Beech trees

[timberjack86]

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?

Only thing I can sell them for is cross ties.

 

[beechnut]

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?

Furniture stock. And Anheuser Busch uses alot of Beech each year.
I was a supplier to AB for 10 yrs. Another interesting fact is that beech only grows East of the Mississippi.

 

[diamond hunter]

Wow,I checked out part of a farmI recently purchased and Beech trees are all along one side of it,the land was recently cut for timber afew years ago. Many saplings and many mature trees. So do I go in and cut a few hundred of them or just leave the area alone and let it be sanctuary??What I think is funny is my 50 acres connected to this place has basically no beech trees.I will say that the saplings make nice cover and youd think a deer would feel safe in there. I think I may go in a hinge cut a few dozen and just make the place a jungle bedding area.

 

[BSK]

Young beech do make nice visual cover, but I have so many of them, I prefer to make better cover and have less beeches! Many of my best stands locations are limited in visual range because of the massive beech understory. Drives me nuts...

 

[diamond hunter]

Im going to search out desirable trees and hinge cut all beech about 20 feet around them. About 20 acres of that should create good thickets, browse and bedding. All large beech are getting double girdled and possibly poisoned. It will look like a war zone but the deer will love it. Then Im going to cut out a trail that zig zags down to the road that leads to my central food plot.

 

[parkerxbowhunter]

around here almost every scrspe is made under the beech nut tree

 

[Winchester]

Beech equals trash imo!

 

[BSK]

Having some beech is fine. Having so many that they begin to dominate the understory is when many of those beeches can go.

 

[lpo1981]

I need to do something with the beech trees on my property. Used to have 3 stand setups here on my 36 acres and hunted according to wind direction. Now I'm unable to hunt 2 of them at all do to the undergrowth of beech trees blocking your view.. Deer continue to use the same area but to get in range you have to get in there lap now... Guess I could go in and cut them down or pick a couple of locations and hinge cut them and bend the younger ones down and tie them to make a thicket...

 

[BSK]

Just go in and cut them down. I have had to do that in several of my favorite areas. You can really whip through them with a chainsaw.

 

[diamond hunter]

Do the saplings make a decent sanctuary or do they block too much other undergrowth? I can see gowing in and thinning in hunting areas but my new centrally located sanctuary is loaded with them.

 

[BSK]

They don't make the best cover, but anything that limits visual range is going to increase a deer's sense of security. The best sanctuaries have very limited visibility at a deer's-eye level.

 

[Football Hunter]

One thing Ive noticed is,the Beechs I have cut do not resprout,may be time of year,dont know.

 

[primos32]

BSK? Does your Garlon 3A mixture work on beeches this time of the year? I figure sept/oct would be best but wasn't able to get out to do much work then.

 

[BSK]

BSK? Does your Garlon 3A mixture work on beeches this time of the year? I figure sept/oct would be best but wasn't able to get out to do much work then.

Virtually no herbicides work in winter. Normally, the tree has to be actively growing for herbicides to be effective.

In winter, if the tree is too big to cut down, I would double-ring the tree with a chainsaw.

 

[grundsow]

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.

Wow! Regional opinions can vary wildly.

I love to see a few Beech scattered throughout a woodlot. I remember one year in early Oct. I watched a doe veer off a deer trail and bee-line to the Beech I was perched in. She must have caught a whiff of the bumper crop of beechnuts we had that year laying on the forest floor. The tight Beech canopy hid me well enough to arrow her and other deer at very close range.

I would rate beechNUTSs high on the list of attractive deer foods, while Beech leaves and buds (woody browse) I�d rate extremely low. Although, I�ve seen many times where deer repeatedly browse the root suckers in winter for whatever reason.

I�ve heard it recommended to NOT cut Am. Beech because it is such a vigorous producer of stump sprouts and root suckers that it can dominate regen of other species after cutting. And I�ve seen the wastelands (in terms of deer habitat) that result from this cutting. Thousands of acres of thick �cover�, but no good food or diversity and resultant low deer numbers. The legacy lasting for dozens of years, seemingly to never rectify itself on its own. Around here the beech brush often gets herbicided if it becomes all-encompassing right after or prior-to cutting operations.

Also, I believe acid rain contributes to Beech expanding its presence and dominance since Beech tolerates acid soils, especially on poorly buffered mountainous soils.

 

[BSK]

grundsow,

A few beeches are a good thing. Turkey love beechnuts, and mature beeches providing an amazing array of holes for other wildlife to nest/live in (squirrels, woodpeckers, etc.). However, as you mentioned, beech saplings can end up dominating a hardwood forest, to the point that any timber thinning just produces a complete beech regeneration forest.

I have places on my property, even underneath 80+ year-old complete canopy white oak forests, where 80+% of of the understory is small beeches. Not only will this prevent an oak forest from regenerating if I thin the oaks, but the leaves of the beech saplings block what would normally be long-distance vision in fall. Some of these big mature hardwood forests should produce 100+ yard views after leaf-fall, but the beech hold visual ranges (at treestand height) to about 15 yards.

 

[primos32]

BSK, you have me alittle worried. I hunt a friends place that was just thinned with some large beeches and quite a few beeches in the understory. I believe I have many hack and squirt days ahead in my future helping him out.

 

[grundsow]

I guess when someone (who is considering planting Am. Beech trees) asks if Beech benefits wildlife, and then gets the answer �you don�t want Beeches, they are the scourge of deer hunters�, it comes across as an interesting response.

I know at least in PA, in regions with northern hardwoods type forest (beech-cherry-maple-birch, and no oaks), the Beechnuts are really the only mast available to deer. Even when oaks are prevalent, Beech offers diversity. Swampster says acorns are scarce in his area, so for him to plant beech seems like a good idea to me.

By BSK: I have places on my property, even underneath 80+ year-old complete canopy white oak forests, where 80+% of of the understory is small beeches. Not only will this prevent an oak forest from regenerating if I thin the oaks, but the leaves of the beech saplings block what would normally be long-distance vision in fall. Some of these big mature hardwood forests should produce 100+ yard views after leaf-fall, but the beech hold visual ranges (at treestand height) to about 15 yards.

I guess I would disagree here also.

I don�t believe long sightlines should be present in saw timber (younger pole timber yes, but not older saw timber), but this may be regional or site-specific too. Studies show that saw timber alone can support 40-50 dpfsm overwinter, which means that where these studies were done there must have been a shrub layer limiting views in 80+ old forest.

I cringe every time I see TV hunts with hunters/managers touting their �good resource management� when meanwhile the forest has no understory to speak of and field edges are lined with obvious browselines.

I have a question, is prescribed fire legal in Tennessee? It would seem to me that fire would encourage oak regen especially over beech. Fire is only starting to be used in PA.

 

[BSK]

grundsow,

Deer will eat beechnuts, but not as a high-priority food. In addition, beechnuts are so small that it would take a huge number of beechnuts to feed deer--far more than the trees can produce. Beechnuts are valuable for other wildlife though, especially turkey. I've seen killed turkeys with crops full of beechnuts.

From a deer "food budget" viewpoint, I don't even consider acorns. They are a very high-value food source in fall, but acorn production can be very "iffy." I do all my winter food budget calculations using only natural browse, and consider acorn production just a "super bonus" food source when they exist.

As you mentioned diversity in habitat is the key, and I do want some of a property in long-visual-range, open-understory mature hardwoods. Visual ranges in these big oak stands can be amazing--well over a 100 yards in the most mature stands. Now I certainly don't want all or a majority of a hardwood property in this habitat, but having some is a good idea.

I want some of a property to look like this. But also notice in this picture the trees with the tan leaves. Those are all young beeches, and this is probably the lowest density of beeches I have anywhere on my property. In many locations, they completely dominate the understory:

Unfortunately, anywhere where sunlight can get under the canopy, especially where timber has been thinned or removed on a hillside, the sun can get under the canopy of the timber on the ridge-top, and beeches rapidly dominate, greatly reducing visibility. One of the habitat tactics I like to use is to create thick bedding cover along steep hillsides, but to leave the mature oaks standing on the ridge-tops. This can draw deer up from their hillside beeding areas to feed on acorns along the ridge-tops, increasing harvestability. But the beech growth eventually chokes out all visibility on those ridge-tops bordered by hillside timber cuttings.

But again, whether or not to recommend someone plant beeches who has NO beeches is very different than promoting beech in a hardwood environment. They absolutely can become a problem over time. Their shade tolerance eventually allows them to serious interfer with oak regeneration in hardwood thinnings and can cut hunting visibility to very short ranges.

 

[Winchester]

IMO Beech trees are just eating for free and I cut every one i get a chance to.

 

[diamond hunter]

Im in there like a hair in a biscuit.

 

[woodchuckc]

Beech understory is a problem on a good percentage of my mature woodlands also. Unless you climb 30' or higher (which I'm not going to do - I get weak-kneed over 15-18') so you can see over and down through the understory, visibility is limited to 30 yards or less in some of my favorite areas. Basically, take the picture BSK posted and triple or quadruple the beech density and you end up with pretty small and short distance shooting opportunities. I hope to find the time around spring green up to go in with a chainsaw and cut at least some lanes through them from some of my stand sites.

 

[Football Hunter]

IMO Beech trees are just eating for free and I cut every one i get a chance to.

me too,in fact I cut 3 or 4 today