Thinning forest

[EddieWalker]

On the benefits of thinning, around here in East Texas, a state biologist told me that hundreds of years ago, before any farming or clearing was every done, there where very few saplings and small trees. The big trees where spread out and there was open ground underneath. With farming, came clearing, and then the farming stopped and then the trees made a come back, but it takes hundreds of years for it to be where it is supposed to be naturally. My land is so think that it's impossible to walk through. Thinning it out is good for the wildlife, and the remaining plants.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

If you look at established forests, there is little undergrowth, and the trees are spaced a decent space apart.

I cleared in my woods about 10 yrs ago, then let it go. It got so thick with young crap growing, i couldnt get thru it. I cleaned it out again last yr. If i dont mow it, it will grow back up.however, once you get a mature tree cover, it helps keep the undergrowth in check.

 

[oosik]

buckeyefarmer - my dad bought this 80 acres in 1939 and took the first pictures of the place in 1940. The only things that have changed in the 80 intervening years - the Ponderosa pines have gotten bigger and since nobody did any thinning - there were lots of thick little pine stands when we came down in '82. The bunch grass and buck brush are exactly the same. And here and there are a sage bush or two.

This semi-arid environment simply does not support thick undergrowth - actually it doesn't support any undergrowth. I can very easily see all the way down the center of my property - 2640 feet - from the East property line to the West property line.

 

[/pine]

There is a dichotomy with forest preservation ideals...one bent is for timber the other for wildlife...
The latter is the reason in many places the USFS "clearcuts" ...undergrowth provides cover for smaller species and the food chain starts at the very tiny but links all the way to the top...

 

[GirlWhoWantsTractor]

There is a dichotomy with forest preservation ideals...one bent is for timber the other for wildlife...
The latter is the reason in many places the USFS "clearcuts" ...undergrowth provides cover for smaller species and the food chain starts at the very tiny but links all the way to the top...

Mature forest getting rarer all the time. (Heard there's a bit of true virgin forest somewhere deep in a national forest in the Appalachians, which is kept secret.) And because folks like to see neatly mowed fields bordered by tall trees, the "edges," the intermediate-growth brushy stuff, is often cut over because it don't look neat and well-kept, so that's a problem because like /pine said, it's prime wild critter habitat (like our native quail).

Had a county agent look over the property, and some areas that maybe didn't look so good, like under the powerlines, which had been cut over with dead wood left lying around and was sprouting all sorts of random brush and small trees, he recommended leaving exactly "as is." Said the wildlife would love it. Since it's not in view of the house, I took his advice. It looks better every year w/ zero work, plus I'm hoping to see quail again. Kind of changed my point of view. I don't see the point of acres of mowed grass, just to look at. Grass left unmowed becomes a wildflower meadow real quick. Cut it into curved swaths with a walking path through it and it looks quite lovely, and the curved pathways are a pleasure to mow, and quick. Spend the extra time fishing or building something.

Even farmers who need to produce income from the land, he said there was value in leaving the brushy borders, such as blocking wind, reducing erosion, among other things.

 

[aczlan]

Can your tractor fit in where you want to trim? If so, why not put a bush hog on the back and back over your 1-2" little trees.

Aaron Z

 

[LMychajluk]

Can your tractor fit in where you want to trim? If so, why not put a bush hog on the back and back over your 1-2" little trees.

Aaron Z

See Post #1, Paragraph 3.



Here's a couple of photos of what I'm dealing with. When I was a kid (40 years ago), some of this was just wild fields with a lot of blueberry bushes. We had a brush fire that cleared a lot of that, and after, larger trees (mostly maples, but some birch and maybe oak?) started growing in. It's not so much 'too thick to walk through', but there are a lot of trees where there are multiple trees growing out of the same stump, or very close together (you can see a bit of that in the photos). I don't know why, but that seems to happen often on our property.

The ferns are starting to grow in already, so some areas might wait until the fall or next spring, but I want to start cleaning up the dead fall.

 

[Jstpssng]

buckeyefarmer - my dad bought this 80 acres in 1939 and took the first pictures of the place in 1940. The only things that have changed in the 80 intervening years - the Ponderosa pines have gotten bigger and since nobody did any thinning - there were lots of thick little pine stands when we came down in '82. The bunch grass and buck brush are exactly the same. And here and there are a sage bush or two.

This semi-arid environment simply does not support thick undergrowth - actually it doesn't support any undergrowth. I can very easily see all the way down the center of my property - 2640 feet - from the East property line to the West property line.

That's one big difference between where you are, and what I'm used to. Here we want to see some undergrowth as that's the next generation of trees. Mature growth is stagnant growth; it's what caribou and a few other species like, but there really isn't much life in declining trees. The American Indians used to burn the hardwood forests of Appalachia occasionally to promote squirrel habitat long before we Europeans et.al. came over... of course back then the hardwood leaves in the forest were a couple of feet deep because there were no earthworms around until they hitchhiked over on our ships.

See Post #1, Paragraph 3.

View attachment 555031View attachment 555032

Here's a couple of photos of what I'm dealing with. When I was a kid (40 years ago), some of this was just wild fields with a lot of blueberry bushes. We had a brush fire that cleared a lot of that, and after, larger trees (mostly maples, but some birch and maybe oak?) started growing in. It's not so much 'too thick to walk through', but there are a lot of trees where there are multiple trees growing out of the same stump, or very close together (you can see a bit of that in the photos). I don't know why, but that seems to happen often on our property.

The ferns are starting to grow in already, so some areas might wait until the fall or next spring, but I want to start cleaning up the dead fall.

I was looking at those ferns. Whatever you do, try not to disturb the ground too much. One thing that I remember from working in NY is how they like to take over, and the only thing which will grow up through them- eventually- is black cherry.

 

[GirlWhoWantsTractor]

See Post #1, Paragraph 3.

View attachment 555031View attachment 555032

Here's a couple of photos of what I'm dealing with. When I was a kid (40 years ago), some of this was just wild fields with a lot of blueberry bushes. We had a brush fire that cleared a lot of that, and after, larger trees (mostly maples, but some birch and maybe oak?) started growing in. It's not so much 'too thick to walk through', but there are a lot of trees where there are multiple trees growing out of the same stump, or very close together (you can see a bit of that in the photos). I don't know why, but that seems to happen often on our property.

The ferns are starting to grow in already, so some areas might wait until the fall or next spring, but I want to start cleaning up the dead fall.

Multiple trees growing out of the same stump is often maple.
Like I said before, late fall-winter is best for cutting trees. But now through fall is good for identifying trees, and for planning. Get a tree book and walk through the woods, and if you find trees of a species you want to encourage--oak, hickory, wild cherry, or whatever--tie a ribbon around them. Trees are a bit harder to identify w/o leaves. In the areas where we do anything, we try to cull the poplars, as they grow quickly and crowd out other species, but are very weak trees that fall in storms.
The ferns look like bracken. We have a lot of it. It is pretty indestructable and also very easy to transplant. Nothing makes a disturbed area look natural more quickly than some ferns. In fact, when we are going to disturb an area, we take off the moss, the ferns, some of the plants, and all the duff we can rake up. Then when we're done, we put it all back. Looks nice.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

See Post #1, Paragraph 3.

View attachment 555031View attachment 555032

Here's a couple of photos of what I'm dealing with. When I was a kid (40 years ago), some of this was just wild fields with a lot of blueberry bushes. We had a brush fire that cleared a lot of that, and after, larger trees (mostly maples, but some birch and maybe oak?) started growing in. It's not so much 'too thick to walk through', but there are a lot of trees where there are multiple trees growing out of the same stump, or very close together (you can see a bit of that in the photos). I don't know why, but that seems to happen often on our property.

The ferns are starting to grow in already, so some areas might wait until the fall or next spring, but I want to start cleaning up the dead fall.

I find winter the best time to clear, when you can see what you're dealing with. Seeing your pics, I'd take smaller trees out with a grapple, assuming they didnt sprout from an old stump. I love clearing land, fun seat time.