Regen Waupaca Cty

[rocksnstumps]

With all the hubbub on the deer meetings, thought I'd bring up that some study work has been going on the last few years at the Becker Tree Farm near Manawa, WI. The Beckers are past WI Tree Farmers of the Year and put up a deer ex-closure several years ago and have been logging photos. The reference I could find online has it only 1/8 acre in size but after talking with Merlin this winter at a conference I think it was expanded or maybe they put up another one 1+ acre in size. I have been at their property several times in the past for field days but not in the last couple years so can't comment on what results are to date.

They are a demonstration forest for Waupaca County and have multiple field days every year if one wants to see and talk with them direct.

The landowner conference I went to this winter talked about at length on regen problems and gave a bunch of cost examples of fencing and products to use. To the forestry guys, this is a major topic that is changing/could change future diversity in areas

 

[rocksnstumps]

Forgot to mention, the Beckers also have a strong hunting tradition and have been logging deer data taken from the property since the late 60s. I know they have a running total of of over 20 tons of venison harvested over the years.

 

[bueller]

Where is Menawa? This type of stuff fasinates me. One of the things that really drew me to the property I bought was that it had some maturing woods and some areas that had been heavily logged about 15 years ago. Watching the regen and the browsing is exciting. Areas that appear to be dominated by grass and shrubs are actually well stocked with natural oak regen. In time without any future logging that same area will transform into a closed canopy mature oak woods. Of course I'll probably be dead before that but it's still cool to know.

 

[rocksnstumps]

Manawa is roughly in the center of Waupaca County. The Beckers farm is located off North Military Drive kinda halfway between Waupaca (the city) and Manawa. They held the WI Tree Farm field day there a few years ago there. Reminds me to check what the plans are for 2016 and see if not too far to travel. Always interesting to get tours of other properties and get the history of how the land got to what it is today. The field days are free or basically what you pay covers lunch.

 

[bueller]

Manawa is roughly in the center of Waupaca County. The Beckers farm is located off North Military Drive kinda halfway between Waupaca (the city) and Manawa. They held the WI Tree Farm field day there a few years ago there. Reminds me to check what the plans are for 2016 and see if not too far to travel. Always interesting to get tours of other properties and get the history of how the land got to what it is today. The field days are free or basically what you pay covers lunch.

It wasn't at their property but I almost went to one of those field days at a tree farm last year. Forget exactly where it was but I'm pretty is was in the West Central part of the state.