Habitat Work

[Stubborn1vt]

Started working on my land today.  Took the Kubota and the saws out to a tiny plot in the woods.  There is a producing red oak in the middle of the plot/clearing that I want to get some more room and light.  I also want to roughly double the size of the plot.  I planted it years ago by roughing it up with a box scraper with teeth, then running a chain harrow over it.  Planted rye, chicory, clover and some small burnet.  It's all still there, but the fall leaves set it back quite a bit.

Anyhow, I dropped a couple white pines and chipped the tops.  Cut the best of the logs into lengths I could move by hand (6-8').  Also dropped a soft maple, blocked that into firewood and piled up the tops for the deer to eat if they want.  I put the chips and pine needles where my log road crosses a drainage.  It currently has running water in it.  Good for the water table.  Bad for travel.  The chips did the trick, but I will probably add 3-4 more buckets.  

Next I'll probably take out another pine or two in this plot.  It should be .20 acres when I'm done.  Also planning on clearing out around the one mature, wild apple I have.  It's been pruned and makes a few apples.  Hopefully clearing out the competition to the south will help it out.  Once I'm done in these 3 areas, I'll take the chipper off and switch to a 3pt hitch carry-all and make a little firewood.  

Glad to be out.  6-10" of snow.  Ground is soft underneath.  Should be better tomorrow.  The overnight low is supposed to be 17.

[Robhuntandfish]

Awesome!  I can't wait to get started on projects.  I think it's gonna be a while. Quite a bit of snow and that's gonna mean a lot of water on our flat land swamp. 

[Cabin Fever]

Oh man! I need some R&R after hunting season to start tearing into projects!  Good for you!

[BowmanMike]

I got a bunch of bull pine in my woods,big stuff. I should probably cut most of them but I think it would be tricky with the multi trunks and just the sheer diameter of them. No good logs in any of them,maybe one 6' log per ten trees. 

Cutting even a few would make a major mess,that is why I haven't done it. Plus,I don't necessarily want to cut trees to make more food for deer. I always feel bad for cutting a tree. Maybe because i am married to a tree hugger.

Maybe someday...but as I get older the likelihood decreases

 

 

[Bucksnbows]

Nice!  I oversee a 107 acre property in Sparta, NJ of which 90 acres are mostly mature oak/hickory. Over the last 15 or so years, we have done a lot of disturbance to open the canopy and diversify the habitat. I’ll be meeting with my forester tomorrow morning to review our plans under our second ten year plan.  We wrote it with much more flexibility and I need to understand just how much I have. I plan to mark out another 5 acres of TSI next week and may do 10 acres. I want to better connect an older modified seed tree harvest (clear cut with a few trees left for those not aware of the name) to a newer cut by heavy TSI. And in spring I’ll dig two new vernal pools that double as watering holes for deer and other creatures. 

[BowmanMike]

6 minutes ago, Rusty said:

We have too many trees.  The Lorax has lied to you and brainwashed society.    

The what has lied to me? I don't know no Lorax.

[Stubborn1vt]

Hoping to dig a small waterhole as well.  I will probably go the kiddie pool route.  I think it would have been a good addition this summer in our near-drought conditions.

[Bucksnbows]

1 hour ago, BowmanMike said:

The what has lied to me? I don't know no Lorax.

A famous Dr. Seuss story. 

[Bucksnbows]

1 hour ago, Stubborn1vt said:

Hoping to dig a small waterhole as well.  I will probably go the kiddie pool route.  I think it would have been a good addition this summer in our near-drought conditions.

Still water is so important to whitetail habitat needs. Streams are okay, but deer prefer still water so they can hear predators approaching when their heads are down to drink. 

[ZAG]

1 hour ago, Stubborn1vt said:

Hoping to dig a small waterhole as well.  I will probably go the kiddie pool route.  I think it would have been a good addition this summer in our near-drought conditions.

Got a backhoe attachment?

[Stubborn1vt]

39 minutes ago, ZAG said:

Got a backhoe attachment?

No.  I think I can get most of it dug with the bucket and finish it with a shovel.  

[ZAG]

5 minutes ago, Stubborn1vt said:

No.  I think I can get most of it dug with the bucket and finish it with a shovel.  

Ok, if ya had bh attachment I was gonna suggest a vernal pool. We have multiple throughout our place. Probably gonna add another near the new plot.

[Stubborn1vt]

Cut one more pine in the expanded plot.  Put the chips in the log road and I'm happy with the crossing for now. 

"Released" another oak tree by cutting all the buckthorn around/under it, along with 6 red cedars. I chipped the buckthorn and cut a few fence posts out of the cedars.  Dropped a green ash and bucked it up for firewood.  Done with this spot for now.

After lunch I cleared out around the only wild apple tree on my 1 acre plot.  Cut the buckthorn and brush around it, along with a cedar.  Chipped all that.  I prune the apple every other year, so it's due for a trim.  Hoping a little more light will help it out.

I trimmed back the hedgerow on the south side of the plot before deer season.  Started on the north hedgerow today.  In some places it's a wall of buckthorn that is encroaching on the plot.  In some cases I gained 4 feet.  In talking with the neighbor a couple years back, I learned the hedgerow is pretty much entirely on our side of the line.  I'm tempted to make it half as wide.  

In one area I was nuking a wall of buckthorn and came across a good looking young apple tree.  Two 3" trunks  and about 8-9' tall.  I cut everything around it.  I'll probably do a very light prune on it.  Hopefully it takes off.  A second free apple tree!  And it's only 40 yards from the other wild tree and closer to the row of smaller apples I planted.  

No pics today.  Forgot my phone in the house after lunch.  

[Stubborn1vt]

A pic of the apple tree I discovered yesterday.  One of the red oak that I released.  A couple pics of the drainage where I want to install a water hole.  Last is a multi-trunk white pine that I plan to hang a stand in.

Only went out for a couple hours.  Focused on an area where basswood trees were competing with hickory and ash trees.  Cut 8-10 basswood of all sizes and used them to make a bit of a travel corridor.  It comes in 90 degrees to my log road, right in front of the white pine in the last picture.  Also whacked more buckthorn and chipped it.  I will spread the chips in the log road before spring when this section is wet.  Thinking of cutting all the buckthorn and honeysuckle in one section.  It's wet and the maple, ash and elm all have wet feet and the canopy is somewhat open.  Then I'd try to propagate red osier dogwood between the trees.  We'll see.

Checked 3 cameras.  Pretty quiet.  There were a few deer around a week ago.  With all the incoming rain I probably won't be able to get back out for a bit, unless the flash freeze is for real.   

[BowmanMike]

Nice work! I hate buckthorn and usually cut it when I have a saw handy. Same with honeysuckle. Not a fan of invasives.