Poplar Stand improvement

[PatinPA]

Not the same as PatinPA is talking about. Tulip poplars are more like cottonwood but smoother bark and they grow straight as an arrow. They also grow fast and they get huge. I’ve seen tulip poplars two people couldn’t reach around. Valuable on the east coast.

To OP.
You’re neighbors have something holding the deer. I’d say if you don’t want to ruin your future lumber you may have to sacrifice some. Like only an acre here and there. If you do find the right acre(s).

South slope, 1/3 of the way down. Somewhere with some flat areas for bedding. Etc.

I don't have a lot but I have a couple of pretty big trees. They're 80 feet tall, 24-30 inch diameter, and straight as an arrow. I have a young stand surrounding my camp. They're fantastic to hinge cut when they're less 1 foot diameter or less. They continue to grow very well.

 

[PatinPA]

Only if you are close to a mill/chipping facility that can use them for paper or poultry bedding.

Ah ok. I sold my hemlock trees that were dying anyway to a local papermill. Didn't get much in comparison to a hardwood cutting but I really had nothing to lose and didn't want to end up with tangles of dead hemlocks.

 

[slimedart]

Again thanks for the wealth of information and opinions shared I appreciate it. I would not say I am disappointed in my property. I shot a nice 8 point last year that anyone in our area would be happy with last year. I just want to maximize what I have. I would agree that much of the property is a monoculture. But is is not as bad as I may have made it appear. I do have a couple balsam Growths of 3 to 4 30 year old trees per growths and deer do occasionally bed under them, but not regularly. I also have what we call an ash swale. Again older trees and not much undergrowth. And then a spattering of Burr Oak but those are mostly located in close proximity to the food plot. We also participated in a Warbler bird project, they came in and mowed down the poppel and some ash. There objective was to create an understory for warblers. Ours was to create browse and if it helped the birds too great. These cuttings surround the food plot and offshoots from it. The deer I saw the last weekend of riffle season would cross the plot to get to the warbler cuttings. Because of this the warbler people are not too happy we only have about 3 feet of stem growth in two years. The deer have been keeping it trimmed down. It should be mentioned that this cutting was on the newer poppel cuttings not the old growth.
I think the ash swale may be where I need to focus my attention based on what you guys are saying. This are is a bit wet I assume this is not too good for bedding. I think I could make a pretty good browse plot if I hinge cuts some of the ash. I wanted to find an area where I could plant a bunch of red osier dogwood from cuttings. This might fit the bill.
I also really like the idea of creating grassy areas for bedding. Not sure where or how I would do this. Do you guys think it would be better to create these in a linear fashion or small "holes" in the timber. Again thanks for the input.

 

[ruskbucks]

Don't get down on your property. Sounds like you harvested a nice buck so you and your land must of done something right. My tip would to just keep trying to diversify. Rotate those 1-2 acre clear cuts. My friend had a 40 with 30 acres of mostly ashen. He had a lot of deer when the aspen was young. The aspen started to mature and the woods started to convert to a open hardwoods. Way less deer. We did what we called a tornado cut, like hinge cuts but dropped trees every direction on top of each other to make it nasty. He has shot 3 really nice bucks the last 3 years in there. Something like this would give you some horizontal cover not just the vertical from a all out clear cut. I bet that ash gully would become a bedding hot spot in a couple years with a cutting. I like small holes of clear cuts over linear. Planted spruce or balsams pockets and even some rows thru the woods would do a lot. Pick what projects you think would help the most and have fun with it. Good luck.

 

[b116757]

Ah ok. I sold my hemlock trees that were dying anyway to a local papermill. Didn't get much in comparison to a hardwood cutting but I really had nothing to lose and didn't want to end up with tangles of dead hemlocks.

What was killing your hemlock trees?

 

[b116757]

Again thanks for the wealth of information and opinions shared I appreciate it. I would not say I am disappointed in my property. I shot a nice 8 point last year that anyone in our area would be happy with last year. I just want to maximize what I have. I would agree that much of the property is a monoculture. But is is not as bad as I may have made it appear. I do have a couple balsam Growths of 3 to 4 30 year old trees per growths and deer do occasionally bed under them, but not regularly. I also have what we call an ash swale. Again older trees and not much undergrowth. And then a spattering of Burr Oak but those are mostly located in close proximity to the food plot. We also participated in a Warbler bird project, they came in and mowed down the poppel and some ash. There objective was to create an understory for warblers. Ours was to create browse and if it helped the birds too great. These cuttings surround the food plot and offshoots from it. The deer I saw the last weekend of riffle season would cross the plot to get to the warbler cuttings. Because of this the warbler people are not too happy we only have about 3 feet of stem growth in two years. The deer have been keeping it trimmed down. It should be mentioned that this cutting was on the newer poppel cuttings not the old growth.
I think the ash swale may be where I need to focus my attention based on what you guys are saying. This are is a bit wet I assume this is not too good for bedding. I think I could make a pretty good browse plot if I hinge cuts some of the ash. I wanted to find an area where I could plant a bunch of red osier dogwood from cuttings. This might fit the bill.
I also really like the idea of creating grassy areas for bedding. Not sure where or how I would do this. Do you guys think it would be better to create these in a linear fashion or small "holes" in the timber. Again thanks for the input.

Are the ash trees black ash or white ash?

 

[slimedart]

Are the ash trees black ash or white ash?

90% sure they are black ash. I am not sure we get white ash up here.

 

[b116757]

Black ash grows in swampy wet area’s in groves typical, white ash will be scattered in upland hardwood stands up there. For the black ash you may try a few hinge cuts but I really doubt they will bed in a swamp now if there are some slightly higher hills in the swamp or maybe on the edges of it they may bed there. My brothers property has a small black ash swamp on it that they pass thru I’ve never seen a deer bed in it. He also has a tamarack swamp on his property that they pass thru but his tamarack swamp has a couple small hills in it that they bed on regularly.

 

[PatinPA]

What was killing your hemlock trees?

The woolly adelgid.
https://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/7250.html

Nasty little bug that sucks all the needles dry starting at the bottom limbs. You can kind of see the aftermath in the pic below. My neighbor didn't want to cut the trees around their house so they're still standing. But you can tell that the limbs don't start until 30-40 ft up the tree. It will eventually kill every branch. My smaller hemlocks seem ok. If you flip the branches over you can see it. It looks like white splotches. We had a really cold winter a few years ago and that really seemed to knock it back.

 

[b116757]

Well that sucks something simply beautiful about a mature stand of hemlocks.

 

[PatinPA]

Well that sucks something simply beautiful about a mature stand of hemlocks.

Ya I imagine it was pretty cool 20-30 years ago. Basically the entire ridge my property is on was primarily all hemlock with some white and chestnut oak and beech scattered throughout. Although it was much different hunting back then too. The son of the people I bought the camp off of told he only ever got 1 buck there and his father never shot one. They've had the camp there since the 70's. Judging from the amount of beer cans I find scattered around the woods, I think their hunting trips involved a bit more drinking than hunting.