Spotlighter -Foliage Blocks?

[MO-APE]

Hello all, stumbled upon this site a few weeks ago and haven't stopped reading since. Literally some of the best information on land management that I've found anywhere on the web!

I just purchased my first farm in North Missouri (11 Miles from Iowa) on the Sullivan / Putnam county line. It is just a small rec. farm (54 acres), but has the potential to be the right "small parcel" with sound management (8000 acres of public land close by). I chatted with the MO. conservation agent that covers the area about experiences he has had locally and he mentioned that the area gets blasted by poachers with spotlights. Unfortunately, my west property line is a county road, the fencing is solid and a lot of it is covered with cedars, but there are certainly a lot of openings where the bad guys could do their damage.

What have you all done about putting up trees to thwart them?
What type of cedar or evergreen would you plant that will grow fast and full?

I look forward to learning from you all!

 

[Nontypcl1]

This spring I'm planning on planting a screen along an open fence line at my place. It consists of 2 rows of eastern red cedars with alternating spacing and two rows of shrubs. The shrubs will be alternated and include silky dogwood, American plum, elderberry and nine bark. These are all fairly fast growing shrubs. I will also be planting Egyptian wheat along this area until the shrubs and cedars get tall enough to act as a screen. This is an area that is a little wetter and I chose the shrubs I did because of that. Your county conservation or nrcs could also help determine species suitable for your area.

A couple good links to help determine your soil type and plant suitability are below


If you don't know your soil type you should be able to find it on here

http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/WebSoilSurvey.aspx


Being so close to iowa your soil type may be listed on here. It gives a list of some suitable plants for each type.

http://www.iowadnr.gov/forestry/files/woodland_suitability.pdf

 

[LYON]

Not sure if this is something you'd want to do or not, but I've thought about using round bales for a view block. Don't have to wait for them to grow up and I think they'd do their job well.

 

[MO-APE]

Thank you both for the replies. I have a lot of immature red cedars (< 4 feet) that have sprouted up over time in the native prairie grass, has anyone on here ever transplanted cedars (or other evergeens) with luck?

 

[dbltree]

Round bales are a great option! I use red cedars and then I plant Egyptian Wheat as an annual screen until the cedars get high enough.

Lot's of info on planting both in Dbltree's Corner (top of page)

Welcome to IW :way:

 

[Sligh1]

If you want a really fast solution that's PERMANENT (beyond above thoughts) - you may want to look at getting a 1/2 day's help (or maybe day- pry less since you're only filling areas) by hiring someone with a tree spade. For example, you MIGHT be able to get all those holes filled up for $1000 for instance- sure would save a ton of time - no wait! - and head-ache if you can locate someone in the relative near area.

 

[MO-APE]

Non-Typ, great guidance...that's exactly what I'm going to do. Dbltree, I'm already one of your biggest fans after reading through "Dbltree's Corner"!

One question, if I was going to plant a protection strip on the back side of my cedars in the fencerow, would you plant Egyptian Wheat or Cave in Rock switchgrass?

I'm definitely leaning towards a 15-20 yard thick strip of CIR switchgrass along side of a 800 yard fencerow (along a county road). I have very limited access to implements so the idea of the perennial stand of CIR year-after-year (of course with maintenance) is appealing. I know that when I burn the CIR I'll have to keep it way from the cedars in the fencerow.

It sounds like I'm too late for CIR this season as I didn't mow down / kill the existing grasses so I might have to try the wheat for year #1...Thoughts?