Is there any habitat value to a balsam poplar?

[SD51555]

I've been waging jihad on my balsam poplars in my forest. I've done a fair amount of reading and observing, and I cannot come up with any wildlife, habitat, or forestry value to balsam poplar. I can find value in aspen, but it doesn't seem anything uses balsam poplar for anything, and it grows so fast, it's a nightmare for regen when you're trying to keep other things in sun.

Am I missing anything, or should the jihad go on?

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I've been waging jihad on my balsam poplars in my forest. I've done a fair amount of reading and observing, and I cannot come up with any wildlife, habitat, or forestry value to balsam poplar. I can find value in aspen, but it doesn't seem anything uses balsam poplar for anything, and it grows so fast, it's a nightmare for regen when you're trying to keep other things in sun.

Am I missing anything, or should the jihad go on?

I don't know what "balsam poplar" is, SD. If it's an actual poplar, they do grow really fast & spread like wildfire. Some of the hybrids that have been released are invasive/noxious. Our neighbor had some in his yard, and they spread to most neighboring yards by underground runners. We all had a terrible time trying to get rid of them all. Soft wood -no value for anything but maybe paper pulp.

 

[Telemark]

Animals eat it, and you can make a balm from it. I think it would be neat to have on my property, but I would probably also wage a jihad on it if I had it on the scale you seem to.

Is it growing from seeds or root suckers?

 

[Natty Bumppo]

Balsam poplar is a true poplar and also goes by the name Balm of Gilead. I don't have a ton of it, but it does occur on my land. I do a lot of poplar regen for grouse and whitetail habitat. It wouldn't bother me to have strong stand of balsam poplar growing as long as I could brush hog it every now and then to knock it back. Great grouse cover and food. Great whitetail cover and browse.

 

[SD51555]

I've never seen it browsed on my place, by deer or grouse. If I cut one big one down, a hundred shoot up from the root system, and they grow 10' per year. The one thing the fast growing shoots are good for is fire starter. If you harvest those shoots in the winter when the buds are big and fat, they are soaked in something between diesel fuel and wax. Dry them out for 6 months and they are something else for getting something burning. But you need a lot of it.

 

[bigboreblr]

Old place had some, I cut the tall stuff and deer browsed the short stuff. Never got tall on me again when I sold the property.

Be a good brush hog every other year thing in an overgrown field.

 

[Jerry-B-WI]

If you're cutting those big ones in the winter it will regen quicker and thicker.

 

[SD51555]

If you're cutting those big ones in the winter it will regen quicker and thicker.

I should do them in late summer when I can see them. They’re pretty easy to ID by their leaves.


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[Telemark]

I've never seen it browsed on my place, by deer or grouse. If I cut one big one down, a hundred shoot up from the root system, and they grow 10' per year. The one thing the fast growing shoots are good for is fire starter. If you harvest those shoots in the winter when the buds are big and fat, they are soaked in something between diesel fuel and wax. Dry them out for 6 months and they are something else for getting something burning. But you need a lot of it.

Are you not treating the stumps?

 

[SD51555]

Are you not treating the stumps?

I haven’t. I should. I used to treat ash stumps by putting salt on the stump, and that took care of them.


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[Telemark]

I would cut a big one this winter, and treat one half of the stump with 2,4D and the other half with gly. See if there is a difference on regen on either side.

Then I would wait until August, cut a big one and treat the whole thing with 2,4D and see if you can get it to push uncontrolled growth late in the summer and exhaust the roots.