Importance of young forest habitat for game and non-game alike

[BowhunterNJ]

Really informative thread, good stuff! I know a lot of the trees down by me, and used to carry around a tree identification guide to learn more, but still a lot of gaps in my knowledge. It's very interesting, especially when you can understand what the wildlife prefer in your area. I can remember hunting WMAs around here, and watching deer eat sassafras leaves like they were candy, going through thousands of leaves and only picking those out. That's what prompted me to get the tree guide because I didn't know what those trees were at the time.

[Bucksnbows]

Some more photos of regeneration and plantings:

 

Here is a white spruce seedling we planted either 3 or 4 years ago (we did multi-year plantings) in the foreground with a black cherry that came up in the area the skidder used heavily.  Typical of that species, relying on heavily disturbed soils to get its seeds properly germinated and sprouting.  Black cherry is a very small component of this forest, so it's nice to see one dominating in one spot in the middle of a 5 year old (then) clear cut.  You can see a white oak in the background at about 1 o'clock which we left standing.  That tree is now spreading out its crown as it has no competition.  It will dominate its spot for years to come and be a good acorn producer as it has a bunch of fellow white oaks nearby in the forest at the edge of this area.  You can also see various oak seedlings coming in on their own including red, white and chestnut white.  Also, we've had two horrendous mast crop years in a row, and only our chestnut whites pushed any acorns out the past two years.  So these stands are lacking somewhat which will simply take time until those other oaks have another solid year of mast production.  

 

We plant white spruce and white pine.  I'd prefer native red spruce, but we don't have a good source.  They would be the true natives, but spruce give us travel corridors and bedding areas and we plant them strategically, not just any old place.  Sometimes we plant them between clear cuts to act as travel corridors and we thin out the mature forest in some of those areas via TSI (timber stand improvement) to allow in additional light and grow in thicker over time.  Deer love edges and it makes hunting them a lot more predictable than just wandering around in a mature oak/hickory forest.

 

 

And here's a clear cut in only its second year of growth and this is normal for what we see.  And that is mostly herbaceous plants that seem to dominate in height with plenty of copus growth off the stumps as well as seedlings coming in.  However, this 5 acres might see either one or two food plots this year, I don't yet know for certain.  If we don't work the soil and plant it as an interior forest food plot, it will see significant oak growth as there were far fewer hickory in this part of the forest which is our oldest section and again on hilly ground.  Everything on Sparta Mountain is hilly

 

The payoff takes time, but I think it's worth the effort.  

 

 

  

[Bucksnbows]

Here's an article (page 7) on more of our forestry work for anyone that wants to know more about our plans.  We're adding hinge cutting this spring to our deer-related forestry practices.  That's my ugly mug on the front page with the dumb smile.

 

Article on Forestry Stewardship Award Winter 2013-2014.pdf

[Rusty]

By the way Brian, we are going to have to postpone the hike with the students to check out these projects until some of this snow melts.  

[Bucksnbows]

By the way Brian, we are going to have to postpone the hike with the students to check out these projects until some of this snow melts.  

 

No surprise there, Rusty.  It will all melt one day and we'll be complaining about the heat and dry weather