Major cutting of oaks

[Ben.MN/WI]

My land was logged like that around 2000 or so and the grouse numbers recently have started to drop I'm working on creating some shrub thickets to ring back the grouse. I started cutting a year ago and there is a big male grouse that made that first shrub thicket home. I hope he flushes in front of me in a few days when I have a shotgun. The January grouse hunting in northern wi can be excellent.

 

[Steve Oehlenschlager]

One nice thing about our mixed forest land is that once you get much needed sun light to the forest floor....all the native berry bushes go nuts. They are all there. They just need the sun to get going. When next spring comes along.....there will be flowers everywhere in the woods.

 

[sandbur]

Steve- Thirty seven years ago, at what time fo the year was the timber harvest done?

My line of thinking is summer harvest during a dry year might lead to more oak regeneration versus popple suckers. Winter harvest gets more popple suckers. I might be wrong on this.

 

[Steve Oehlenschlager]

The original harvest 37 years ago was done in the winter. You really need a lot of sun to get a great regeneration of popple. There were just enough oaks back then to hold them back except for a few veins of thick popple. Everything I have ever read says that if you don't cut the other trees when you cut the popple that your forest will be skewed away from the popple over time. They were right! 330 cords were taken off 40 acres back then and they were all big. If it was pure popple it would have been about 700-800 cords. We got great money for them back then too! $3 a cord!!!