Trees For a Fields in Mississippi Flood Plane

[wbpdeer]

My son Jackson purchased approximately 80 acres in Randolph County, Illinois next to the Mississippi Flood Plane. This ground has been under 10 feet of water at times in the recent past. It is signed up in the WHIP program.

He is limited to how many acres he can plant in food plots. It is in a levee district and part of his dirt will be taken / used to repair a levee that was removed to manage a recent flood. This farm was purchased for deer hunting purposes and it will be used for that purpose as well as duck hunting.

We walked the farm on Friday and Saturday, June 16 & 17. It was extremely wet and flood water and debris has damaged one access road. I took the first dunking when we tried to cross floating debris.

Question
What trees would you recommend to plant in this flood plane that will create structure (fence rows) and survive?

I have two photos taken during our recent trip. Small willows are the green small stuff shown in the photos.






The west side of this ground touches the Mississippi Canal and the Missouri State Line. When Missouri gun season opens deer will come to this ground for cover. Illinois Gun Season opens later than MO does.

Thanks for reading this thread.

Wayne

 

[j-bird]

Trees that like water that come to mind in my area are Boxelder, sycamore, cottonwood and soft maples (red and silver), bald cypress, buckeye and obviously willow. None of these are particularly worth a crap for timber, but they grow well with wet feet and fairly fast. Pin oak also likes water and is a great food source for waterfowl as well due to the small size of the acorns - and hold their leaves well into the fall and winter in case you want to hunt ducks in some flooded timber!. I have a seasonal flood plain (Not to the extent that you describe) and most of these trees seem to do well as I should be in a similar zone as your sons property.

 

[Goldentriangle]

I am with jbird on the pinoaks. Willows of course would be your quickest solution but I am guessing do to the location that you all will be fighting willows in other areas.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Neahawg]

Water oaks and nuttal oaks are supposed to be able to handle wet feet.

 

[Native Hunter]

Wayne, he could also check into Bald Cypress. It would be a dandy if he likes them. I agree with the others on Pin Oak.

 

[j-bird]

Wa

Water oaks and nuttal oaks are supposed to be able to handle wet feet.

watch the hardiness zone if you look into nuttal oaks. I tried one on my place and it is a shrub because the winter kill of the upper portions. It's alive, but that is about it....I think. Since I planted my switch I would have to go look for it now! I knew I was pushing it being as "north" as I am, but he may be further south to pull it off.

 

[Oakseeds]

Swamp white oaks are worth a try.

 

[swat1018]

Maple, River birch, cedar, pin oak, northern red oak, walnut, willow, and a host of shrubs. I have norway's growing where it floods periodically too. Most of my trees don't stay under 10' of water for long, though.

 

[Turkish]

That looks too wet for water oak and nutall. Down here in the Deep South, overcup is the only oak that grows in the wettest conditions.

If you know the exact elevation, within inches, then look at what successful surrounding forests grow at similar elevations. In the MS River swamps I'm used to, inches of elevation literally are the difference between success and failure for tree species.

 

[almanac12]

There's an interesting article about efforts to restore elms:
https://www.nature.org/ourinitiativ...r/restoring-floodplains-with-american-elm.xml
I would love to plant a few of the DED resistant elm clones (Princeton, New Harmony, Valley Forge, St. Croix, Prairie Expedition, Delaware). Even with DED, elms grow like crazy in some wetter spots on my flood plain property. The best make it 25' tall and die. I have one thats 24" dia at DBH that I reported to the Elm Survivor Project.

North Central Reforestation and a few nurseries in Oregon sell bare root stock of the DED resistant clones. Byron Nursery is in Northern IL and sells bare root as well:
http://www.byronnursery.com/BareRootPlants2.html

But a non-clone wild-type would be better than the clones. The Nature Conservancy and The University of Guelph are attempting to produce seed stock in parallel projects.

 

[almanac12]

You might also try Swamp Bur Oak hybrids (Schuette's Oak) or River Birch. You might be surprised by the tolerance of Quaking Aspen to wetter soils. We have some thst grow on our flood plain property.

It's a shame that Green Ash is no longer an option.

 

[Goldentriangle]

Wayne, I know of a very large grove of persimmon that are growing on an island in the middle of the river here in Adams county. I've never heard of persimmon liking wet soils but these trees flood out at least twice a year. Sometimes they are wet for long periods. In 1993 and 2008 they were under 20 ft of water for close to a month and they fruit good every year.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Fish]

Wayne, I know of a very large grove of persimmon that are growing on an island in the middle of the river here in Adams county. I've never heard of persimmon liking wet soils but these trees flood out at least twice a year. Sometimes they are wet for long periods. In 1993 and 2008 they were under 20 ft of water for close to a month and they fruit good every year.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

X2 on persimmons handling wet feet. They can grow in some sticky ground.
Seems like i am always asking folks this question, but it's an important one. Does the soil drain once the floodwaters recede? Or does it stay wet? In other words, is it sandy loam or clay? Makes a big difference in what species can handle it there.