Timber thinning

[Madison county]

I'm having my small timber (6.5) acres thinned/cleared next week, my timber is very very thick right now. The man will cut everything 3" and smaller, he is using a large brush mower on his track loader so it will cut and mulch whatever he cuts. I have lots of honeysuckle shrubs and he said that's invasive.


Right now I have lots of walnuts, some cedars, elms and a very small amount of oak trees. My question is after he is done do I need to plant some oak trees and others or will they grow on there own?

 

[boonerz]

Should start to regenerate on their own but planting would ensure you get the desired species your after and a little quicker

 

[Madison county]

Tree stand area

 

[Madison county]

My food plot area after spraying on 6-18-14, going to try something new this year sugar beets

 

[Sligh1]

Whatever was there before will likely b there again. Obviously. U will have ur "weed tree" problem again. The best things u can do is direct seed and plant tubed trees in those areas and do a lot of them. Desired species. And if ur ground
Is full of one type of oak but lacking in others- add the lacking type whether its red, white, swamp white, etc as long as growing location is ok for that type of tree. Personally I'd also diversify with some other trees like apples, pears, chestnuts, dwarf chinkapin oak, etc.
Last piece to ur puzzle is doing an aggressive TSI job where u free ur best trees u want and want more seed of and kill undesirables. Ill take areas with invasives or undesirables and completely level those species. Really- ur continued TSI with continued tree planting will solve this but u r changing a 100 yrs worth of possibly "bad management" so it may take u a few rounds over the next 10 yrs to really change the dynamics.

 

[Madison county]

Thanks for all the great advice! I forgot to mention that after the thinning is done, a man that does burning and timber improvement will come and spray the honeysuckle after a month. Then the following year he thinks there will be enough leaf litter and stuff on the ground to burn it.

I have about 12 fruit trees on the north side of my property, apple, pear, cherry, apricot and plum but would like to plant some in the timber as we'll.