logging dilemma

[tooln]

That's exactly what I'm doing...taking very biggest and going to give the others room to grow

I also looked for any that were damaged in any way. Sounds like your on the right track.

 

[huntall]

I also looked for any that were damaged in any way. Sounds like your on the right track.

You are right there.....I marked one that looked just as good as you would like a tree to look and then walked around the tree on other side it was what looked like dried up dead woody looking black bark that would just fall off if touched it. This was about a 3 ft long area up trunk and looked to be deep also.
I took flag off and it's gonna get cut and saved another good looking tree next to it.

I'm not as picky with water oaks because they grow everywhere from wet bottom to dry hilltops. But my white oaks I'm trying to keep a fair amount of them.

 

[huntall]

As yall know. ..white oaks grow like 300 or more years old and it's hard to cut some of these big trees but I am cutting good many and I'm flagging a good many to keep between 8 inch across and 14 inches across and sill keeping a few of the monster white oaks. The monster white oaks that I'm keeping I'm trying to select to keep some spread way apart to give the 10yr to maybe up to a 40 yr old white oak tree room to grow

 

[woodduck]

One thing you may want to think about is if you have areas turkeys like to roost especially a ridge where gobblers traditionally roost each spring to leave some of the bigger trees, especially the ones with nice big crowns and fairly flat branches. I am in no means a turkey roost tree expert but I have an area on the back corner of my property I call "Gobblers Ridge" because it is just that. I did not have any trees harvested off this ridge last year although I have cut some competition out on my own to help improve the canopies of my desired trees. Not to say I will never harvest any of these trees in a future timber harvest but for now I'm just trying to improve the bedroom on "gobblers Ridge":D

 

[huntall]

Remember, not all hardwoods are created equal as far as deer(and other critters) habitat is concerned. I don't know the "mix" of trees on your place, but would it be worth it economically to leave ALL mast producing trees and just take out the stuff like maple, ash, elm, and maybe even cherry? Maybe you are mostly oaks and then it would not be worth it to try and log just those other species?

I looked at the 8 acres of massive size white oaks and this area does have a decent mix, but I realized this block of hardwoods is way too much crown overcrowding which is not as many trees per acre as I originally thought. This 8 acre block should have had some of these big trees removed probably 15 years ago.....after really getting in there and looking at every tree in this block....im finding some 30 to 50 ft tall oaks that some are dying from the top......im just figure that the shading out by tree crowns have taken a toll on some.
Most the ones I see top dieing is probably 30-35 ft tall. I think once the ones that made it to 35 pluss like 40 to 50 ft.... they are good to go. I'm jus going to cut most trees and save those 25- 55 ft tall trees and saving a few big spread out for seed trees

 

[huntall]

One thing you may want to think about is if you have areas turkeys like to roost especially a ridge where gobblers traditionally roost each spring to leave some of the bigger trees, especially the ones with nice big crowns and fairly flat branches. I am in no means a turkey roost tree expert but I have an area on the back corner of my property I call "Gobblers Ridge" because it is just that. I did not have any trees harvested off this ridge last year although I have cut some competition out on my own to help improve the canopies of my desired trees. Not to say I will never harvest any of these trees in a future timber harvest but for now I'm just trying to improve the bedroom on "gobblers Ridge":D

Good thing about it my dad's not cutting his hardwoods and they roost there pretty good
So I hope we are covered on the roosting part....plus we thinning some pines so I hope we will b ok on that part