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Shagbark Hickory

T

TimberPig

Active Member
I'm planning to do some more chainsaw work this spring in hopes of creating bedding areas etc. 15-20 years ago this timber was used fairly regularly for firewood harvesting but nothing has been cut since. I have quite a few mature red and white oaks, alot of medium/small shagbarks, and the rest are a mix of Hackberry, elms, osage, mullberry, multiflora, etc.
I am planning to cut some of the elms and osage, but am also thinking about cutting some of the Shagbarks. I realize they do produce nuts, but other than squirrels I havent seen much wildlife usage from them. They also tend to heavily shade the understory and I have seen areas in other timbers that were nearly pure shagbarks making me think they out competed everything else.
What is your opinion of their wildlife value? Should I cut them or save them?
 
Not sure of their wildlife value..... Just wanted to give you a heads up! When building the pond a couple of years ago, the DNR was involved and we had to have the ShagBark hickory's cut by a certain date. I think I remember it having something to do with Bats. Needed to be cut down before they migrated back..... they seem to use the Hickory trees for roosting. Not the best trees for stands IMO.

Woody
 
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What is your opinion of their wildlife value? Should I cut them or save them?

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I've been cutting them. I save all oaks (except some shingle oaks in certain places...they are like multiflora rose...growing everywhere)
I have a lot of hickory and my forester told me they have very low timber value. Where I have hickory stands....it's ALL hickory, so figure it's a good place to turn it into a brushy bedding area by tipping them over. No mistaking them for anything else that's for sure
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Squirrels of course love hickory. Only twice in my life have I seen deer ear hickory nuts. Both times it was fawns. It sounded like they were busting their teeth. Hickory are not a favored browse for deer. Also, they grow well from seedlings in a closed canopy. Oak do not do well in a mature timber. Oak are a favored browse specie for deer and acorns are a prime food source for deer and turkey.

If left for enough generations without logging, tsi or other disturbance a forest will slowly loose it's oak component and be replaced by hickory, basswood and further north, maple because all three can grow in dense shade while oak can not.

Due to the above, in my timber I've been doing tsi (timber stand improvement) for years with emphasis on releasing my oak. I have the fewest red and white oak so I favor them. I especially target the hickory and elm since neither is great as browse or produces highly sought after seed.

This is where some will think I'm nuts. I also release honey locust and red cedar. The prior as a food producer and the later as great screening and cover.

According to a NWTF publication doign tsi in a mixed oak forest can increase mast (acorn) production from 2 to 7 times. That's a lot of free wildlife food. Short answer, I kill any hickory competing with my oak.
 
Thanks for the opinions, thats exactly what I have been thinking. I have not seen any benefits to the shagbarks, but thought I'd check before I went postal on them. Personally, they are not my favorite tree for anything and I'll be happy to hinge a bunch of them.
 
Good info on the shagbarks, I did not know that. I'll promptly drop some this winter as I can think of one place for sure where I have oaks and hickorys growing in the same area. I will though leave the one hickory I have my stand in though!
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Great info here!

However, be aware that there is a good market for larger shagbarks (at least, 20 inches dbh). As of a few weeks ago, these larger trees, of good quality, were bringing more than red oak and white oak! However, shaggies grow painfully slow and tend to shade out and dominate some areas to form mostly pure stands.

I would examine what your forest likes to grow, from area to area, and manage for those species, selecting out the largest and highest quality shagbark in hickory zones, and treat them as crop trees via tsi (timber stand improvement, as Old Buck mentioned). In areas dominated, by low-average quality hickory, I would suggest creating “gaps” within the forest via a tsi method known as understory release by killing the hickory and leaving them stand. These gaps will fill in with lush woody browse as new growth quickly fills them in courtesty of increased sunlight reaching the forest floor. These gap zones will become great browsing, bedding and sanctuary areas for whitetails. Doing this will greatly increase the food component of your forest for deer (as Old Buck said) and generally raise the carrying capacity of your forest for whitetails. It will also enhance plant diversity of a forest in both succession stage and species mix. You can do this on your own or have someone else do it for you. We do hundreds of acres per year and do free timber inspections as well as get you cost-share money for timber projects (most or all of the things I mentioned are 75% cost-shared -- landowner out-of-pocket expense averages $25/acre for tsi).

Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions!

Good Hunting!

Raven
 
I also agree with removing some of the hickory.I have not had much success marketing even large hickorys for much above 200-MBF. I manage my land for wildlife and timber.I release trees in this order walnut, white/red oak.I do not encourage any locust,I wish they would scream when you cut/spray them
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Need help with the initials:

MBF-Mean Board Feet? How do you get this number?

20"DBH-I'm guessing it means how far above the ground you measure the tree?

The 'Bonker
 
Bonker,
Googled/cut and pasted these:

Tree of 6-inch dbh (the diameter of a tree measured 4.5 feet above the ground).

Hire the logger on a $/MBF (thousand board feet) or $/Ton basis.

We had a straight line windstorm take out a Shagbark. I cut the top for fire wood, leaving a ~16-18 foot straight 20 inch diameter trunk. Just called the local sawmill and they told me to continue with firewood.
 
DBH- I thought was diameter breast height, I guess that is ~4.5 feet but I'm growing out like a tree and not up.
 
It is very true that few mills would be interested in a single tree, or single log, in most cases. Most buyers want 3-5K in logs available to make it worth their while. We highly, highly, highly, highly - did I mention highly -- discourage people from selling trees to individual loggers. In NO CASES have we heard of this marketing route bringing optimal prices. One will get the highest dollar amount out of a timber sale only by knowing the total board feet, and the quality of, every tree you want to sell and then sending out to lots of buyers on a sealed-bid basis. Going this route, too, the seller gets to select the logger he wants and always gets the highest price with no obligation whatsoever to sell if he/she elects not to. Also, the landowner gets paid in full BEFORE a single tree is ever cut.

Just some more info....Oh, dbh is diamter at breast height which is what is considered to be 4.5 feet.

Good Hunting….

Raven
 
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