Pine logging, best use of leftovers

[granitepants]

Hi folks, I'll be self-logging a couple acres of a very small red pine plantation, looking for ideas concerning the leftover treetops. I won't leave them where they fall as I'm planning on getting some food plots going. Thinking of delimbing them and then habitat piles of some sort for smaller critters. What's worked for you?

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Habitat piles have worked for us at camp. The debris can also be used as a "fence" of sorts to border your open areas / food plots. It'll decay as time goes by, but debris can be arranged to "steer" deer as they come into your food plots. Leaving some openings in the debris "fence" can create shot opportunities if planned wisely.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I pile mine up as well. But you can also make a small pile of them just before dark, put a match to it, and stare at it while drinking beer. I have found this to be very enjoyable after a hard days work.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

I personally don’t like debri piles. Good place for predators to live. Provides no value for deer, turkey or quail. I’d pile up, let dry, and have a big bonfire.

 

[Natty Bumppo]

I don't like debris piles either. I also have little luck using brush and limbs to direct deer movement as after the first heavy winter we get (which is just about every winter) the snow pack just levels everything right back out undoing all of my work. I pile debris, let it dry for at least a year, and then have an all day burn pile.

 

[BuckSutherland]

I made it up to my land this weekend in northern MN. We still had about 6-20" of snow on the ground depending where you were. Last summer I made several debris piles in my woods and then I covered them with tarps. This weekend was perfect weather. Snow still on the ground and no wind. We uncovered the piles and lit them up. We use a leaf blower to oxygenate the fire. We can usually get the flames over 25 feet high in about 10 mins with the blower. A couple hours and all the small shit is gone. By morning the fire is completely out. Fire is a great way to get rid of undesirable stuff.

If you are south and dont get any snow cover the piles and wait for a rainy day to burn.

 

[H20fwler]

I love the piles! I always make bunny piles with tops when I’m cutting.
Great for bunnies and lots of birds seem to hang around on them…deer even bed up against them.
I’m the opposite of clean farming.

 

[TreeDaddy]

I made it up to my land this weekend in northern MN. We still had about 6-20" of snow on the ground depending where you were. Last summer I made several debris piles in my woods and then I covered them with tarps. This weekend was perfect weather. Snow still on the ground and no wind. We uncovered the piles and lit them up. We use a leaf blower to oxygenate the fire. We can usually get the flames over 25 feet high in about 10 mins with the blower. A couple hours and all the small shit is gone. By morning the fire is completely out. Fire is a great way to get rid of undesirable stuff.

If you are south and dont get any snow cover the piles and wait for a rainy day to burn.


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Did I see a Quality Whitetails mag on that burn pile?

bill

 

[BuckSutherland]

^^^^

Unlikely, I only read habitat talk. Maybe a few pieces of newspaper.


Burning these piles has been fun as hell for me. I will likely cut down and pile an area approximately a little smaller than a football field this year to make some room for a few more white pines and to get some popple regen going along my travel corridors. A nice brush pile fire is very satisfying. Great way to spend some time in the woods. Everything about it was awesome except walking through the snow to get out there.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Well if any of you cut a bunch of bigger wood and dont know what to do with it, bring it on over to me, I will split it and burn it in a wood boiler. ;) I prefer hardwood though!

 

[bigboreblr]

Own a backhoe? If not, take a garden hoe and take a minute or two to dig out around the base of the stump. Just an extra inch or two below the surface helps out good. Chop up those tops into small firewood. Then burn those stumps in a year. A little cattle salt around that burnt stumps allows nature to finish the job..... The critters dig the heck out of it.

I'd take ash over lime anyday...... Evey food plot I have built and burned, the spots where the fire was and near it where the ash got raked out were doing noticeably better.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I love the piles! I always make bunny piles with tops when I’m cutting.
Great for bunnies and lots of birds seem to hang around on them…deer even bed up against them.
I’m the opposite of clean farming.

We see the same here. Rabbits, grouse, and birds of all sorts use the piles, and deer bed against them too, as you said. Critters love them in bad weather.

 

[H20fwler]

Some bunny piles I made this winter along the woods maybe twenty of them.

And a big one I just made last month.

 

[ruskbucks]

I'm with Brown's and h20. I cut down a lot of balsam that I don't won't in the hardwoods. We always take them and put them in piles. I did have a turkey nest in one of the piles. The kid likes chasing around rabbits around in the winter and almost the rabbits are always around the brush piles.

 

[Wind Gypsy]