What to do with south-facing terraced, brushy side-bank?

[j-bird]

I intend to both cut and remove the shrubs then "paint" the cut stem with straight 42% gly (have a fair amount left over from spraying, saw it on a growing deer episode). It is easy to identify on my place from all of the above that you had mentioned (leaves, berries) and it also has kinda flaky bark. (plus it is everywhere so if it is a decent sized shrub its getting whacked). I just don't know if my 300cc wheeler will have enough oomph to pull out a 15 foot tall shrub.

I am wondering though, would blowing/raking the leaves off the ground help in the spring for the native vegetation to come back once I get rid of the honeysuckle? This hillside is pretty thick with leaves from all the hardwoods that are in and around the honeysuckle. I'm willing to try about anything if it helps make it thicker and having more native briars/shrubs.

My concern would be if you are opening yourself up to erosion problems. If you want to do this - I would try it in a small area, maybe the flatter areas and see how it responds. I don't like pulling them either....I have coarse soil and the roots do help stabilize that.....so I just cut and treat the stumps.

 

[bigboreblr]

I'd keep it mild. Take the brush thats getting too tall and cut the top few feet off of it. Do some hinge cuts here n there. And cut down a few mature less desireable trees and cut them into 8ft sections and stack as windbreaks. Then plant a handful of spruce up there. Just some mild management to steer it a little better your way. MAybe put 2 or 3 white pines and cage them.

In the PA state forests during flintlock season I very often see bucks relaxing under a fluke pine, epecially if it's on a small hill with a bit better view. IT's almost like clockwork.

 

[Derek Reese 29]

My concern would be if you are opening yourself up to erosion problems. If you want to do this - I would try it in a small area, maybe the flatter areas and see how it responds. I don't like pulling them either....I have coarse soil and the roots do help stabilize that.....so I just cut and treat the stumps.

good call on leaving the stumps/roots...the only "flat areas" are on the terraces, other wise it's anywhere from a 30-60 degree slope...I might try blowing off the leaves in the middle of the 2.5 acres (maybe 1/3 of an acre) this seems to be the most open spot to begin with

 

[Derek Reese 29]

I'd keep it mild. Take the brush thats getting too tall and cut the top few feet off of it. Do some hinge cuts here n there. And cut down a few mature less desireable trees and cut them into 8ft sections and stack as windbreaks. Then plant a handful of spruce up there. Just some mild management to steer it a little better your way. MAybe put 2 or 3 white pines and cage them.

In the PA state forests during flintlock season I very often see bucks relaxing under a fluke pine, epecially if it's on a small hill with a bit better view. IT's almost like clockwork.

I might try some smaller spruce in the tops of the hinges...I am running low on caging materials and I can get spruces pretty cheap from cold stream..I want this to be a spot where bucks (and does too) will bed and then make their way up to my plot to eat/chase depending on the time of year...as my dad always says.."it only takes one hot doe.."

 

[Derek Reese 29]

would white pine or norway spruce be a better choice...thinking about just kinda randomly planting them (maybe with a little bit of a plan) in this thicker area and seeing how it goes (or should I try to plant them in clusters/clumps)..i can get white pines anywhere from 2-5' tall from a friend's place and the spruce are not bad if I don't try to get huge ones..

 

[ng270]

My house sits on 2 acres, with 1.5 of that wooded. When we moved in 20 years ago the wooded section was full of bush honeysuckle. Figured out what it was about 8 years in and some winters spent some time really hacking it back and treating the stumps with gly like you suggested (straight from the jug, ~40%). That works pretty good, but I'd have to be really vigilant to totally eliminate it. The whole surrounding area has little woodlots that are choked with it, so I'm never going to eliminate it, but by whacking it back every couple or three years, I can keep it to small patches here and there.

Also had about 30 mature ash trees that are now, of course, gone due to the ash borer. That really opened up the canopy so the last couple of years I've been working harder on the honeysuckle and seeing what shows up with all of the new sunlight. I'm getting a bunch of spice bush, but also have some young oaks coming on, some crabapples, viburnum, hawthorn, mulberries, and the typical maple, sassafrass, etc. Just about all of that was probably there all along, just waiting for a chance; the rest the birds brought in. Hated to see those 24"+ dbh Ash trees go, but from a diversity perspective on my little postage stamp, it has actually worked out pretty well.

Windy way of saying that if you really work on getting rid of bush honeysuckle plus open the canopy some - then just keep an eye on what shows up, you might not have to do much else.

 

[Teeder]

would white pine or norway spruce be a better choice...thinking about just kinda randomly planting them (maybe with a little bit of a plan) in this thicker area and seeing how it goes (or should I try to plant them in clusters/clumps)..i can get white pines anywhere from 2-5' tall from a friend's place and the spruce are not bad if I don't try to get huge ones..

I have about a 2 acre corner of my field that I'm going to turn into bedding/sanctuary. It's south sloping. One of the things I plan to do is make multiple patches of evergreens. I'm going to plant 3-4 norways in a cresent, close together as a break and then a white pine in the center towards the south-east. Don't know if that's a good idea or not, but it sounds good.

 

[Teeder]

My house sits on 2 acres, with 1.5 of that wooded. When we moved in 20 years ago the wooded section was full of bush honeysuckle. Figured out what it was about 8 years in and some winters spent some time really hacking it back and treating the stumps with gly like you suggested (straight from the jug, ~40%). That works pretty good, but I'd have to be really vigilant to totally eliminate it. The whole surrounding area has little woodlots that are choked with it, so I'm never going to eliminate it, but by whacking it back every couple or three years, I can keep it to small patches here and there.

Also had about 30 mature ash trees that are now, of course, gone due to the ash borer. That really opened up the canopy so the last couple of years I've been working harder on the honeysuckle and seeing what shows up with all of the new sunlight. I'm getting a bunch of spice bush, but also have some young oaks coming on, some crabapples, viburnum, hawthorn, mulberries, and the typical maple, sassafrass, etc. Just about all of that was probably there all along, just waiting for a chance; the rest the birds brought in. Hated to see those 24"+ dbh Ash trees go, but from a diversity perspective on my little postage stamp, it has actually worked out pretty well.

Windy way of saying that if you really work on getting rid of bush honeysuckle plus open the canopy some - then just keep an eye on what shows up, you might not have to do much else.

My brother's place was hit hard with the ash-borer, and like you said, it's hard to see those big beautiful trees go (also my favorite firewood), but deer habitat really improved.

 

[Booner21]

Hello everyone,
I have ~2-2.5 acres of a fairly steep, but terraced south-facing side bank above my house. It is covered in some kind of woody shrub that still is holding red berries that ranges in size from about 4-12' or so (it might be winterberry, but I am not sure). There are also some mature maples and oaks towards the top of the bank, and some smaller hardwood trees as well. I have found deer beds on the top of this side bank near my food plot (0.5 acre now of a 2.5 acre hayfield-more to come later). I would love to turn this into a better bedding area. My thoughts were to cut some of the shrubs out, then maybe blow the leaves out with a leaf blower, then see what kind of existing vegetation come up. I would also like to hinge some of the smaller trees, but don't want to take a ton of them. I am less worried about the food aspect with the hinging and thinking more about the cover. Also, is there anything I could plant in this spot (shrubs/berries, etc.) that would add to its value as cover? Thanks for your

My spot that I Ariel sprayed and killed the bush honeysuckle came back with all sorts of new growth


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[Telemark]

I'd keep it mild. Take the brush thats getting too tall and cut the top few feet off of it. Do some hinge cuts here n there. And cut down a few mature less desireable trees and cut them into 8ft sections and stack as windbreaks. Then plant a handful of spruce up there. Just some mild management to steer it a little better your way. MAybe put 2 or 3 white pines and cage them.

In the PA state forests during flintlock season I very often see bucks relaxing under a fluke pine, epecially if it's on a small hill with a bit better view. IT's almost like clockwork.

What is a fluke pine?

 

[Derek Reese 29]

Glad to hear! Was up there today cutting firewood at the thicker west end and that stuff is just a tangled mess..which would be good if it wasn’t honeysuckle and was better cover…

 

[Bowsnbucks]

In the PA state forests during flintlock season I very often see bucks relaxing under a fluke pine, epecially if it's on a small hill with a bit better view. IT's almost like clockwork.

Nature's umbrellas. I've seen this too. Heavy snowfall, those big pines are shelter and keep the ground dry underneath them. Good dry(er) bedding for deer.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

would white pine or norway spruce be a better choice...thinking about just kinda randomly planting them (maybe with a little bit of a plan) in this thicker area and seeing how it goes (or should I try to plant them in clusters/clumps)..i can get white pines anywhere from 2-5' tall from a friend's place and the spruce are not bad if I don't try to get huge ones..

White pines will open up at the bottom after a few years as the tops shoot for the sky / sun. It's their natural growth habit .... they self-prune their lower limbs naturally. Norway spruce - if in a sunny location - will keep full limbs from the ground up. As the Norways get bigger after 10 - 15 years, the lowest limbs will allow deer to bed under them, or you can help by pruning off the very lowest set of limbs. The spruce are much thicker than white pines for shelter and windbreak. White pines are NOT bad to have, they have a role to play too - just not good windbreaks as time goes on. Our camp has both - much prefer the spruce, FWIW.

 

[Mortenson]

Booner21, can you elaborate on your aerial spraying? Was it big acreage? Partnership with neighbors? You said it came back with new growth - do you mean honeysuckle or desired growth? On a scale of 1 to 10 how happy are you, and was the cost reasonable?

 

[Booner21]

Booner21, can you elaborate on your aerial spraying? Was it big acreage? Partnership with neighbors? You said it came back with new growth - do you mean honeysuckle or desired growth? On a scale of 1 to 10 how happy are you, and was the cost reasonable?

They sprayed my 60 acres only but did do a couple other farms in closish proximity. I have my land enrolled in Il recreational access program for turkey season. They cost shared 75% of it. The only problem is they have to do it in mid to late November but we’re done in about 25 minutes. ( I actually killed this deer 3 days after they sprayed it)I had deer and Turkey pictures hours after they finished spraying with a helicopter so it didn’t completely blow the farm up. They sprayed the Thursday before our first gun season in il for reference. It wiped out the honeysuckle and have had other regrowth. I have a burn scheduled this spring hopefully also. I would say from a casual observation it wiped out 90%+. It is very time dependent. I don’t remember the exact cost but less than 100 and acre total cost. I would do it again tomorrow as I was completely overwhelmed with it in a lot of areas.

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[Derek Reese 29]

Started attacking this project with a new electric chainsaw and my trusty silky saw. I cut down a bunch of the honeysuckle on the top terrace and between the top and 2nd terrace (top terrace about 5 yards from the food plot, 2nd one down is maybe 15 yards below). Just stacked the cut brush on the 2nd terrace so maybe I can get some smaller Norways and plant them in the middle of the brush for protection..should get me a couple years right?

 

[Garrett S]

So what would the best cover be for a south facing terrace ?

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

Started attacking this project with a new electric chainsaw and my trusty silky saw. I cut down a bunch of the honeysuckle on the top terrace and between the top and 2nd terrace (top terrace about 5 yards from the food plot, 2nd one down is maybe 15 yards below). Just stacked the cut brush on the 2nd terrace so maybe I can get some smaller Norways and plant them in the middle of the brush for protection..should get me a couple years right?

Man that is encouraging. That is exactly what I want to do with an overwhelming amount of Japanese stilt grass. I’d estimate roughly same amount of acreage. No way I can backpack spray that much. I need a helicopter to do it

 

[Derek Reese 29]

So what would the best cover be for a south facing terrace ?

I’m hoping some native shrubs and brush will grow (think wild raspberries) but I am going to add some Norway spruces and maybe white pine hoping it just becomes a thick wild mess once I get the honeysuckle out of there but I am definitely open to any and all suggestions

 

[Garrett S]

I was legitimately asking as I have the ideal sf slope that will likely receive some shelterbelt logging this yr and I was wondering what if I focussed on making the ideal bedding… but stumbled as to what that actually was