block fields from road

Looking for suggestions to block view into fields from road.Our property was hit heavy this years by juvenile poachers.Pa.game commission did catch up with them but I don't think this will shut them down.Story on pa game commission web site.Crawford and Erie county.Fields are leased local farmer and usually planted with beans,corn or grown for hay.Have approx.500 yards of frontage.We found 7 dead bucks and neighbors found 4 more.All good 2-3 year old bucks.We have poachers every year but this was excessive and want to hide fields from view.Any thoughts are appreciated.
 
Repost from another forum I interact with hopefully this helps or is at least my general approach. It’s state and location dependent....

Norway Spruce (although not native), are one of the best source of long term screen due to lack of transparency benefits (better than whites or blues, but its tree specific, genetic variation is certainly a factor)..the ability to survive in various soil types to include clay and sand and develop at a medium growth rate - Norway is a good choice. There are other options, and I would say White Spruce (soil and aspect dependent) tend to do better in dry and open terrain (mulch trees to help keep moist)... be sure to care for them (water during summer). Integration of other mid height plantings like willows, rangeland grasses or otherwise might be a consideration to create some depth to your screen. In field settings I normally use willows with a grass, that combination works well, but is seasonal. Long term you need to also think about disease as there is a canker that is present that impacts spruces, Ive seen it moreso on norways and blue, but it will attack whites and kill the tree, so its not just a plant and walk away situation. Sometimes think about planting a staggered row with norways and offset with thuja green giants (which generally speaking are way better for smaller mammals), wait I suggested a hybrid non-native again- sorry.


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Thuja green giants and leyland cypress will grow fast, and shouldn't see too much browse pressure. Double row, staggered would be best. Maybe consider putting up some cameras as a deterrent.
 
Thuja green giants and leyland cypress will grow fast, and shouldn't see too much browse pressure. Double row, staggered would be best. Maybe consider putting up some cameras as a deterrent.

I'll 2nd what Grizzz said about the Green Giants & Leyland Cypress. LCs are cheaper, a dime a dozen, we planted thousands of both when we did landscaping. GGAs are a little more disease & snow resistant. Worst thing you'll have is some of them being rubbed by bucks...
 
What’s the cold hardiness zone of an LC, I don’t believe they are planted In anything less than Zone 6 correct ?


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Look on your states conservation web site and see if they have anything on "windbreaks". In many cases the same sort of plants and the like that make a good windbreak also make an excellent screen. They should be able to provide some species to investigate and planting orientation and the like as well. Just keep in mind you don't want anything that will be a potential food source. You will also need something adapted to your conditions (soil, moisture, sunlight, hardiness zone).

Plants I would look into:
Switchgrass (tall native grasses)
Miscanthus Grasses (tall ornamental grasses)
Conifers (pines, spruce, cedar)
 
Maybe go "old school europe" and plant hedgerows, with overlapping breaks in the line which can allow wildlife to still move through the area as they need. I just googled "native plant hedgerows for pennsylvania", and came up with a bunch of links for Penn St and other state agencies.
 
I'd be doing 4-6 rows of norway spruce, alternate the spacing. Norway spruce establish quickly most of mine grow about 2 feet per year after about 2 years of getting roots established and they grow out at same time, but also will get very tall over time, zero maintenance, live for forever, good disease resistant.

In the short term behind the norway spruce i would put up switchgrass rows. switchgrass should get you 10 years of screening and by that time norway should be tall enough and the swtichgrass can be killed and put back into field or whatever want to use that space on.
 
I built this one with ERC.

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I don't know if this is true, cause i've been scared to ever try with the large number of apples trees on my property, but planting ERC i've read makes apple trees more susceptible to CAR since ERC's are host for the disease. Again only read about it no first hand experience.
 
I don't know if this is true, cause i've been scared to ever try with the large number of apples trees on my property, but planting ERC I've read makes apple trees more susceptible to CAR since ERC's are host for the disease. Again only read about it no first hand experience.

It is a host for the disease, and that's why it is important to choose disease resistant apples like I have done. The apples shown below are literally surrounded by ERC. In fact, they are so close to a massive ERC that they are shaded by it in the afternoons.

In my area, you are not going to escape CAR by eliminating ERC, because ERC is everywhere. Even if I killed all of mine, the neighboring properties are covered with them. This includes property line fence rows. So, the solution is to plant trees that aren't affected by it.

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My deer love Norway spruce. What they don't eat they rub to death. I've planted a bunch, have maybe 6 stunts left.
I screen plots with Goldenrod. Doesn't cost me any thing and very little management.
 
What about a combo of switch grass (immediate help) in front or back with staggered rows of spruce (long term help). I don't struggle currently with poachers, but seem to have nosey neighbors looking in/wandering in on some areas and a portion of one of my food plots "might" be visable from a logging road. That just begs for consistent trouble..
 
What about a combo of switch grass (immediate help) in front or back with staggered rows of spruce (long term help). I don't struggle currently with poachers, but seem to have nosey neighbors looking in/wandering in on some areas and a portion of one of my food plots "might" be visable from a logging road. That just begs for consistent trouble..

That would be a good plan. It's best to get started early on the screening. I love spruce but have also had some to get hammered from rubbing.
 
No amount of poaching is acceptable. Sorry for those troubles!
I like corn for a 1 year screen - and Norway Spruce for a long term solution. I'd rather have a smaller plot than one that's easily observed from the road.
 
Thanks for all suggestions.For this year a annual blocking type product will be planted.We are going to try two or three different types and research what might be best for a long term fix. Sure wish we would have done something years ago..
 
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