Beech trees

[Swampster]

Is there any benefit to wildlife from beech trees? I saw a small one with lots of beech nuts under it and was considering planting 20 or so. They are beautiful trees, but I didn't know what might eat the nuts. Acorns are scarce in my area and I was surprised that they had not been eaten. They look like a decent sized seed that would be in demand by a large variety of animals.

 

[bigtex]

IMO deer will eat beechnuts but they are not not a prefered food source. Turkeys on the other hand eat the heck out of them.

 

[Diehard Hunter]

Deer like them enough for me to focus on beech trees during muzzleloader season. I have killed many deer under beech trees.

 

[BSK]

Normally, bneeches take over an area. I work so hard to kill them out, I can't imagine promoting them. They will dominate a hardwood understory and greatly reduce visibility.

 

[Football Hunter]

I agree with BSK

 

[timberjack86]

I agree with Diehard.Here I know of two properties that contain large beech trees.The deer really hammer them after the acorns are gone.

 

[ROUGH COUNTRY HUNTER]

i am going to kill mine out and plant sawtooth oaks back

 

[PickettSFHunter]

I have alot of very large beech on one of my places. Deer and turkey love them. But they are inconistent producers. Not worth much for timber and they hold onto leaves pretty long, it gets aggravating when you have beech saplings everywhere. Not very fast growing either. I do like having some large ones around though for mast sometimes and den trees.

 

[catman529]

Normally, bneeches take over an area. I work so hard to kill them out, I can't imagine promoting them. They will dominate a hardwood understory and greatly reduce visibility.

man I don't know what your properties look like but anywhere in the woods I've been, I only see a few beech trees. Much more common in the understory is pawpaw, honeysuckle, privet, etc. from my personal experience. Never paid attention to the beech nuts though.

 

[diamond hunter]

Beech trees are good ones to double girdle due to when they reach maturity (at least where I live)they begin to hollow out.Cutting them straight up can be dangerous.

 

[BSK]

Normally, bneeches take over an area. I work so hard to kill them out, I can't imagine promoting them. They will dominate a hardwood understory and greatly reduce visibility.

man I don't know what your properties look like but anywhere in the woods I've been, I only see a few beech trees. Much more common in the understory is pawpaw, honeysuckle, privet, etc. from my personal experience. Never paid attention to the beech nuts though.

The difference is probably forest age. Beeches tend to dominate the understory in more mature hardwood stands.

The problem with beeches is they are extremely shade tolerant. They can grow in complete shade, unlike most other tree saplings. Hence, even in a complete canopy forest (no sunlight reaching the ground under the canopy), beeches can germinate and grow quite well, thus they end up growing into an entire forest underneath the much taller canopy of the tall hardwood trees. And worse yet, beeches don't lose their leaves in fall. They hold their dead leaves almost all winter. What you get is so many shorter beeches underneath the tall hardwoods that you have nearly zero visibility even from a treestand. Trust me, you don't want beeches. They are the scourge of deer hunters in more mature hardwood stands, and they aren't that important to wildlife.

 

[catman529]

Normally, bneeches take over an area. I work so hard to kill them out, I can't imagine promoting them. They will dominate a hardwood understory and greatly reduce visibility.

man I don't know what your properties look like but anywhere in the woods I've been, I only see a few beech trees. Much more common in the understory is pawpaw, honeysuckle, privet, etc. from my personal experience. Never paid attention to the beech nuts though.

The difference is probably forest age. Beeches tend to dominate the understory in more mature hardwood stands.

The problem with beeches is they are extremely shade tolerant. They can grow in complete shade, unlike most other tree saplings. Hence, even in a complete canopy forest (no sunlight reaching the ground under the canopy), beeches can germinate and grow quite well, thus they end up growing into an entire forest underneath the much taller canopy of the tall hardwood trees. And worse yet, beeches don't lose their leaves in fall. They hold their dead leaves almost all winter. What you get is so many shorter beeches underneath the tall hardwoods that you have nearly zero visibility even from a treestand. Trust me, you don't want beeches. They are the scourge of deer hunters in more mature hardwood stands, and they aren't that important to wildlife.

interesting. I have been in some old growth forest with little understory, and don't recall seeing lots of beech trees. but then I wasn't really looking for them so I may have missed something.

On the subject, here is a pic I took a couple years ago. They are definitely recognizable by the fact they hold leaves through the winter.

 

[BSK]

They are beautiful trees IMO and a hunter can use them for a great cover when tree stand hunting.

If they are rare individual trees.

As far as them taking over an area- I don't know about that since they are a native species and all.

Ultimately, beeches are the final climax forest species. If you let a hardwood forest go for a couple hundred years, it will become dominated by beeches. As the oldest oaks die of old age and open a hole in the canopy, beeches already dominate the understory and sunlight cannot reach the ground to allow oak sapling regeneration.

 

[Football Hunter]

Yep,they are everywhere at my place,there is almost nowhere on 670+- acres you cant see MANY

 

[Bayou Buck]

I eat the little nuts like sunflower seeds. I have some huge ones on my place. I dont think I would ever plant them though.

 

[Crosshairy]

One property I hunt has a large area dominated by them. As BSK described, the understory is THICK with the buggers, and they won't clear out due to leaf retention.

A few years ago I went crazy on them with a hand saw, and cut 25 or so out of a small area just to open the area up enough to create a few shooting lanes.

The mature beeches are HUGE, and would probably require a ton of effort to remove. I suppose girdling them would do the job, but due to the trees' size, I'm not sure how great that would be in terms of totally blocking off walking access around those beasts.

 

[BSK]

Injecting beeches with Arsenal will kill them.

 

[PickettSFHunter]

Ive killed a few big ones with double girdling. A single girdle did not work for me. Even double girdling took 3 years to kill.

 

[a retrohillbilly]

Many of what are thought to be understory beeches are Carpinus caroliniana, American Hornbeam, aka "blue beech", or "Ironwood, hold their leaves a long time, not commanderus grandiflora,American Beech.

 

[BSK]

Nope, these are commanderus grandifolia, and they do hold their dead leaves most of the winter.

I do see quite a bit of Ironwood. But their trunk shape is destinctly different than American Beech.

 

[a retrohillbilly]

Plenty of both out there.

 

[Boone 58]

Deer/turkeys like them but one thing i have def. noticed about them is the sporadic prodution. Usually in our area they only produce about 1 out of every 3 to 4 years. Sawtooths would be a better investment..............imo.

 

[AT Hiker]

Turkeys like them but sawmills dont! One thing I hate the most is walking into a patch of woods and see Beech trees that are 50 years older than the other hardwoods, high grading years ago have made this prevalent in my area.

 

[Swampster]

Appreciate the comments. I like to encourage diversity. I have only about six mature beech on 140 acres. I have already planted 500 sawtooth and 2500 other oaks. The swamp chestnut (white oak) and willow oaks are prolific and naturally occuring. I fight tooth and nail with the river birch and the box elder. I also cut as many of the ironwood as I can get to for firewood. I have an outdoor wood heating system so I feed it as much ironwood, birch, sycamore, gum, willow, and box elder as I can. It means I have to feed it more often but is preferable to cutting more desireable trees. There are also bent, broken, or crowded maple, oak, and ash I can mix up with these for heat.

 

[BSK]

I have only about six mature beech on 140 acres.

Wow. Along my creeks, I probably have a mature beech for every acre (and 50 immature beech!).

 

[Swampster]

No wonder you feel as you do about them! Along my creek it never really dries out - maybe they don't like wet feet? I know different trees grow in different areas. In middle Tennessee the hackberry is very common as well - I've never seen one in West Tennessee. I don't see as many walnut or black locust here either, though they are here.

 

[BSK]

We have so many beeches in the bottoms of valleys because traditionally loggers couldn't get down in the valleys. Beeches also tend to like moister soil and shadier conditions than other hardwoods, hence most of the beeches are on the north-facing slopes, very low in topography.

 

[Football Hunter]

so,Im guessing when the timber company comes in to select cut the lease,the Beechs will really take off?Any use for them besides aging Budweiser?

 

[BSK]

Yup, thin the canopy and the beeches take over, shading out new oak sprouts.

I wish there was a market for the wood. The problem is, once the trees get to sawable size, they are often hollow. But if you find a good tree, beech is beautiful wood. I made a gun-rack out of beech when I was a kid in woodshop.

 

[Chaneylake]

Yup, thin the canopy and the beeches take over, shading out new oak sprouts.

I wish there was a market for the wood. The problem is, once the trees get to sawable size, they are often hollow. But if you find a good tree, beech is beautiful wood. I made a gun-rack out of beech when I was a kid in woodshop.

when I was in the sawmill business, budweiser would purchase all the beech we had in inventory for their beech wood aged beer, their process might have changed