Forestry - Managing the family property

I sprayed 4 packs of spray Saturday AM on the multiflora rose, honeysuckle, buckeye seedlings, and some of the thicker areas of spicebush. By Sunday afternoon everything but the buckeye was showing signs of distress. Hopefully the buckeye isn't far behind. I think I have about 25% of the property 100% done now, but it's the easiest part.

Tilled about 1/2 acre for an new food plot. Planted oats for now until we put in the final crop late summer.

 

Locally it’s a lot easier to rent a skid steer with a bush hog and a grapple. Will do a pretty good job taking it down to 4-6” then spray whatever comes back.

 

I have a bush hog and grapple on my tractor but there isn't a lot of room to maneuver around the trees.

 

I did 5 backpacks of spray this morning....probably walked 6 or 7 miles with up to 35 lbs on my back. There's a lot more rose out there than I thought. I'm gassed.

 

Got all the trails mowed, 1/2 acre tilled and seeded in oats for a deer food plot later this fall, and did some hinge cutting and girdled and sprayed a big sycamore and hedge tree inside the goat fence.

More backpack sprayer work in the morning.

 

4 more backpacks of spray this morning. The easy stuff is done. All that's left is about 15 acres of hell.

I girldled and sprayed 2 GIGANTIC sycamores today. They are taking up too much canopy space and a logger would destroy a bunch of walnut trees if felled.

 

I think Girdling is a technique that isn’t used enough

 

I got 4 backpacks worth of herbicide applied to rose and honeysuckle this morning. Things are really starting to look different out there.

I'm down to about 10 or 12 acres of impenetrable brush now. Suck level will be extremely high working that down.

 

I've bush hogged some pretty tall woody brush, backing in about a tractor length with the mower as high as I can get it, lowering to as much as it can handle and pulled back out for the next pass.
Tedious, but even if you could create mowed "lanes" about 10 +/- feet apart for spraying access from these lanes might be an approach.
Tall dense stuff is miserable to try to spray.

 

Following for information on how best to address our acreage which hasn’t seen a logger in likely 30 years. Thanks!

 

I have done same as fuel rod. Back in 10 feet at time with it at almost 40 degree angle; my brush hog is 10’ long and 6’ wide

 

I have definitely considered taking the brush hog down the middle for access. I would have to do that when the leaves are off so I could see any downed trees.

 

No worries, the mower will find them.
It's not that bad backing in with the blade as high as the tractor will lift it and shortening the top link will get you a little more. At that point (depending on the tree size) your rear tires will just bump it.

 

A couple weeks ago we sprayed food plots. Today we decided to burn them before putting in the fall crop. Worked out great. Just need some rain now.

 

Marking timber for a harvest this week. Feel good about it after working with the forester this morning. We are on the same page about what needs to happen.

 

What girdling technique do you use? I've devolved it into my own thing. I use a saw cutting at least 1" beyond sapwood. Then I move up 6" and do the same thing again. I started out doing singles, but some trees can overcome if they are growing fast enough. Double ringed is assured death with no chems involved. I had to cull a bunch of storm topped trees to make the State happy some years back.

Be nice to get rewarded a bit financially with a harvest. What kind of bdft you bringing down?

 

If I have a spray bottle with me anyway, I just go about 1" deep single pass and dose it. Otherwise double girdle about 3" apart. I single girdled a couple buckeye trees and it didn't phase them...apparently I forgot to spray them afterward.

Sycamore trees apparently have enough moisture in the tops they will leaf out and look completely healthy until about right now if you girdle and spray them. I thought one of them was un-killable after the second round of girdling 6 months apart....but it is finally showing signs of distress.

Too soon to say on how big the harvest is going to be. We aren't taking trees under 24" unless they are damaged, diseased, deformed, or prohibiting the growth of a more valuable tree. We are letting a lot of 24" trees that have room to grow until next time. We marked and measured a surprising amount of trees that were over 1,000 bdft each this morning.

I think we are only going to take about about 12-15 walnuts this time around, but most of them have at least one 26"x 12' veneer log in them...so those add up quick.

 

Sounds like you are logging individual trees (keeping record of). I highly approve of this method. Last time around I knew exact number of trees by species that would be taken and had a close estimate of footage therein. I was directed to a forester who basically 'had the blueprint' after a couple decades of seeing what does and doesn't work well. The man who referenced him has passed away and Earl (the forester) is long since retired. I still have my copy of the contract for future reference.

 

Yes, we are taking every tree one at a time, looking at the trees around it, if we can get it down without tearing up other stuff, will it be better or worse next harvest, etc. It takes a while but very worth the effort. We made the call on a few maple trees that need to go, but they are just going to get girdled so we don't tear up a bunch of walnuts getting it down. Probably left a few hundred $ on the table, but I don't care.