Oaks: Let's have a hard conversation

[SD51555]

Who'da thunk there's an anti-oak theory out there. Maybe there isn't, but I have one.

On my place...

My dominant oak is bur. In a year like this, I have acorns everywhere. They were still falling as of yesterday, but that will soon be over. The acorns do not last very long. I'd put it at less than 3 days once the drop quits, and then the oak dividend is gone. We're still 11 days from bow opener in MN, and often times, it can still be 80+ degrees in most of the state, including my area. A new problem that has emerged for me is bears trampling my green forages in my food plot where I have oaks.

Here's how I see it:

*It is not an in-season food source
*It's brought negative impact on my plots
*It's unreliable as contributor to carrying capacity
*It brings in predators that eat acorn eaters (Bobcat, fox, wolves)
*If I cut down every mature oak in my food plots, I wouldn't have whacked even 5% of my mature oak population
*I have released 10x as many bur oak already taller than 6' as I would be cutting down, many over 12'

Am I crazy?

 

[nwmn]

I love oaks. Nothing cooler than loads of acorns dropping. I catch myself picking up nice acorns out of habit. However I can see where you're coming from lol

 

[bueller]

I'll play.
*my food plots are small
*my ground is terribly sandy
*oaks (black) of all sizes are abundant by me

I have two plots where we left oaks standing and over time I have come to regret this. First off, my planted food plot seeds struggle to put on much growth under the trees due to lack of sunlight and the trees stealing the nutrients and water. This area expands each year as the trees thrive on the soil amendments in the plot. I'm effectively shrinking my limited plot size each year, wasting money on seeds and fertilizer, and the trees get in the way when I'm working in the plots. On top of that I've never seen a deer eating acorns in the plot. When the acorns are dropping the deer are safely stuffing themselves under the cover of the adjacent woods. If I ever get myself to cut down the oaks in the plot I may just drop everything growing within 20 feet of the perimeter also.

 

[Booner21]

I would wipe them out, only trees I have left in my plots are female persimmon they don’t have near the crown of a burr oak. Now on the edge I would think about leaving them but don’t feel that acorns are enough of a food source to leave them if they impact my other efforts. Cutting and stump regrow the will provide food also if on the edge.


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[Wind Gypsy]

Am I crazy?

Sounds logical to me.

I’ve just really started paying attention to acorn drop times this year and it seems the burs and reds that make up the oaks at my place are done dropping too. Makes me want to plant later dropping trees if possible where I plant new oaks.

 

[Kooch]

I’ve never had an oak tree. I’m unqualified. But just the idea of cutting one down makes me uneasy.

You guys make a strong point though. I’m gonna grow a few the acorns I collected at SD’s place anyway.


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[TreesuitSC]

Will the Nuttall Oak grow in your zone? They will hold acorns in the south all the way into December.


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[4wanderingeyes]

I have many oaks as well, as you stated many wild life eat them, squirrels, bear, coyotes, turkey, deer, etc… I usually find left over acorns come spring, I am not sure if that is because I have too many oaks, or not enough wildlife. I also have several oaks around my food plots, and they have been reaching in more and more because of the extra sunlight, and fertilizer. I am now burning wood for heat, and the oaks on the southern edge of my food plot will be culled soon. The rest of them don’t bother me enough to worry about them.

 

[hillrunner]

My woods are dominated by burr oak . They are dropping like crazy right now but I'll still see deer picking up acorns in November.
I'd still clear them off a food plot, in fact I have before. I wouldn't if they weren't so abundant here, I love oak trees.

 

[b116757]

My oaks including bur are a ways off of dropping acorns in zone 6b. If I was in your situation SD I wouldn’t hesitate to cut some down particularly ones shading out food plots. Maybe plant some NRO in areas with openings in the canopy to get a bit latter dropping acorn. For me bur oak acorns tend to be so large and retain the cap that they are of limited use for deer at all, they are at least not a preferred acorn for sure. I’d be pretty tempted to clear some oaks along the south side of the plots and replace them with late dropping apples/crabapples.

 

[g squared 23]

An oak is great unless it’s in the wrong spot. Blast the ones in the wrong spot, release or plant the ones where you want them. There are oaks in all the woods around the property, so when they start dropping, it really spreads the deer out. Our numbers are low, so they take a while to clean them all up. I had a standard white oak dropping yesterday

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[bwoods11]

I’d say each property is different. I see long periods of acorn use on mine. Depends on the year and location.

I don’t like taking down oaks, but I would in limited situations. I plant some every year as well.

 

[tlzkaasen]

Would agree 100%. I took (3) red oaks that were 75+ year old out last spring. My food plots exploded this year. I have two more that I'm debating on and will ultimately cut at some point.

 

[Native Hunter]

Fire up the chainsaw and proceed.

 

[chickenlittle]

Every oak is sacred, every oak is great, if an oak is wasted, God gets quite irate

 

[PatinPA]

I'd be hesitant to cut them. Even if they drop early. My plan is to try to have something dropping/ready to be eaten from a month before archery to late december and after. I have white oaks but they are intermittent droppers and always in September before our season starts but I just chalk it up to adding a food source in that window I'm looking for. Unless you have an abundance of oaks and those are really inhibiting your food plots I'd leave them.

 

[Skeeter]

Could cut them down and save the 4 to 6 inch diameter logs to make mushroom logs out of. That way you'd get some food value out of them.

 

[Teeder]

They sound like the wrong fit for you. I'd take them out.
My home property plot is more of a tree plot with trails of clover around them. My sawtooth and English oaks are getting hammered from September and well into November. Perfect for archery season.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

My oaks including bur are a ways off of dropping acorns in zone 6b. If I was in your situation SD I wouldn’t hesitate to cut some down particularly ones shading out food plots. Maybe plant some NRO in areas with openings in the canopy to get a bit latter dropping acorn. For me bur oak acorns tend to be so large and retain the cap that they are of limited use for deer at all, they are at least not a preferred acorn for sure. I’d be pretty tempted to clear some oaks along the south side of the plots and replace them with late dropping apples/crabapples.

Brings up some interesting thoughts. I recently read that there are large acorn and small acorn bur oaks and the ones in MN are the small acorn variety. Maybe ours drop earlier than the large acorn ones?

I'm guessing @SD51555 may see something similar to I - My home on the 4a/4b boundary, my land on the 4a/3b boundary, and my parents place up firmly in zone 3 basically only have bur oaks, NRO, and pin oaks. From what I've observed this year the red varieties seem to drop just as early as a lot of the burs. Maybe they don't get gobbled as fast as the white acorns and might be a draw later after falling if they don't get cleaned up by squirrels.

This whole conversation makes me want to start a thread about which varieties up here are both hardy AND drop during hunting season. It would be nice to have the only acorns around dropping in Oct (in 20+ years..)

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Will the Nuttall Oak grow in your zone? They will hold acorns in the south all the way into December.


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He's in zone 3, I've seen nuttall listed as zone 5 or 6 hardiness as the limit.