Brush Pile Question

[Bone Collector]

We have been talking about habitat improvements lately and I had been planning some for a while. I had the areas picked where i am going to clear some trees and have started on my first area.

my questions are:

1. what should I do with the piles of cedar trees (not salable) that are now in the area. we are talking 4-5 piles chest to head high (I'm 6'2") and as long as cedar whips are (15-20').

My first inclination was to burn them all but I thought there may be some benefit of leaving one or two.

2. I have 2-3 white oaks in the area. I am just going to let this area grow, but also may try to add stuff that will thicken it up in hopes it will create a bedding area. Should I leave 0,1,2, or 3 of them?

I was gonna leave them, because my thought is if they produce they should be on the ground by October and gone before November, so it should not allow deer to just hide out and eat so to speak.

 

[TNGunsmoke]

Check around, depending on the diameter of the cedar trunks, someone might want them for fence posts or possibly for some type crafting project.

Just my thoughts, I'd leave the white oaks alone if they aren't way too close together. The area around them should grow and thicken on its own over a couple of years without having to plant anything else. I might cut a few shooting lanes/travel corridors into whatever grows naturally just to have chances at deer bedding and getting up/moving around.

 

[deerhunter10]

We have cut around oak tree several times with great success. Here at least it doesn't take a lot to make oak tree thrive. The piles in tight areas if you are trying to mainly bow hunt, you can push the piles to help funnel the deer in an area. If you gun hunt at well doesn't matter as much. Just depends for us we mainly burn them down unless we push then to a specific area. Also at our house we have a lot of rocks and sometime we push them there where we don't have to fool with working around the rocks. Mother nature generally provides the best cover for us, as far as planting. We never cut an oak tree just our rule and how our places lay out, unless they are just so thick together they won't grow.

 

[TNlandowner]

cedar trees provide some ground cover (even after the needles fall off) and may reduce erosion on slopes. Leaving them to naturally decay is a pretty good option.

 

[BSK]

Both options have their benefits. Just leaving them provides cover for all sorts of animals. But piling them where you want good regrowth and then burning them puts a lot of nutrients into the soil.

 

[Ski]

No advice but I'll be interested to know what you decide, and how it works out. I'm always interested in how others work their places.

 

[MickThompson]

I'd burn the big cedar piles, heck I'd burn as much ground as I could. Raccoons, skunks, and possums are fond of brush piles.

Keep/release the oaks from competition. If you want to thicken it up, burn through there too, just not as often.

 

[DoubleRidge]

I'm in the same or similar boat....We have a large area of old cedar which I had a guy come look at over a year ago...he actually bought cedar and pine... smaller stuff was sold to a company that chipped it and produced pet bedding....the larger logs were sold and sawn for lumber....I was just excited to find someone who would even consider cutting cedar....he was booked up at the time he met with me...but unfortunately I've recently learn he's not dealing in cedar anymore.....so I'm back to exploring my options...one local logger said if I had enough larger cedar logs he might be able to find someone who would buy them...but it's a ton of work cutting, limbing and hauling logs to a buyer...but it's not impossible.

Dr Grant Woods cuts large areas of cedar and lets them lay one or two years until all the needles fall off then he runs fire through the area creating some tremendous habitat and releasing all of the nutrients back to the soil....I've got to make a decision about this area and get started soon....this area needs sunlight to the forest floor badly.... currently its shaded and provides little benefit to wildlife.

 

[BSK]

Dr Grant Woods cuts large areas of cedar and lets them lay one or two years until all the needles fall off then he runs fire through the area creating some tremendous habitat and releasing all of the nutrients back to the soil...

I was there when he did one of those burns. The cedars were so dry they burned like gasoline! Flames got so high the fire department got calls from 10 miles away!

 

[MickThompson]

I was there when he did one of those burns. The cedars were so dry they burned like gasoline! Flames got so high the fire department got calls from 10 miles away!

Definitely let the needles drop first. We burned through some tops after a cedar logging job a few years ago and were blowing fire 40' up

 

[tellico4x4]

Got a buddy that's a retired Forester. He gets a check every year from the Feds for the number of brush piles he has on his property. There's criteria to the size & number per acres, but he's been doing it for years.