Old Field Habitat out of cutover in Mississippi

[RestoringtheGround]

I’m starting a podcast talking about native habitat restoration/management of a 5 yr old cutover. I am a Landscape Hortoculturalist by trade in Louisiana, and an amateur native habitat restorer for wildlife on my property in Smith County Mississippi.

The podcast is under this name: Restoring the Ground. The podcast is on Spotify and Apple. I also have a Facebook page - Restoring The Ground.

The podcast will primarily be about habitat restoration on a 218 acre property that was 95% clear cut 5 years ago. I will be sharing my journey of trying to find information on what to do with a young cut over, and where I have found help and feedback. I have found that almost no one talks about how to restore a property that has been clear cut without doing a complete start over. I didn't want to destroy the 4 years of natural tree regeneration when I purchased the property.

A forester wants to spray herbicide and replant in pine trees, and no one else really gives any information on what to do except burn the property. I was looking for structure and strategy in my work. I wanted a plan, and in this podcast, I share where I started and where I am trying to get.

I found help from a Wildlife Biologist through the Mississippi Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. He has been very helpful to give feedback, answer questions, and someone I can bounce ideas off of.

I’ve spent hundreds of hours over the last 16 months brush cutting to create Old Field type settings. I will talk about the successes and failures I’ve had in these areas. I’ll talk about what an Old field setting is and the vegetation that is preferable for wildlife. I will refer quite a bit to articles written by Wildlife Biologists and studies they have produced, and then tell you my results as I try to put them into practice.

Through guidance from my wildlife biologist, I went and got my burn certificate this spring through the state of Mississippi. I will talk about what it takes to do that, how to do it, and then give feedback on my burn results.

As I stated already, By trade, I am a Landscape Horticulturist and own a landscape business. I am also a man with a strong faith in the Lord. These things will come out in the podcast also.

My goal is to help others with the things that I have learned. I spoke with the Biologist who has been helping me and asked him if there was a need for this since so much of the south is managed for timber. His response was absolutely because so many people are either buying land that has been clear cut or own land that they clear cut themselves and they are not sure what to do with it after the cutting except replant in monoculture pine trees.

He has volunteered to come on the podcast with me to answer questions, and I will gladly answer any questions that I can. I introduce who I am in the podcast and look forward to feedback. I hope that I can help someone as they walk through the journey of restoring the ground of their property.

Thank you and I look forward to any and all feedback.
Scott

 

[wbpdeer]

Scott,

In your career have you done much work with propagation via cuttings. To me, landscaping and owning a nursery are related but I was wondering if you did both.

I will check out your Facebook page.
Welcome to the forum. Hope you find it helpful.

wbpdeer

 

[BenAllgood]

Welcome to the forum Scott. I live in Gonzales, so we're practically neighbors. My farm is in Kentucky, and I've done some old field stuff there. I have sort of an experiment with pollinator planting vs old field. I do like the old field approach. It will be interesting to see it done in pine plantation country. That's a tough sell, because pines are a cash crop down here. Best of luck to you.

 

[RestoringtheGround]

Scott,

In your career have you done much work with propagation via cuttings. To me, landscaping and owning a nursery are related but I was wondering if you did both.

I will check out your Facebook page.
Welcome to the forum. Hope you find it helpful.

wbpdeer

You are correct that landscaping and owning a nursery are related, but the nursery side doesn't really fit what I do. My senior landscape supervisor loves to propagate cuttings from our jobs. Personally, I don't have the time. Our business focus is on new construction design and install of landscape, irrigation, and sod. We also do a lot of maintenance work on larger commercial accounts.

What I am doing at my farm is work, but it is something that I am absolutely enjoying. I will be posting pictures and videos of my progress. I will try to do my best to document the growth of my deer herd, both bucks and does.

 

[RestoringtheGround]

Welcome to the forum Scott. I live in Gonzales, so we're practically neighbors. My farm is in Kentucky, and I've done some old field stuff there. I have sort of an experiment with pollinator planting vs old field. I do like the old field approach. It will be interesting to see it done in pine plantation country. That's a tough sell, because pines are a cash crop down here. Best of luck to you.

Ben,
I live in Denham Springs and I am in Gonzales all the time. I also have a few friends that lease places in Kentucky. They rave about the hunting.

My Dad sold his place in Missouri this spring, but he did a pollinator planting on his place a few years ago. It didn't turn out like he hoped though. I have found that many of the pollinator seeds are also part of the native habitat of Old Field. I do plan to plant a pollinator been into the area that is off the front porch of my camp. I still have a lot of work to do in that area to get it how I want. Once that is accomplished, I think I am going to try to do some light soil disturbance and then broadcast pollinator seeds into the area. I really haven't decided about that yet.

As far as pines, I do have them naturally regenerating all over the property, but I don't ever plan to clear cut again, except maybe small (3-5 acres) areas. Also, the pines are not nearly as valuable for pup wood as they were 20 plus years ago. My forester told me that sweet gums actually bring as good, if not a better value for pup wood. People are definitely still planting pines, but it seems that many are looking for other options. I will still have about 160 acres of trees/woods growing on the property. That will leave me with about 60 acres of old field/food plots/savannah areas across the property. Also, I am leaving Oaks scattered across my old field areas to have feeder trees.

Scott

 

[yoderjac]

For habitat, I love pines as a starting point. We've been managing pine timber for a combination of income and wildlife value. When managed properly in management units, you have have timber of different succession levels in proximity which is perfect for deer. We have an extensive food plot program, but have produced much more quality native foods through pine management and prescribed fire.

Years ago, I saw pines as a desert and clear-cuts as an eyesore. Looked like the land was raped to me. Now, a I see a large tract of pines as a blank canvas and strategic clear-cuts and the perfect 5-10 year food plot! Fire is now my friend!

 

[wbpdeer]

Question for Scott,

My FIL's place is being purchased by the state for bypass around my town. Mr. Bill Dye passed away in August 2021 at the age of 91. He had my grandson stop mowing around his huge pond and across that dam. It has 100s of pine that have volunteered from the mature pine trees.

Can a person dig up those pine trees in July or August to transplant to our farm. Depending on negotiations we may have access into September or October to do dig some up. I guess I have 2 questions: 1) when can they be transplanted successfully, 2) what height factor of the small pine seedlings.

Thanks for any feedback.

Wayne

 

[RestoringtheGround]

Question for Scott,

My FIL's place is being purchased by the state for bypass around my town. Mr. Bill Dye passed away in August 2021 at the age of 91. He had my grandson stop mowing around his huge pond and across that dam. It has 100s of pine that have volunteered from the mature pine trees.

Can a person dig up those pine trees in July or August to transplant to our farm. Depending on negotiations we may have access into September or October to do dig some up. I guess I have 2 questions: 1) when can they be transplanted successfully, 2) what height factor of the small pine seedlings.

Thanks for any feedback.

Wayne

Wayne,
It’s very very tough to transplant midsummer. Most of my tree farms that grow trees in the fields instead of containers quit digging late spring/early summer. We do most transplanting from November through March/April time frame. Granted, these time frames are for Climate zone 8 (south Louisiana)

I would think the pine trees would be a little easier than most trees, but you will have to dig a large rootball and keep the majority of the dirt on the roots. Then you will have to absolutely baby them with water and they may still not survive.

We plant container grown plants year round but they have to be water at least daily when installed from June through October in the south.

 

[yoderjac]

Question for Scott,

My FIL's place is being purchased by the state for bypass around my town. Mr. Bill Dye passed away in August 2021 at the age of 91. He had my grandson stop mowing around his huge pond and across that dam. It has 100s of pine that have volunteered from the mature pine trees.

Can a person dig up those pine trees in July or August to transplant to our farm. Depending on negotiations we may have access into September or October to do dig some up. I guess I have 2 questions: 1) when can they be transplanted successfully, 2) what height factor of the small pine seedlings.

Thanks for any feedback.

Wayne

Wayne,

My God-daughter's boyfriend's parents wanted some pine trees for their back yard landscaping. I had them come down to the farm and we dug up small volunteer seedlings. We stuck with small trees and got the whole root system in 5 gal buckets. They told me they had very good success with them. I'm sure the babied them in a back yard setting. I think we dug them up in late March or early-April.

 

[RestoringtheGround]

We still have 4-5 more weeks of bone growth. He’s a young deer still, but look at the growth. I’m thinking he is at most 3 yrs old, but may be may only be 2 yrs old. I think he will be an absolute stud in 2 yrs.

I watched him a bunch last year. He stayed with a 3 pt all year. I almost felt like he was 1.5 last year which would make him 2.-2.5 this year.

The deer have tons and tons of native browse to eat. They are healthy and thriving. I’ll post some habitat pictures shortly

 

[RestoringtheGround]

First picture is a green ash tree, second is a bed area a few feet away where deer are eating ragweed, partridge pea, and sumac. Third picture is an area I brush cut back in January. It now looks like picture 2. Picture 4 is an area I just cut in late May. It’s sprouting native browse and deer are in it all hours of the day eating just like it’s a food plot. Picture 5 is an area that I want to be a savanna that is right in front of my camp. It was brush cut in January and this picture is from late April.