Glade/Side Slope Restoration Question

[TX-Aggie]

My father and I are having cedars cleared from a 50 acre section of our farm. If you have seen some of Dr Wood's videos showing the side slopes he is burning, we are in the same area and have the same type of terrain as he is.

Due to thisside slope terrain, and the crew doing the work starting now through the fall, my father and I are a little concerned about erosion during any winter and spring storms. Does anyone have a idea of what seed we can spread over the fall as they advance through the parcel to get roots in the ground until the existing seed bank starts going?

Thankfully, this section of the farm was never heavily grazed due to the slopes, so it never got over seeded with fescue and sericea. From my dad's recollection, it was a oak savannah with areas of short leaf pine, and maples interspersed. The cedars moved in during the 60s when my grandfather stopped burning. Our plan after the cedars are removed is to let the area rest for 2 years, then light it up.

 

[bowhunter14]

I wouldn't think erosion would be to bad with all the cedars on top of it but I could be wrong there.

 

[RGrizzzz]

Winter rye grows almost anywhere and germinates at temps around freezing, so you can plant it late.

 

[TX-Aggie]

I was at the farm last week, and was able to see the progress of the cedar removal. It is going pretty good so far, they are about between 20-30% of the way through the 50 acre parcel. I was a little surprised they weren't cutting all the cedar, just the pieces that will bring in money for them, we'll cut the remainder for either additional value, or cut and lay for burning. They are taking care to not damage the oaks and pines along the side slope. However, they are opening up the canopy tremendously, and we are looking forward for the next couple of years when the cedar dries out to burn. We jumped a nice buck and couple of does that were hanging out amongst the cedar tops.

They are slowly working their way through the glade portion as well which is super exciting. It is a much larger glade than I initially thought - it hasn't been opened up like this that I can remember in my lifetime. We have asked they are careful in the glade to not do lasting damage, to which they are obliging.

No pictures yet, as they don't do justice to the actual changes that are transpiring.

 

[Native Hunter]

I'm looking forward to seeing your pictures of this.

 

[E_308]

How big are the cedars they are taking? I have some pretty large cedars but would have no idea of market value.

 

[Heart shot]

Yeah I would be interested in knowing who you found to take cedars and what kind of value are you able to get from them?


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[TX-Aggie]

They are taking probably 4-6in DBH and up cedars. We aren't going to get rich removing them, but it is better to be signing the back of a check for removal than the spending the money to removal them.

It is a crew from the local mill that will take any cedar that can be brought to them. They sawcut planks for furniture and closets from the larger diameters, fence posts from the smaller, then they sell their shavings for dog beds. We have been carrying small loads for a year or so, and on the last trip, my dad asked if they knew of any crews. They said sure, we actually have a crew, and my dad and the owner worked out a deal - not too much haggling, just wanted to make sure we didn't get pennies to the dollar. The owner is a pretty stand up gentleman, he is keeping good records and itemized receipts for us showing what they cut weekly, what that translates into market value, the operating expenses that week, and what our payout is.

Another positive is we have been trying to figure out a road to the top for this section of property for years as it is a side slope of a hollar. The crews with their experience looked a topographical maps, onXhunt, and walked the property a few times. They figured out the best place for a road, and cut it out. We now have a smooth "easy" road out of the bottom to get the top. I'm excited about the canopy openings, my dad is excited for the road to the top - win/win.

 

[TX-Aggie]

Was finally able to make it up during deer season to see how they are progressing. They are about 40% cutting so far, they are working fence line in, and top of the glade down. Stark difference - the area where the pictures we from was full canopy cedar thicket where you could barely see sky which happened to be when a cedar died. Now it is opening up. We are excited to see where they get to and for the cedars to dry out for burning purposes.

Across the fence line of what it looked like when they started, but with older growth cedars on our side.



Along the fence line to see the change that the crews are knocking out.

Openings being created with sky




The sky we are able to see now in a lot of the openings.




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[TX-Aggie]

More updates as the cedar crew is done. We will be going through and thinning the hardwoods ourselves. In a year or 2, we’ll do a controlled burn. In the mean time, we did spread Orchardgrass and red clover seed to help stabilize the slope.

We are excited with the possibilities…







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[TX-Aggie]

Quick update to our Glade/Side Slope on the Ozark Farm : The MDC Conservation Agent made a visit a couple of weeks ago to the farm. He is very excited about the work we have put into reestablishing this Glade ecosystem. He has outlined burn line requirements and will be working up an approved burn plan for it plus the remainder of the property. Upon completion and sign off on our burn lines, the Conservation Agent will sign off the burn plan and away we go. He believes the glade will be ready to burn this next winter to get the system rolling.

The Conservation Agent also identified 2 other areas of similar Glade-like areas - one for sure a Glade, the other very similar and should behave like a Glade once we complete some chainsaw work. The "for sure" Glade area will take a bunch of work to get it back into the Glade system due to decisions my grandparents made - grazed with cattle thus sowed with fescue and sericea lespedeza followed by no grazing for 30 years - it is a fescue-sericea-cedar mess that all have to be eradicated before the MDC will really work with us on that restoration. The "Glade-like" area is a SW facing slope that is rocky but not quite glade ecosystem - he said the existence of large White Oaks instead of Chinquapin Oaks was kind of the "tell tale" sign of not technically a glade, but if we remove the cedars, thin some of the hardwoods it will behave like a glade/oak savannah habitat, and we could get MDC assistance on that restoration.

We are very pleased with the outcome of the visit, and excited to enter the next chapter of these Glade Restorations on our property. I'll try to keep posted as we continue this process.