Late Winter projects, locusts, cedars and new stands

[Kurt]

Always enjoy doing habitat work in late winter before the ticks and heat set in. We girdled and killed 12 large locusts and a hundred saplings this week. We also cut around 100 small cedars and a few larger ones. Trying to clear more openings in several thickets to allow more light and open up escape routes for deer.

And we got the Cage Blind Tower put up. Trying a new location and it seemed to be the best bet there. We'll add the blind in August I think. Spring turkey starts in less than a month and I'll be spraying yuccas in the afternoons. Great cure for cabin fever.

Pic is of a particularly thorny locust that I actually cut all the way down and sprayed the stump well immediately.

 

[Kurt]

If anyone needs a recipe for killing locusts, I've been using 2 quarts of Triclopyr 4 and 1.5 gallons of diesel. Same stuff kills yuccas and prickly pear cactus. I hose down the trunk and the girdle cut well and they die very nicely.

 

[Mennoniteman]

If anyone needs a recipe for killing locusts, I've been using 2 quarts of Triclopyr 4 and 1.5 gallons of diesel. Same stuff kills yuccas and prickly pear cactus. I hose down the trunk and the girdle cut well and they die very nicely.

This is one of my favorite mixes, I usually describe the mix ratio this way; 1/3 Triclopyr to 2/3 diesel fuel, which is the same as what you specify. One thing, if you have a chainsaw along to girdle cut anyway, sometimes I find it easier to just whack the tree off and spray the top of stump with the mixture. This takes less herbicide and is 100% sure death to a tree or bush.

Always enjoy doing habitat work in late winter before the ticks and heat set in. We girdled and killed 12 large locusts and a hundred saplings this week. We also cut around 100 small cedars and a few larger ones. Trying to clear more openings in several thickets to allow more light and open up escape routes for deer.

And we got the Cage Blind Tower put up. Trying a new location and it seemed to be the best bet there. We'll add the blind in August I think. Spring turkey starts in less than a month and I'll be spraying yuccas in the afternoons. Great cure for cabin fever.

Pic is of a particularly thorny locust that I actually cut all the way down and sprayed the stump well immediately.

I agree, this is the best time of year for habitat work.

 

[Kurt]

MM, took your advice and dropped some locusts and just sprayed the cut ends. Others that seemed dangerous to drop by myself I simply girdled and sprayed. One big 22" one got girdled twice just for personal satisfaction and sprayed.

Few pics along river where we cut more sections of cedars out previously. These areas are still surrounded on 3 sides by cedars and cottonwoods but hoping they become grassy bedding chambers for deer. Still blocked from winter winds but better escape routes for them now.

Its getting hot and the area is in desperate need of rain. Will watch to see if I can get one more 3 day work project in but need temps no higher than 75 for this guy.

 

[g squared 23]

It’s funny how some guys recommend planting cedars for bedding thickets (in some parts of the country?), and others hate them and cut any on sight. I have very few, so transplanted some to add thermal cover (maybe), but in 10 years will I regret it?


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[Kurt]

I've got thickets that are impenetrable and nothing else grows in them. I see more deer bedding along the edges than inside them. And they are hugely invasive on the plains. If I cut them all down, within 5 years, they would be back growing everywhere. I say that because as I am cutting, there are dozens to hundreds of 2-6" ones growing. I get after those with loppers. This all in a very drought prone area. They live on no water.

If you take a 36" thick cottonwood and have 50 cedars within 20' of it, it gets outcompeted for water and you see giant branches busting and it slowly dying. So I am thinning around my biggest cottonwoods and cutting these pockets in. I won't eliminate them but if left alone they simply outcompete everything in my locale.

 

[KSQ2]

Cedars sink an incredibly deep tap root and seemingly can outcompete everything, without fire to keep them in check. I think over here in eastern Kansas, the only tougher trees are the callery pears. I like some cedars around, mixed in with warm season grasses, but you have to keep cutting some year after year to keep them in check.
I hope you get some rain soon Kurt!!

 

[catscratch]

It’s funny how some guys recommend planting cedars for bedding thickets (in some parts of the country?), and others hate them and cut any on sight. I have very few, so transplanted some to add thermal cover (maybe), but in 10 years will I regret it?


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In KS and OK they are listed as invasive. Pheasant Forever, Quail Forever, and state biologists all recommend burning or mechanical removal. I know in some states they barely grow and actually serve a decent habitat purpose, but here they suck.

 

[Mennoniteman]

It’s funny how some guys recommend planting cedars for bedding thickets (in some parts of the country?), and others hate them and cut any on sight. I have very few, so transplanted some to add thermal cover (maybe), but in 10 years will I regret it?


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Check out CAR, cedar apple rust in apples, if you have apples you're welcome to join us in hating them

 

[Native Hunter]

It’s funny how some guys recommend planting cedars for bedding thickets (in some parts of the country?), and others hate them and cut any on sight. I have very few, so transplanted some to add thermal cover (maybe), but in 10 years will I regret it?


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I’m one of those people who like them. I will also say that CAR in apples is not a problem with the right varieties. I have several apples that grow close to cedars and show little to no evidence of CAR. However, I have had two or three varieties that would be eat up by it and had to be topworked. It’s all about making the right choices.

 

[KSQ2]

I’m one of those people who like them. I will also say that CAR in apples is not a problem with the right varieties. I have several apples that grow close to cedars and show little to no evidence of CAR. However, I have had two or three varieties that would be eat up by it and had to be topworked. It’s all about making the right choices.

We must have gotten lucky so far, our varieties haven’t shown any issues yet either.

 

[Native Hunter]

We must have gotten lucky so far, our varieties haven’t shown any issues yet either.

If you haven't seen it so far, you are probably okay. When CAR is a problem, it shows up to some extent every year and starts immediately on young trees. However, fireblight usually does not show up until a tree starts flowering, and some years can be severe while other years show none at all.

All of the Blue Hill trees that I have planted seem to be extremely CAR resistant, and so far zero fireblight.

 

[Kurt]

This picture shows you a bit how they are actually choking out the cottonwoods. To compound it on my place, if there was ever a fire, the heat from these giant cedars burning next to the cottonwoods would kill them too. I am leaving bedding thickets with cedars bordering them. These are so immense that one older guy and chainsaw cannot realistically get them all under control. For this thicket in the picture, I am going to try to work out from the cottonwood bases and try to get them a little breathing room. Cottonwoods provide next to nothing for wildlife but welcome shade and a wonderful native prairie riparian tree. I hate to lose any more of them on my watch.

 

[Mennoniteman]

This picture shows you a bit how they are actually choking out the cottonwoods. To compound it on my place, if there was ever a fire, the heat from these giant cedars burning next to the cottonwoods would kill them too. I am leaving bedding thickets with cedars bordering them. These are so immense that one older guy and chainsaw cannot realistically get them all under control. For this thicket in the picture, I am going to try to work out from the cottonwood bases and try to get them a little breathing room. Cottonwoods provide next to nothing for wildlife but welcome shade and a wonderful native prairie riparian tree. I hate to lose any more of them on my watch.

That's a good method that is often my MO when I have some good trees mixed in with less desirable stuff and don't know where to start, cutting a circle around the good tree, working from the base out. I can also identify with your "one older guy and a chainsaw" remark. When I was in my prime I could cut all day long with a big saw, now I take a small saw and cut for several hours

 

[KSQ2]

This picture shows you a bit how they are actually choking out the cottonwoods. To compound it on my place, if there was ever a fire, the heat from these giant cedars burning next to the cottonwoods would kill them too. I am leaving bedding thickets with cedars bordering them. These are so immense that one older guy and chainsaw cannot realistically get them all under control. For this thicket in the picture, I am going to try to work out from the cottonwood bases and try to get them a little breathing room. Cottonwoods provide next to nothing for wildlife but welcome shade and a wonderful native prairie riparian tree. I hate to lose any more of them on my watch.

We just ordered a couple male cottonwoods for our future yard on the Massey. I LOVE hearing the breeze blow through cottonwood trees, especially in the fall.

 

[catscratch]

We just ordered a couple male cottonwoods for our future yard on the Massey. I LOVE hearing the breeze blow through cottonwood trees, especially in the fall.

No love for the seeds gently floating in the breeze? I have very fond memories of laying under cottonwoods as a kid listening to the leaves rustle. Loved it!

 

[KSQ2]

No love for the seeds gently floating in the breeze? I have very fond memories of laying under cottonwoods as a kid listening to the leaves rustle. Loved it!

No love for them getting in the a/c compressor. Lol