SD’s Buy-no-trees forest ease

[SD51555]

I grabbed a bunch of pics from my feature this weekend. The rest of my saw work is in my sanctuary, and that is closed until after rifle now. The feature is a pie piece of intensely managed natural vegetation in one of my food plots. The big idea behind this is to show what I’ve been able to do using just a saw, sunlight, and little rearranging of trees on my place.

Size: < 1/10th acre

The big idea behind why I went down this road is that I got tired of writing checks, busting my butt, and failing anyway. I Failed because of poor nursery stock, zone stretching, site mismatching, wrong soils, pests, shade, drought, flood, transplant shock, bugs, etc. I decided to go and find out how to unlock the full potential of what I’ve already got, while leaving the checkbook put away.

The speed at which change came was off the charts. Because nothing is ever imported and transplant stock comes from my own property, nothing ever fails. Because this stuff was all native, nothing needed to be caged, except some early native dogwood while I got to work cranking up my browse output. I may even go so far as saying ‘I think there is a strong inverse relation between dollars spent and the likelihood of success.’

Every year, I aim to get an acre or so added to the inventory of sanctuary acres that have been sorted and mostly flattened, to release my good stuff, whatever that may be, and kick start regen from the floor up where I found nothing to release.


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[SD51555]

This is looking into it from the north. The big bush on the front edge is arrow wood viburnum.

Every other winter, I take my silky to that viburnum bush and butcher it to pieces about 3’ above the ground. That carnage seems to make it push ever more soft mast. This year looks to be the best yield it’s ever put out since I’ve been managing it.

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[SD51555]

When I had initially listed the desirable species I started restoring, I had forgotten a bunch that I found again yesterday when looking. On my property, many things were missing due to decades of being grazed by cattle. The whole property was down to just ruts, aspen, swamp ash, tag alder, diamond willow, and some very old bur oaks and balsam fir. I am trying to restore species that many of you may have tons of, and be actively trying to reduce on your place. It happens. Some of the trees and shrubs on this list are so scarce on my property, I can tell you exactly how many I have.

Species of high priority:
Red osier dogwood
Balsam fir
Black spruce
Bur oak
Serviceberry
Basswood
Yellow birch

Species of lesser priority:
Chokecherry
Raspberry
Gooseberry
Arrowwood viburnum
Hawthorn
Hazelnut
Beaked hazel
Maple
White spruce
White cedar
Paper birch

 

[SD51555]

This is the view looking in from the east. Forgive the poor lighting. I didn’t have time to go later in the day.

I’ve got sparse natural pockets of black spruce and balsam fir. Years or being shaded out had the stands looking sickly and nothing of new stock coming up. After whackin’ out all the aspen, ash, and biggest shade makers, I’m getting a great flush of new trees.

There are actually so many conifers coming up in here now, I’ve started pulling them by hand in early spring and moving them to other spots on my property where I want more cover. Many of them are so close together, their only chance of making it is by being moved.

I like seeing how big the new foliage flush is in June. It’s a little feedback to tell me this is working.

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[356]

Congratulations on showing how much can be gained from good management rather than big money. This year I tested one 1/3 acre section that I burned, removed invasive cedars, tilled and returned to early succession. Other than a little labor, the site is an amazing collection of natives the deer love, including:
partridge pea, pokeweed, asters, lespedezas and native clovers, poison ivy, big and little bluestem, indiangrass and switchgrass. Later in the summer this approach will provide both food and bedding. Unlike my clover field, this one is being grazed, but not overgrazed. I anticipate expanding early succession managment next season.

 

[SD51555]

Next up in the feature is basswood. This was a first find for me. I bet I don’t have 20 basswood trees on the whole property, and they are way too old to be around too many more years. Basswood is one of my favorite browse species because it comes so fast and can really take a beating by the deer.

Where I grew up, we had lots of basswood and no deer. Yet the few deer there were, they never passed up my basswood regen. And it tolerates being cut so often if it gets ahead. Up to yesterday, I hadn’t seen a new basswood tree sprouting up.

This is a stump sprout off of one. I had to take a few trunks off to make a viewing lane. I don’t know if I should be concerned it’s not eaten, or impressed. Have I finally got enough going they can’t eat everything?

These are new trees. I really didn’t think I’d ever see this.

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[sandbur]

Next up in the feature is basswood. This was a first find for me. I bet I don’t have 20 basswood trees on the whole property, and they are way too old to be around too many more years. Basswood is one of my favorite browse species because it comes so fast and can really take a beating by the deer.

Where I grew up, we had lots of basswood and no deer. Yet the few deer there were, they never passed up my basswood regen. And it tolerates being cut so often if it gets ahead. Up to yesterday, I hadn’t seen a new basswood tree sprouting up.

This is a stump sprout off of one. I had to take a few trunks off to make a viewing lane. I don’t know if I should be concerned it’s not eaten, or impressed. Have I finally got enough going they can’t eat everything?

These are new trees. I really didn’t think I’d ever see this.

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Basswood is great for wood carving. Someone may take a log or two if they could get it sawed.


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[Native Hunter]

Welcome to my world. I’ve been doing this in ditches and irregular pieces of land for years. The results can be amazing as you are already seeing. Many sweetgums and other trash trees have given their lives in the pursuit of science.

 

[SD51555]

Next up, oaks. I’m way out in front on oaks now. I don’t worry about oaks any longer. For every large oak I’ve got, I have another one 5-15 feet tall that I’ve released over the past number of years. I feel confident now that I have that intermediate generation up and coming to replace the old ones when they get to falling over.

Still, it’s cool to see even newer oaks coming in.

Last fall, I walked one entire side of my property looking for maples I could pull up and transplant. I was shocked at how few young maples I had. I put flagging tape on every one, and I found 4 along my trail from one end of the property to the other. Maple isn’t necessarily a high wildlife value tree that I’m aware of, but I’d like to keep up the diversity, and I’ve watched deer target the leaves after they fall. Any forage the deer like in October is valuable to me. I’ve got maple coming up.

Last one, I had to go to the plant app for help on this one. It told me Hawthorn, and I ain’t married to that. Still, I’m always looking down for flowers, seeds, cones, or leaves that look different. But let’s pretend it is. It’s is called out as a beneficial food source for thrushes and waxwings. I wouldn’t know what either of those birds looked like if I saw one, but it doesn’t mean it’s not important.

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[Telemark]

American robins are thrushes. Waxwings generally live rather far North.

 

[Troubles Trees]

Great thread SD, it always helps to see the literal fruits of your labor taking off in beneficial ways like this. Sometimes it takes finding a single leaf on a trail to send me looking for the Oak I didn't know I had only to discover it is overcrowded (which is how I missed it previously) and needs releasing. Many times I simply don't know what plants and trees I am looking at but if I see a deer eat, it I try to find out what it is and how much of it I have.

Great thread my friend! Which plant app do you use? I have had a few and those always gave 20 or so free ID's and then wanted me to pay to continue.

 

[bwoods11]

Thanks for posting an interesting thread!

 

[SD51555]

Great thread SD, it always helps to see the literal fruits of your labor taking off in beneficial ways like this. Sometimes it takes finding a single leaf on a trail to send me looking for the Oak I didn't know I had only to discover it is overcrowded (which is how I missed it previously) and needs releasing. Many times I simply don't know what plants and trees I am looking at but if I see a deer eat, it I try to find out what it is and how much of it I have.

Great thread my friend! Which plant app do you use? I have had a few and those always gave 20 or so free ID's and then wanted me to pay to continue.

I use iNaturalist. That one is free, and you don't even need to register.

Every time I go out, I learn something or find something. And I'm far from a forester. This little spot we're talking about is about 0.08 of an acre. I measured it with the county GIS site. It took me about an hour to do what I did in there to touch this off. It would have gone even faster had I not had to cut up some of the trees and throw them back in because they fell outside of it.

It wasn't until later that I realized there was way more wildlife stuff in there. I just wanted to advance the young conifers with some light and thicken up the ground. That learning on the viburnum was also an accident. The first bush I hacked to pieces was not for the benefit of the viburnum. I didn't even know what arrowwood viburnum was. I cut the hell out of it to get some red osier dogwood inside of it some sunlight. I came back to check my dogwood the next summer and that arrowwood was loaded with fruit.

 

[SD51555]

It’d be fun to add up the value of each of these natural selections and throw on a premium for cage, posts, mat, and mulch.

Next up dogwood. I didn’t plant any of this. I did however take an exclusion cage out of my food plot and throw it over about a dozen severely browsed ROD nubs I found in a cluster. That was 2-3 seasons ago. The birds are gonna have their hands full cleaning this one out. This is in the feature annex about 40’ away. I hope the birds grab these seeds and haul them to my nearby cuts and poop them all over.

These are in the feature. I had to take down a handful of ash trees and cut up the logs and throw them back in. ROD popping up in the logs nicely, and not browsed.

Last one, and then this story is complete.

I also have some beaked hazel coming up. Beaked is an awesome shrub to have because it is native, prevalent in the right conditions, browsed moderately, and stays the right height for cover, without generating shade. The critters love the nuts. It’s very rare to even find any nuts because that window is so small between nut set and consumption.

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[SD51555]

Moral of the story: You make the opening, let nature tell you what should be there. You get to send some suggestions back with the chainsaw.


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[SD51555]

Here's a few snapshots of my recent forest work.

I got to work blasting open a new spot. I always go in and find everything I want to keep before I get to whackin'. I also stop and think about where to put stuff. If there are deer trails in there already, I keep those open. Then I get to work taking everything down and putting it where it needs to land. This spot was a two day project. There were some nice birch in there, a few good oaks over 10 feet tall, and a couple dozen balsams.



This was that spot mid summer after being cut just 6 months earlier. I had to go back in and start maintaining right away. I had big tooth aspen coming fast. It only took me about a half hour to go in by hand and snap them all off. Looking in from any direction, you'd never know all the brush was still there. It is a jungle, and it's a fine home for grouse.



This is another spot where I had a great stand of mixed aged balsams, some birch, and a few oak. I take out all that brush and the aspens that are making too much shade. I will even take down some balsams if they're causing the understory to thin out.

Here's the before:



Here's the after. To the left and right of center, you can see the trails left open. I spend lots of time keeping those multiple pathways open so there are no fatal funnels.



When I whack swamp ash, I try to use a bunch of it for either fire wood or making deer beds under the balsams. I don't know if it does any good, but the deer do use them. I put them under a balsam, point the V to the S/SE, and make them just high enough they can crouch down to get out of the wind, or raise their head and look behind them.

 

[SD51555]

Time to update the big cut from a couple years back. Here’s that spot from last summer.

Here’s that same spot from this past weekend.

The most important dogwood in the woods is loading up.

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[SD51555]

My viburnum patch is really loading up.

There’s even some unprotected dogwood buried in there.

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[SD51555]

Had a first for myself this summer. I’ve been seeing the leaves for a few years, but never caught any of the fruit. Now I found some.

Gooseberry

I ate one yesterday and it was tasty, like so tasty I’m going to try to move some plants around next spring.

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[SD51555]

Maybe with that terrifying spiked outter layer we should call it 'Ronaberry.