desirable trees in your woods. It's all along our highways here - it's everywhere. It's a soft, worthless, invasive tree. It's also the favorite food and egg-laying tree for the Asian spotted lantern fly - another HORRIBLE foreign invader that's causing HUGE $$$$$ losses in grape vineyards, fruit orchards, and some hardwood species - especially maples. T.O.H. is the native Asian tree that spotted lantern flies utilized "back home" in Korea, China, Viet Nam, etc.

2 pieces of S**T from the same Asian continent. Both scourges to us here in the U.S. and costing us BILLIONS of dollars to deal with or lose in sales.
 
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