Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Shawnv - I didn't take any pix of the before and after once we cut. Probably should have. I can tell you, like J-bird said above, the tops will break down in a couple years. Here, oak seem to hold up the longest. Maple, gum, tulip poplar, aspen, pine, hemlock all break down within 2 - 4 years. We've had tops laying on tops and it didn't keep shoots from coming up. Stumps will send up " stump - shoots " from oak & maple, so we piled tops around the stumps to give them a chance to get growing by the time the tops broke down. Fresh-cut tops will give the deer something to work on for a while. Deer moved into, ate & bedded in them when we dropped the trees in winter. IMO, unless you stack tops 10 or 12 feet deep, you can't lose by letting some lay.