Best time to fell trees

[bigboreblr]

IF you need trees down for whatever reason. This is the best time to do it for the deer.

They could use the buds on the tops to nibble on.

Today I Felled some young black walnuts that will be problems for my apples trees someday. Also, thinned out some red cedars that block the roadside view of my pool at home.

Sometimes you get lucky and the bucks loose a shed in a felled tree. At least in NY, wind it back a few weeks and muzzleloader hunting over those trees can be quite advantageous.

Got abou 4i cnehs of snow at home. I scooped up a 1/2 ton of barn lime at tractor supply today. Probably the ground will be bare n a week or so.

 

[Teeder]

That's the project for the next couple weekends. Dropping a few trees here and there for firewood and releasing others.

 

[Natty Bumppo]

That's the project for the next couple weekends. Dropping a few trees here and there for firewood and releasing others.

Same. Dropping some red maples and spruce and fir in some areas I am working on poplar regeneration. And getting my dead and/or dying ash on the ground.

 

[Stubborn1VT]

I dropped some soft (red) maple here on our 12 acres, but it seems like the deer left to feed on winter wheat across the street that the farmer planted as a cover crop.

 

[Teeder]

They'll hit it at some point.

 

[MW22392]

I have a very sparse deer population, dropped a bunch of trees last week next to this camera, proof is in the snow!

 

[bigboreblr]

Used to be my muzzleloading season trick. Cut a few makes last 2 or 3 days of rifle season.

Come back in a week or two and cut the high branches down lower, or do that off the bat.

 

[Natty Bumppo]

During the winter when I am in a pretty good logging routine and the deer are used to my presence on the land with a saw, there are times when I am walking off the land after having shut the saw off and packed up my things just before dark that I can look back and see the does through the timber heading towards my cut as I am still walking out.

Other times I'll drop a few trees in the AM and head in for a quick lunch. Upon returning for more work after I eat I will kick deer out of the trees I dropped and left just an hour before.

 

[ChadS]

Is it better to fell or hinge now, so they have the buds, or wait until leaf out so they have the leaves.

I will be mainly cutting Red Maple, that is a preferred food for our deer.

 

[Natty Bumppo]

Is it better to fell or hinge now, so they have the buds, or wait until leaf out so they have the leaves.

I will be mainly cutting Red Maple, that is a preferred food for our deer.

Not sure about hinge cutting as it's not something I do. Just don't care for the practice. But deer don't really need the leaves in the spring as there is no lack of food out there for them. But right now in the dead of winter the buds make an excellent food source. I'm dragging my trees out though...not hinge cutting. If you hinge cut a maple and the deer eat all the buds not sure if that tree will leaf out in the spring.

 

[bigboreblr]

Not sure about hinge cutting as it's not something I do. Just don't care for the practice. But deer don't really need the leaves in the spring as there is no lack of food out there for them. But right now in the dead of winter the buds make an excellent food source. I'm dragging my trees out though...not hinge cutting. If you hinge cut a maple and the deer eat all the buds not sure if that tree will leaf out in the spring.

They dont clean them out completely. Used to hinge cut. Still do a bit, but focus on making a good bedding spot. LAst one I made hinge cut ontop of a few stacked logs to finish out a windbreak. I make a west and a north corner and a slight southern one. Covers the wind mos of the time. MAke it as long as a car square. Then put some nice soft stuff in there. I've done under a pine tree before, they still like that one.

 

[Teeder]

Got about a dozen good sized red maples and a few crooked black cherries dropped today. Then the snow rolled in and the wind picked up. I need 1 more good weekend and I'll be good.

 

[Natty Bumppo]

I dropped the last of my dead ash trees today. I still have many dozen that are still healthy and thriving. These were the last of the trees I marked this summer for removal.

I also dropped about 6 or 7 huge spruce trees. Trying to get some light on a small food plot. Almost all of them were leaning the opposite of where I wanted them to fall. Used the bore cut with wedges and then released the trigger to get them to fall where I needed them to.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

During the winter when I am in a pretty good logging routine and the deer are used to my presence on the land with a saw, there are times when I am walking off the land after having shut the saw off and packed up my things just before dark that I can look back and see the does through the timber heading towards my cut as I am still walking out.

Other times I'll drop a few trees in the AM and head in for a quick lunch. Upon returning for more work after I eat I will kick deer out of the trees I dropped and left just an hour before.

We saw the same thing at camp after our loggings. Barely got the saws shut off. Deer moved into the tops - browsed and bedded right in them. I wonder if deer are schooled on the sound of a saw?!!

 

[Natty Bumppo]

We saw the same thing at camp after our loggings. Barely got the saws shut off. Deer moved into the tops - browsed and bedded right in them. I wonder if deer are schooled on the sound of a saw?!!

I believe they are Bows. After just a day or two of starting my ritual TSI every year I get deer showing up. In fact, my target buck disappeared entirely from my land right around the end of November just after I tagged out. Didn't get a single pic of him the entire shotgun or muzzleloader season...6 weeks. Then, on December 30 he showed back up during daylight hours and was in my treetops eating red maple buds every day for 4 or 5 days in a row when I was on winter break dropping trees. One day I worked in the late morning for a few hours, went in for lunch, and when I went back out an hour and a half later to finish up he had already come and gone while I was eating lunch. Had I been hunting he would have surely been in my sights on any one of those last few nights of the muzzle loader season.

 

[Stubborn1VT]

We just had a warmup and the snow melted a bunch. The 3 bucks who were at my house every day have returned, and picked up another spike along the way. I need to get out and knock down some more soft (red) maple for them. I need to put a camera on some of the tops.
This is on the 6 huntable acres of our 12 acre piece.
Habitat work can be so rewarding!