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Cedar tree removal

Here is a prime example of what happens to live trees. Both trees were on fire but only one burned all the way. And the trees directly next to it did not light up. The other tree that lit up lost about 2-3 branches and that was it.
This was a combination of native grasses, brome and unknown forbs that I was burning so some of the grasses we're tall and intermingled in the lower branches of some cedars.....the one tree pictured is the ONLY tree that is a complete loss, and I had some other cedars that I had cut down that went up into a ball of flames only feet from standing trees....it's so odd how some of these trees burn and others do not
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I know this about removing cedar trees but would planting a few cedars inside a timber that is really open with mostly young hickory/oaks and little cover for bedding a bad idea or would it do nothing for increasing bedding areas/cover?
 
Hawk32 said:
I know this about removing cedar trees but would planting a few cedars inside a timber that is really open with mostly young hickory/oaks and little cover for bedding a bad idea or would it do nothing for increasing bedding areas/cover?
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Cut the hickory too! Then ya got something. ;)

I'm hard on hickory. They are way too shade tolerant (oaks are not) and completely stop oak regeneration. I leave very few for diversity.... only the very straight poles.
 
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IowaBowHunter1983 said:
Cut the hickory too! They ya got something. ;)

I'm hard on hickory. They are way too shade tolerant (oaks are not) and completely stop oak regeneration. I leave very few for diversity.... only the very straight poles.
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Similarly, I used to leave some shagbarks alone, for reasons that I am not even sure about, but then as I learned more, I got even tougher on them and would take out about 60%-70% of them. Nowadays...I kill almost all of them. I keep only a few.
 
Daver said:
FWIW, I drove by a CRP field today that had obviously been burned recently. It had a goodly number of volunteer cedars in it, most in the 5' to 7' tall range. Although most/all of them were singed pretty good, they were by no means burned up.

I am not sure they were even burned enough to be top killed, time will tell.
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Update...I drove by said field ^^ yesterday and noticed that the LO is now removing the singed cedars one by one with a skid steer...which BTW appeared to be well stuck in the mud. (Welcome to southern Iowa clay in the springtime.) I assume that they will be back at it when the field is dry enough. Plucking those out one at a time will take some time, there are plenty of them out them.
 
Thats interesting. I wouldn't of thought that about hickory. If I got that hard on them not sure I would have any timber left.
 
Daver said:
Similarly, I used to leave some shagbarks alone, for reasons that I am not even sure about, but then as I learned more, I got even tougher on them and would take out about 60%-70% of them. Nowadays...I kill almost all of them. I keep only a few.
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Yessir. I kill 90% in alot of stands.
 
It's good to keep some shagbark hickories around. Shagbarks are good bat habitat trees. They hide/sleep/nest in the turned out bark pieces.
 
Hawk32 said:
Thats interesting. I wouldn't of thought that about hickory. If I got that hard on them not sure I would have any timber left.
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That's not necessarily a bad thing. "clear cuts" can be the most productive ground around. I have some sections in timber in my house that I cut all the hickories down. Yup.... pretty much all the trees. Its amazing the regen that is happening. Phenomenal habitat coming.
 
IowaBowHunter1983 said:
That's not necessarily a bad thing. "clear cuts" can be the most productive ground around. I have some sections in timber in my house that I cut all the hickories down. Yup.... pretty much all the trees. Its amazing the regen that is happening. Phenomenal habitat coming.
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Saw that vid you posted
Very cool to see that kind of result
Im goping to get some of that with c dar thinning


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bwese said:
It's good to keep some shagbark hickories around. Shagbarks are good bat habitat trees. They hide/sleep/nest in the turned out bark pieces.
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Good point. FWIW, I have plans printed out to soon build some bat houses. I plan on getting those out in the next month or two.
 
IowaBowHunter1983 said:
That's not necessarily a bad thing. "clear cuts" can be the most productive ground around. I have some sections in timber in my house that I cut all the hickories down. Yup.... pretty much all the trees. Its amazing the regen that is happening. Phenomenal habitat coming.
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Agreed. FWIW, I just attended a Field Day at Growing Deer.TV (Grant Woods) place in SW MO, near Branson. His ground is way more sloped than just about anything here in Iowa and the "soil" bed is more like a gravel parking lot...but he CLEAR CUTS and not just a little bit.

In the main, he is attacking cedar groves that have been let go on the landscape for decades, but he will, budget and time permitting, cut down EVERY cedar tree on say 50 acres, let it all dry out for about 2 years and then burn it. Most times he has to burn a second time to really get all of it cleared out. But when finished, he has a true oak savanna to show for it and the value to the area wildlife is incalculable.
 
Good info and definitely clear cutting is something I will add to the "to do list" but probably not right away. Main two goals after taking possession are to get the crp and crop ground back into shape. It's pretty rough at the moment. Areas are full of Multi-floral rose and cedars.
 
2013 vs 2021... it doesn't take long and they become a major problem. This is a big pasture of ours, so not a major focus for turkey/deer but same concept. This place is going to become useless if we don't manage it now. I'm going to start dropping them by hand this summer, it's steep hillside ground. Then make piles best I can and burn when we get some snow this coming winter

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Anyone ever try this idea: in the winter when there's snow on the ground, take a weedburner, drip torch, whatever and light up cedar trees one by one. Our pasture pictured above we really don't want to burn since it's about 200 acres and grazed down pretty thin. It'd be a pain to burn basically. Some year we can get there maybe but not now.

The hopes would be the cedars would get burnt and die, the snow would keep the grass from burning over the whole pasture, the skeletons would be left to be mulched later with a forestry head or just left to break down naturally or by chainsaw over the years.

I'd assume cedars are pretty dry and burnable in January/February?
 
LoessHillsArcher said:
Anyone ever try this idea: in the winter when there's snow on the ground, take a weedburner, drip torch, whatever and light up cedar trees one by one. Our pasture pictured above we really don't want to burn since it's about 200 acres and grazed down pretty thin. It'd be a pain to burn basically. Some year we can get there maybe but not now.

The hopes would be the cedars would get burnt and die, the snow would keep the grass from burning over the whole pasture, the skeletons would be left to be mulched later with a forestry head or just left to break down naturally or by chainsaw over the years.

I'd assume cedars are pretty dry and burnable in January/February?
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I plan on lighting trees on fire individually in the next couple of weeks to see how it goes as an experiment. Winter is an interesting thought.
 
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