I suspect those stumps will send up a ton of new shoots but keep us posted on how those trees react to being cut. Nice work on the funneling efforts!! I often see people burning those trees when they could have been used to funnel deer...well done!
Timber Stand Improvement is usually crop tree release that includes marking and inventorying the crop trees, then doing a 4 sided release of any cull trees with competing canopy.
Marking the crop trees first makes it easier to go back through searching for competing trees
It's easy when the competing trees are "weed" trees like hickories, ash and basswood
but often we find clumps of white or red oaks and we must choose which ones to cull
TSI requires staring at the skyline a lot looking over the canopies
Look for full canopies and cull trees with thin spindly canopies
Opening up canopy will release young oaks
which will require thinning and culling in the future
but without TSI the young oaks will succumb to intense shading canopy
Give them a little light however and they will take off!
I usually bury the saw as I girdle so i don't need a double girdle
but use caution because you can see what is on the inside of the tree and sometimes even a light girdle can topple a tree with a rotted interior!
Clumps of American Basswood are a pain to girdle!
Maples are one species that I use a double girdle AND Tordon in the girdle!
This maple is still alive 3 years later with only one girdle
and is budding out once again
so I double girdled it with out Tordon just to see if I can kill it in that manner
A leaning tree can pinch a saw even with just a girdle
so when possible have a backup saw handy!
TSI is a relatively safe method of opening up canopy, increasing understory growth, encouraging oak regeneration, enhancing crop tree growth and mast production and providing more browse and cover for whitetails to boot.... :way: