Hinge Cut - To Create Screen?

[buckhunter10]

I have a plot that is near a road. I have probably 60 yards of woods between plot and road but its just not as thick as I would like it to be. I am thinking about hinge cutting some spruce, ash, and other trees that are between the plot/road.

Will this help to make the area thicker? Some of trees are too big, so I will simply cut them down to open the canopy up.

thank you for the tips!

 

[willy]

Do spruce hinge well? Is he ash emerald borer in your area? If the answer is no and yes I would knock all down in a 5-10 yard width along the road and let the ash send out a bunch of shoots and then with the sun that can now hit the ground I would think a load of other brush would start growing up and in a few years you would have a fine screen.

A factor that will make the screen plausible is the elevation difference from the road to the plot. Good luck.

 

[OkieKubota]

I screened 1000' of county road frontage today with my chainsaw. It's in my property thread today...

 

[buckhunter10]

Do spruce hinge well? Is he ash emerald borer in your area? If the answer is no and yes I would knock all down in a 5-10 yard width along the road and let the ash send out a bunch of shoots and then with the sun that can now hit the ground I would think a load of other brush would start growing up and in a few years you would have a fine screen.

A factor that will make the screen plausible is the elevation difference from the road to the plot. Good luck.

This is of course an issue in se Ohio. The plot sits well below the road. I am not sure the spruce will hinge. I was just thinking of faking it to open up canopy and create new growth.

 

[buckhunter10]

I screened 1000' of county road frontage today with my chainsaw. It's in my property thread today...

I need to check your thread later today to see this thanks for letting me know!

 

[alldaysit]

I would think leaving the spruce would be good, as most people plant it to provide a screen in the future, yours are established and growing already. I don't hinge conifers unless I absolutely have to as I need all the thermal holding and screening help I can get. I hinged a bunch of birch, ash, and maple along one of my roads and it helped tremendously to conceal my property interior.

 

[dogghr]

Conifer tend to hinge poorly. If you make a shallow cut and push them over, they can live and provide some ground cover for a while. I would leave the conifer, and heavy cut everything else for that screening. Should thicken in bu might take some time with it being below the road to give good blockage. Might want to plant some conifer. In reality, best screen I've seen done was on the other forum and they built a mound along the road then planted variety of screening trees on top of that.

 

[OkieKubota]

Conifer tend to hinge poorly. If you make a shallow cut and push them over, they can live and provide some ground cover for a while. I would leave the conifer, and heavy cut everything else for that screening. Should thicken in bu might take some time with it being below the road to give good blockage. Might want to plant some conifer. In reality, best screen I've seen done was on the other forum and they built a mound along the road then planted variety of screening trees on top of that.

Dozer rows of pushed down trees works the same way as a dozed up mound. You wouldn't believe what all will come up in these deals with the new seed bank and birds using the piles to roost...Mine are putting out all kind of cool stuff while they are rotting down...

 

[OkieKubota]

This is of course an issue in se Ohio. The plot sits well below the road. I am not sure the spruce will hinge. I was just thinking of faking it to open up canopy and create new growth.

If it is well below the road and you nor any of your family use the area I have a solution albeit a fairly dangerous one...Now this is only for junk trees which I think you said is all that is in there. Let your hinges hang up against trees you are leaving. The woods will be full of widowmakers but the canopy will definitely be thicker at road/eye level. How much of a drop in elevation are you talking about?

I have the same issue along my eastside because the fence is on the downhill slope into our creek bottom and from the other side of that fence the neighbors can watch our entire creek bottom when the leaves drop... The only issue for me on this deal is ALL of the trees in/around that bottom are either white oaks or red oaks. I think I am going to pick some of the less desirables and hinge it like I wrote about above for a test in a small area. Gotta do something along that side and being North/south oriented the sun doesn't strike the narrow fenceline opening good enough to plant a screen and the neighbors trees on their side of the fence cast some pretty long shadows...

 

[dogghr]

If it is well below the road and you nor any of your family use the area I have a solution albeit a fairly dangerous one...Now this is only for junk trees which I think you said is all that is in there. Let your hinges hang up against trees you are leaving. The woods will be full of widowmakers but the canopy will definitely be thicker at road/eye level. How much of a drop in elevation are you talking about?

I have the same issue along my eastside because the fence is on the downhill slope into our creek bottom and from the other side of that fence the neighbors can watch our entire creek bottom when the leaves drop... The only issue for me on this deal is ALL of the trees in/around that bottom are either white oaks or red oaks. I think I am going to pick some of the less desirables and hinge it like I wrote about above for a test in a small area. Gotta do something along that side and being North/south oriented the sun doesn't strike the narrow fenceline opening good enough to plant a screen and the neighbors trees on their side of the fence cast some pretty long shadows...

I can believe that. Do the conifers survive being pushed over? How wide did you doze? 10-20 yds enough? You are reading my mind for my place.

 

[OkieKubota]

I can believe that. Do the conifers survive being pushed over? How wide did you doze? 10-20 yds enough? You are reading my mind for my place.

Were you trying to quote my dozer pile post or the widowmaker hinges down into the creek bottom thread that you quoted?

We ended up dozing about 20 yards the length of the fence along the county road, 10 yards from the road in and then on the other side of the pile about 10 yards pushing the trees back into the pile we made from the fence side and "sandwiching" the dozer piles together with a few trees left in the center. I see cedar and pine regeneration and I do have some shortleaf pine that were pushed over that are still alive and have started to reach for the sky again. Around here when you doze anywhere around a mature shortleaf pine with all the cones on the ground you get some amazing pine regen...

 

[dogghr]

Were you trying to quote my dozer pile post or the widowmaker hinges down into the creek bottom thread that you quoted?

We ended up dozing about 20 yards the length of the fence along the county road, 10 yards from the road in and then on the other side of the pile about 10 yards pushing the trees back into the pile we made from the fence side and "sandwiching" the dozer piles together with a few trees left in the center. I see cedar and pine regeneration and I do have some shortleaf pine that were pushed over that are still alive and have started to reach for the sky again. Around here when you doze anywhere around a mature shortleaf pine with all the cones on the ground you get some amazing pine regen...

Yea I pulled the wrong quote off you. Thanks for clarifying. I want to do similar with dozer around couple areas of my foodplots. Have to be careful here opening up canapy as MFR invades quickly. Similar situation as they are bordered by hill sides that are hard to screen from deer looking into plots. I don't hunt my plots usually but would like them to hang up a little more outside the plot. Sorry to derail you thread slightly Buck hunter.