Trees. My plans and your input wanted

[Apple Junkie]

My property is all hardwoods so any improvements involve a monumental tree removal process and I am prioritizing other projects that have been started first.

Food for thought.... you might want to contact a good professional forester in your area first. Sound logging may accomplish your clearing task, and pay for some of the other projects you have in mind (if possible, leave the tops!). I agree, red dogwood can't get over browsed once established, probably the same can be said for grey dogwood too. On the other hand, elderberry and white cedar probably don't stand a chance of surviving browsing pressure since the deer love them TOO much. Good luck, and keep us posted.

 

[WNY8N]

WNY8N - post #17 ………… Fire up your chainsaw & take off some lower limbs. That's an option.

Yeah at some point it will, I was waiting for them to get more mature, but now that I think about it I have no idea what the diff is:-)

 

[WNY8N]

Not knowing the area I’d assume that during the nastiest weather they still find their way into the spruce. If you were to thin the stand and promote grasses and shrubs from the seed bank I’d bet you would have a small oasis of deer bedding.

We have a fair amount of hemlocks which they love during heavy periods of snow and a mature block of white pines also. At some point I'll have to thin out the lower limbs.

 

[ruskbucks]

One thing I don't like about Norway's is they run branches right to the ground. We have a stand of probably 15-20 yr old trees, looks like great cover but they don't bed in them. Doing it over I'd plant pines where the lowest branch is 4-5ft off the ground and having some native grasses or goldenrod growing up to the branches.

I totally agree. I always thought a perimeter of Norway with Scotch pine or White pine inside for bedding would be awsome. I only have a handful of large white pines on my land and the deer bed under every one of them. I planted 300 scotch along the road as a quick screen. The deer always bed under them. The scotch loose the branches on the bottoms. This allows some sunlight to get in and the grass/weeds grow in there. The deer like this combo of grass and pines for bedding.