Question(s) for you cedar choppers

[txbowman12]

Bought a ~100 acre piece of land this spring in central KY. On a water resovoir lake, with limestone bedrock and good top soil (not row crop dirt but good enough for our purposes)

Lots of eastern cedar, mixed with some hardwoods. Property is probably 35-40% fields, with the remainder woods. Cedars being the dominant tree, although I do have some hardwood dominant areas. Cedars are not old growth cedars, but they are big, 12” ish diameter average.

So some questions.

1. Cut and let lay, or pull them out immediately? I’ve heard letting them lay helps the regrowth from being eaten down by deer. Will brush stumps with gly

2. How tall to leave stumps? Cut them low or leave some height for leverage in pulling them out down the road.

3. Cutting approach. I was initially planning just to thin initially, say 1/3 cedars in the areas I hit, with follow-ups over time. My goal is to create more of a transition zone along the field edges particularly. Right now the edges are very harsh.

TIA for any input

 

[hillrunner]

Bought a ~100 acre piece of land this spring in central KY. On a water resovoir lake, with limestone bedrock and good top soil (not row crop dirt but good enough for our purposes)

Lots of eastern cedar, mixed with some hardwoods. Property is probably 35-40% fields, with the remainder woods. Cedars being the dominant tree, although I do have some hardwood dominant areas. Cedars are not old growth cedars, but they are big, 12” ish diameter average.

So some questions.

1. Cut and let lay, or pull them out immediately? I’ve heard letting them lay helps the regrowth from being eaten down by deer. Will brush stumps with gly

2. How tall to leave stumps? Cut them low or leave some height for leverage in pulling them out down the road.

3. Cutting approach. I was initially planning just to thin initially, say 1/3 cedars in the areas I hit, with follow-ups over time. My goal is to create more of a transition zone along the field edges particularly. Right now the edges are very harsh.

TIA for any input

1. I'd either remove or burn. Cedar needles take years to fall off and let light through. A burn will zap the needles quickly and leave the skeleton if you want to protect some new growth.
FYI, much of that new growth will be more cedars.

2. If you're cutting, I'd cut at ground level and be done with it. The stump in the ground will eventually rot away.

3. This sounds like a good plan. It's easy to cut more if you decide to, you can't go back if you cut too much.

 

[b116757]

First ERC stumps need no chemical treatment as long as there cut below the lowest green branch. If you plan to have an excavator or dozer come it latter to remove stumps cut them high like 4’ so the machines have something to work with if there will never be any heavy equipment clearing cut them as low as practical and let them rot. Needles do take a couple years to fall free if you cut them now then burned them late winter you could speed that up if it’s a concern to you. Leave them lay or pull them out is up to you and your goals. Personally I take note of the female cedars that are loaded with the little blue berries and eliminate them first to slow the spread of the ERC. I don’t hate ERC but I do like to slow its spread they will flat take over an area if left unchecked. Fire is a very useful tool in the control of smaller ERC.

 

[356]

I hired a guy with a skid steer and cedar sheers. It cuts them at ground level. I was able to run a no-till drill over what had been 10 acres of cedars. No regrets using this approach.

 

[KY wild]

I would also add ERC logs do not rot fast, I mean a 12 inch log will be around for decades. There is market around home and loggers will take them out with other timber and pay you for it. You may also consider taking the cedar logs to a saw mill to make beautiful lumber, but if you leave 12 inch logs where they fall then plan to walk around them for decades. Burning could also work but you will need to bunch them up and burn logs and all.

 

[KY wild]

First ERC stumps need no chemical treatment as long as there cut below the lowest green branch. If you plan to have an excavator or dozer come it latter to remove stumps cut them high like 4’ so the machines have something to work with if there will never be any heavy equipment clearing cut them as low as practical and let them rot. Needles do take a couple years to fall free if you cut them now then burned them late winter you could speed that up if it’s a concern to you. Leave them lay or pull them out is up to you and your goals. Personally I take note of the female cedars that are loaded with the little blue berries and eliminate them first to slow the spread of the ERC. I don’t hate ERC but I do like to slow its spread they will flat take over an area if left unchecked. Fire is a very useful tool in the control of smaller ERC.

I did not know until now that cedars are male and females, Thanks for the new knowledge

 

[txbowman12]

Thanks all for the advice, will probably take a blended approach.

There’s a guy up there I can pay with a skid steer and a mulcher, so will probably use him to clear some winding trails into the thickets, take out as much as I can with that (only works up to about 6” trees), then selectively cut some larger trees, take the bottom 16 ft section for posts, pile and burn the rest

Any saplings I’ll just cut and let lay.

Probably start near my hardwoods and give them space, work my way from there

Have 30 acres of hay fields, so food plot spots are not an issue, but first I need to work on the Johnson grass and serecea lezpedza some before i try to change over

 

[b116757]

Canopy release any oaks or pecans you have!!