TSI based Select Cut Logging begins

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TNlandowner

TNlandowner

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Carroll County
Our logger is coming in the morning. We expect his equipment to arrive and begin logging by next week! This is a huge blessing as we will have time to hang new stands and plant fall food plots in their loading areas.

We are fired up to see our project get started... No more large, open hardwood stands in the winter. We should have some better deer cover soon.

We protected our oaks, which should really improve due to less competition from the numerous gums, maples, beech, and elm trees.

I'll try to create a photo log of the progress. As always, I welcome suggestions / tips along the way!
 
Sounds like a great plan coming together.
They moved in on our farm last week but they are select cutting, it's for the money not habitat improvement. Still lots of nuts and browse will be there.
 
Here's an aerial photo with our general plan, which includes a 5-acre reforestation area started in 2008 (Sawtooth, Nutall, & Persimmons), TSI cut on 70+ acres, 2 new bedding areas to be cleared and replanted with 2d Generation loblolly pines, enlarging a food plot from .5 into 1.5 acres, and building a 2-acre pond.

TimberharvestconceptJune2013_zpsd94f3286.jpg
 
I like the way you are making the cleared areas all hidden from the outside. A great way to discourage roadhunting poachers. Looks good all the way around. How big is that property? 100 acres?
 
Pretty close, 128 acres. Although you can't see it from the road, my house is only 300 yards from the road. I always worry about a stray bullet coming up the hill. Just to ease my worries, I would like an absolute thicket near the road.

My project is only a portion of the plan: Our neighbors to the east and north have agreed to shoot only 2.5 yr old bucks. I am still working on the landowner that owns the row crop areas to the south and west. If everyone comes together, we'll have over 1000 acres working together. One guy owns 1500 acres about 1 mile north of us. His buck harvest standards are 5 yrs old. He has some great bucks walking around....

If this plan comes together, my family and friends will have a great hunting area.
 
Make you some room for some more trees. I have found a couple of new ones that produce at a young age. One at a very young age. I'll try to save you some seed. Where on the map are the Chestnuts going?
 
If you get time, it'd be great to see how that cut is coming along if you have any pictures to share. Do you plan on pushing the stumps out, grinding, or just letting them decompose over time? Will you plany anything in there or allow it to regenerate naturally?

We're 10-15 acres into a 65ac crop tree release and the impact of sunlight hitting the ground is almost immediate in terms of natural forage. Nearly overnight.
 
8 POINTS OR BETTER said:
Make you some room for some more trees. I have found a couple of new ones that produce at a young age. One at a very young age. I'll try to save you some seed. Where on the map are the Chestnuts going?
Click to expand...

That sounds great.... I've had a great time growing these Dunstan's from seed. I have some at 5' and branching out at the top! I have around 30 trees alive, which isn't bad as I only lost three that sprouted. One of these developed a great root system, just never sent up vertical growth. It is still in the rootmaker 3 gal pot. The other two suffered died when I went out of town for work. My wife didn't give them enough "daily" love. LOL.

I'm planting 10 in the southern opening near the power line, 20 in the field north of the heavy clearing area with red banded (oaks) trees. I could use a few more for sure. I would actually rather plant the chestnuts instead of the pines down near the road. I could do a smaller strip of pines for edge screening, then plan the chestnuts. This area has great, well-drained soil, but doesn't dry out during droughts.
 
Boll Weevil said:
If you get time, it'd be great to see how that cut is coming along if you have any pictures to share.
Click to expand...

Absolutely, I sure will. the logger hasn't done any cutting this week. He walked the place again ensuring he understands our wishes. So far, I am impressed with this logging crew.

Could you share photo's of your efforts? I am planning to remove most of the stumps and replant near the road clearing. I was planning to let the area to the right(or north) of my house, regenerate naturally. We are leaving a lot of mature oaks and a few large pines in this area for seed. Of course, other hardwood trees will resprout from the stumps. This area has poor soils, so I don't plan to replant with better trees like the Chestnuts ;o)
 
Yep...be happy to. It will be a few days before I can get out there and get few photos but will email them to you.

The area we've been working most recently is natural regen and has some gorgeous oaks and poplar (the sawtimber man's dream somewhere down the road). There's simply too many of them and they are at the point where they are "fighting" each other to thrive. Crown's are touching, canopy is closed, and no light hitting the ground so there's very little browse. We've been working through with saws taking out the trash trees (gum, sourwood, cedar, cankered, poor form etc) and doing some crop tree spacing. It's tedious work, but 3 men on saws can move through an area faster than I originally anticipated.
 
Sounds like you have a great project in the works. I look forward to seeing your efforts.

"3 men on saws can move through an area faster than I originally anticipated."

I totally agree, but my back was very sore on many evenings. I didn't treat several of the "weed trees" when cutting them down. Most grew back very quickly. Now I hack & squirt using herbicides. This technique is more time consuming, but effective and actually a little cheaper than running saws.
 
Our TSI logging harvest is moving along quickly and we hope to finish before mid August. I'd love to hear suggestions for consideration of other TSI or hunting improvement efforts to help with this effort.

Current work plans are:

1. Create deer movement funnels with unused tree tops
2. Start pond
3. Place tree tops and small burm along the paved road (screening & barrier effort)
4. Plant four food plots in areas opened by loggers
5. Plant pine trees along the road (late fall)
6. Plant 40 Dunstan Chestnut trees in hand picked areas before hard winter (November).
7. Conduct Hack-N-Squirt on a few smaller trees the loggers didn't want.


[url=http://s1272.photobucket.com/user/jimstrina/media/WorkupdateJuly23_zpsbb96e8f2.jpg.html][img]http://i1272.photobucket.com/albums/y385/jimstrina/WorkupdateJuly23_zpsbb96e8f2.jpg[/img][/url]
 
Coming along nicely for sure!

A few of things we do that's easier to complete right off the bat rather than wait (you may have thought of these already):

1) Put waterbars in the newly created roads or on slopes that might be prone to erode. Once erosion gets started, it takes far more effort to repair. Consider seeding with something that produces lots of seed and it'll often repopulate itself. I've used millet in the past; it's cheap, grows on concrete, makes a ton of seed, and volunteer crops are decent (considering it was just a single planting) until the other stuff fills in.

2) If you have to mulch places, use hay or straw that came from fields with forage beneficial to wildlife rather just wheat straw or fescue...like warm season grasses for example. You might be surprised how much viable seed is in that hay and how well it establishes. I've come back to areas a couple of years later (that I never seeded - only straw) and found bluestem, switchgrass, little wildflowers...al kinds of stuff that likely came solely from the straw used for mulch. You can also usually get old bales for pretty cheap as cattle farmers often just want to get rid of it (sometimes it's even free).

3) Not sure if I sent you pics of this one or not but consider planting native browse forages in some of those areas that you might not want to maintain as a "manicured" food plot. Honeysuckle, blackberry, greenbriar, partridge pea et al. They may take a little while to establish because sometimes stratification must occur for germination to start but one day you'll be walking along and see really good food that wasn't there before. Once it's established, in alot of cases the birds take it from there and year over year it really expands quickly.

Highly desirable food, little cost/time to manage, and it's there for a long time (till the canopy changes for example). I easily invest more time encouraging natural foods vs. plots and as far as I can tell, the benefits are pretty darn good (especially comparing cost to yield).
 
TNlandowner said:
7. Conduct Hack-N-Squirt on a few smaller trees the loggers didn't want.
Click to expand...

Considering how light your timber thinning is, THIS ONE will probably benefit you the most. The more sun on the ground, the more food and cover that will grow (and all free of charge!).
 
Thanks for the suggestions, my biggest challenge is being patient for the logger to finish and move along. LOL. Who would have thought we would have this much rain late into July! I sure wish my pond was already constructed and filling up :D
 
Forgot to mention, some areas are not as pretty as the latest photo's. These photo's are a decent representation of the very light "TSI" select cuts (mostly tie wood from maple and gum trees). I don't expect a lot of thick ground growth, but expect the protected trees to enjoy a little more space and sun. Hopefully this equals better mast crops.

The clear cut areas are very heavily cut with a lot of potential for creating awesome sanctuaries with great food sources over the next few years.
 
TNlandowner said:
Forgot to mention, some areas are not as pretty as the latest photo's. These photo's are a decent representation of the very light "TSI" select cuts (mostly tie wood from maple and gum trees). I don't expect a lot of thick ground growth, but expect the protected trees to enjoy a little more space and sun. Hopefully this equals better mast crops.

The clear cut areas are very heavily cut with a lot of potential for creating awesome sanctuaries with great food sources over the next few years.
Click to expand...

Having the clear-cuts will be a big help. With the light thinning I see in the pictures, don't expect much regrowth in the thinned areas (but if that wasn't the intent, no problems).
 
Re: TSI based Select Cut Logging

Thanks BSK, I understand your point exactly. Here is an example of one of my heavy cut areas in the heart of my land. This cut consists of 12 acres with a mostly southern sloping hill. There is a 1/2 acre feeding plot in the center. The goal is to make this area a thick sanctuary for the deer.

Do you think 12 acres is too small for a sanctuary?

12-acresheavilycut_zps9bc37055.jpg
 
Re: TSI based Select Cut Logging

Nope. 12 acres is not too small for a sanctuary. On clients' properties, I design multiple sanctuaries scattered across their properties, and I feel 3-5 acres each is best for hunting purposes. Large sanctuaries work great biologically, but hunting around the edges of large sanctuaries can be very difficult (too many routes in and out to cover).
 
TSI indeed...

we are removing elm, cedar, gum, beech, ironwood, and pines from the select cut areas. The remaining trees are mostly oaks with a few scattered poplar, dogwood, persimmon, green ash, and some hickory. These trees should benefit from less competition within the timber stand.

The heavily cut / cleared area is another aspect of the overall plan to improve natural deer food sources, increase cover, and create a sanctuary in the middle of my land.
 
TNlandowner said:
8 POINTS OR BETTER said:
Make you some room for some more trees. I have found a couple of new ones that produce at a young age. One at a very young age. I'll try to save you some seed. Where on the map are the Chestnuts going?
Click to expand...

That sounds great.... I've had a great time growing these Dunstan's from seed. I have some at 5' and branching out at the top! I have around 30 trees alive, which isn't bad as I only lost three that sprouted. One of these developed a great root system, just never sent up vertical growth. It is still in the rootmaker 3 gal pot. The other two suffered died when I went out of town for work. My wife didn't give them enough "daily" love. LOL.

I'm planting 10 in the southern opening near the power line, 20 in the field north of the heavy clearing area with red banded (oaks) trees. I could use a few more for sure. I would actually rather plant the chestnuts instead of the pines down near the road. I could do a smaller strip of pines for edge screening, then plan the chestnuts. This area has great, well-drained soil, but doesn't dry out during droughts.
Click to expand...

Where are you getting your seed? I would love to learn how to raise from seed.
 
Cheers to those who have confirmed deer tolerance for logging operations. If anything, we seem to have more daylight deer activity.

Loggers are finishing up there final cutting this week. A quick clean up process and they'll be on their way. I am pretty anxious to see them go. As they finish a track, I've been working clean up areas, plots, etc. I want to quickly finalize my hunting prep work and allow the area to calm.

The only negative during this effort came from some damage to white oaks that we were trying to protect. Oh well, one should expect some damage from logging.
 

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