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Small Timber Improvement Question

bowman

bowman

Super Moderator
I have a small timber on my place that I want to make better bedding cover for wildlife while still maintaining some cosmetic looks (not like a tornado went through). The timber is primarily Walnut, Choke Cherry, a few cotton woods, and the underbrush is becoming covered in Honeysuckle (I think it is honeysuckle). The canopy is getting full and the honey suckle is taking over.

So my questions are.......

1. How does Walnut and Choke Cherry hinge? Do they live? Do the deer browse them?

2. How do I get rid of the Honeysuckle? Cut and tordon? Pull them with the truck (where I can reach)?

3. If I am successful in getting rid of the Honeysuckle, will more just grow back? Can I seed something else?

Here is what it looks like now.

1040-timber_1.jpg


1040-timber_2.jpg


1040-timber_3.jpg
 
Tear it up Wayne! I have used crossbow for honeysuckle with success as a foliar treatment. If you can add some Miscanthus or cave in Rock to the Edge that would be worth it as well I'm my opinion.
 
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Wayne I will be using Garlon with diesel fuel in a backpack sprayer to basil bark treat all of the undesired small stuff in a 9 acre tsi project this spring. I have been encouraged that this will be a faster and less expensive approach than the cut and stump treatment I did last year on 12 acres. 15% garlon mix with diesel and simply spray the trunk near the soil early in the year while air temps are cool. I will use the same mix to stump treat anything that does require cutting over 6" in diameter.

I would love to hear any input on this method as I will be starting tomorrow.
 
Yes it looks like in your pics that you have honeysuckle bush. It will be the first to put out leaves and the last to lose them. If you whip them you always have some come back through bird droppings. Walnut hinges ok but watch the bigger cherries. All mine so far have a rotten middle to them. I would rather just cut the walnuts down and kill them. It takes a couple of years after that for a oak to grow where a walnut was.
 
FWIW: A good portion of my timber at my home place is overrun with honeysuckle. While I dislike honeysuckle, it is better than the multiflora rose that was there when I bought the place 25 years (& many gallons of Roundup) ago. The deer actually seem to like the dense cover that the honey suckle provides and bed there with regularity. While I don't find them particularly attractive, the honeysuckle doesn't look any worse than a bunch of hinge cut hardwoods as far as not looking like a "tornado went through". I've got one 10-12 acre portion of timber that is "clean & pretty" but is is nothing but a travel corridor for deer between bedding & feeding areas. They don't "live" there. I'll bet your timber currently looks a lot better to wildlife than it does to you. :way:
 
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