Forestry - Managing the family property

Operation death to buckeyes started today. I cut guessing 300 or 400 over 10 acres. My sons went behind me and sprayed the stumps with herbicide. Going back out tomorrow and try to do the same. I think we can have 90% of them done tomorrow if we hustle.

I didn't realize how thick they were. Some areas were very, very thick...only stems coming up were buckeye. It going to look a lot different next year. I keep telling myself it's going to look worse before it looks better

 

Stay and rot.

 

What lukem said... and to prevent sucker's growing out of the stump with its well established root system. Cut the tree and kill the stump.

 

Dropped another 300 or 400 buckeye trees today. Down to about 5 acres left of buckeye trees.

Forester visit in the morning. Hopefully I can get out of bed tomorrow.

 

I made it out of bed today even though I reached a level of soreness I forgot existed. Went a little too hard the past couple days.

Took another walk with another forester this morning and he said the same stuff as the other two guys. He has a more wildlife promotion approach which I appreciate.

Keep killing buckeyes, then cut the box elders but let them sprout for browse. Keep killing vines. Let the NRCS pay you to kill honeysuckle.

 

Had another forester out this week. At first I didn't really like him, but he grew on me and would probably be the guy I go with for a harvest.

NRCS comes out this week. After doing some research it looks like they have funding for a written forest management plan available. Hopefully I can get that which would allow me to get additional funding for some TSI work and invasive removal. I'm just concerned this could take forever to work through all the paperwork and I don't want to wait.

 

That was my first step (the plan) also. I actually netted about $500 after paying my nrcs approved forester. If you're not aware, the government time line is something that requires patience. Work approved one year, then if approved it's funded and contracted the next. All in all it's a good program and a chance to get a little tax money back while improving your land and it's good stewardship.

 

Sounds stupid, but I would recommend having your sister apply for any NRCS funding etc. If your sister doesn't want to mess with it and your wife is on the deed, have her apply. When I was married, I had my wife apply for all of the NRCS stuff because I was told that she had a better chance of getting the funding than me from our county NRCS rep ( who was a woman ). I know, I know, I agree it's a bunch of BS but sometimes you have to play their games.

 

It sounds like there is plenty of money to go around right now. I'll keep that in mind though.

 

They even pay out more to the "under represented" or whatever PC terminology they are using. Unfortunately my wife doesn't have the proper "complection" to qualify for this little bit of reverse discrimination.

 

Yep, my ex-wife had some American Indian in her lineage so she got preferential treatment.

 

Cut down another 300 - 400 buckeye trees today. About another half day of cutting on them and they should be all but gone except along the creek banks.

After the buckeyes are gone it's time to go after the vines.

 

Cut another couple hundred buckeye trees this morning. Down to less than 100 to go but ran out of time. Don't know what the exact count is to date but has to be approaching 1500.

Not sure what I'm going to do next. Probably just section everything up and work through 1 at a time killing invasives and vines. Some areas are a lot worse than others so I'll probably start with the easy ones first so they don't get out of control. The hard areas are already out of control so sitting a while longer isn't going to hurt anything.

 

Make sure you're timing is right for spraying that expensive juice.
Some need to be applied during a active growing period of the target.

 

Everything I've read says as long as it isn't March through May it works fine.

Cut another couple hundred honeysuckle bushes and buckeye and honey locust trees today. When I think I'm about done I keep finding more.

 

More of the same today. The more I cut the more I find. Have to be near 2000 trees down, but the bulk of the buckeyes are on the ground now.

 

Met with the district forester this week. He is going to write a plan that I can use to apply for funding for invasive removal. Sounds like it might be 12 months before I get approval and 24 months before I see any money in my pocket. Not sure I'm willing to wait that long.

 

Went out in the snow and cut umpteen gazillion vines today. Lots of snow down the back of my neck.

 

While the government is a pain to deal with the funds are usually worth the wait. You will have an application cut off frequently Sept-Nov either start of or end of fiscal year, followed by review then acceptance, payment is usually after you complete a stage. That said spraying and killing buckeyes and honeysuckle before acceptance into a program can exclude you from some funding.
As for under served groups they typically include veterans, first time farmers (less than 10 years), along with all the others.