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Maintaining thick areas on a property

Posted By: Remington270

Maintaining thick areas on a property - 01/12/18 11:27 AM

Is burning the best way of keeping thick stuff thick? I've got some good bedding areas and want to keep them that way as long as I can. It's mainly pine regeneration.
Posted By: jlbuc10

Re: Maintaining thick areas on a property - 01/12/18 11:49 AM

Burn would thin it I'd imagine. Natural regen that I've seen stays thick enough for bedding 20-30 years
Posted By: blumsden

Re: Maintaining thick areas on a property - 01/12/18 12:12 PM

Unless it's longleaf pine, burning would kill off the pine, but maybe that's what your wanting to do. I like thick briars and grasses that get good sunlight. Pines will choke it out eventually, especially volunteer pines.
Posted By: Remington270

Re: Maintaining thick areas on a property - 01/12/18 12:38 PM

Originally Posted By: blumsden
Unless it's longleaf pine, burning would kill off the pine, but maybe that's what your wanting to do. I like thick briars and grasses that get good sunlight. Pines will choke it out eventually, especially volunteer pines.


I'm wanting whatever deer want. I think the thicker the better, for the spots I don't plant or bushhog.
Posted By: globe

Re: Maintaining thick areas on a property - 01/12/18 01:31 PM

FYI, I have an area in the 7-10 acre range that when I clear it, my plan is to cut several shooting/fire lanes through it and keep it burned. Maybe rotate the burned area based on need at the time. Its good now, but will be prime bedding one day hopefully. I hope i can kill every pine and gum on it! Imo bedding is more important than food to a buck. I'd love to hear other opinions!!!!
Posted By: NightHunter

Re: Maintaining thick areas on a property - 01/12/18 01:56 PM

Depends on the density of the pines. If you get a hot fire, you'll kill some pines and open up the canopy and produce more early successional habitat.

If the pines are thick and relatively tall creating lots of shade, you may not be able to get a fire hot enough to reach your desired objective.

You can always go in and selectively remove trees with chemicals or a saw, opening up the canopy and then burning.

If the pines are open and you have plenty of fuel, run a backing fire through it and you'll have plenty of cover come summertime.
Posted By: CNC

Re: Maintaining thick areas on a property - 01/12/18 01:58 PM

Posted By: NightHunter

Re: Maintaining thick areas on a property - 01/12/18 02:05 PM

LOL... Sounds like Matt Brock before a burn starts
Posted By: AUwrestler

Re: Maintaining thick areas on a property - 01/12/18 02:44 PM

Hinge cutting lets in light for natural browse and provides thick over head cover as well as screening. Alsi bring a lot of food down to deer level. Cheapest and fast way to improve habitat.
Posted By: Grant_UAB

Re: Maintaining thick areas on a property - 01/12/18 03:07 PM

If you can't burn to do leasing, would opening up the canopy still be beneficial? Obviously pines are off limits, but there are a lot of scrub trees around that I could cut to expose the forest floor.
Posted By: mike35549

Re: Maintaining thick areas on a property - 01/12/18 03:22 PM

I never hunted anywhere in Alabama where I needed more thick areas always the other way around.
Posted By: NightHunter

Re: Maintaining thick areas on a property - 01/12/18 03:22 PM

Originally Posted By: Grant_UAB
If you can't burn to do leasing, would opening up the canopy still be beneficial? Obviously pines are off limits, but there are a lot of scrub trees around that I could cut to expose the forest floor.


Yes, then if possible, disturb the soil some. It's not a necessity but it does help.

I'll pm you info on a field day we are having in March. It is going to be on this exact topic. How to improve things for wildlife in industrial pines. It will have classroom info and field tours.
Posted By: Remington270

Re: Maintaining thick areas on a property - 01/12/18 03:26 PM

Originally Posted By: mike35549
I never hunted anywhere in Alabama where I needed more thick areas always the other way around.


10 years ago on our Alabama land, we had nothing but mature hardwood timber, and middle-stage pines. It didn't hold many deer at all. Getting it thicker changed all that. We're doing better now.
Posted By: Grant_UAB

Re: Maintaining thick areas on a property - 01/12/18 04:33 PM

Sweet, looking forward to it.
Posted By: poorcountrypreacher

Re: Maintaining thick areas on a property - 01/12/18 04:59 PM

I think you will find it difficult to kill all the volunteer loblolly with nothing but fire. I've got one area that I have burned 8 times in the past 12 years. There were several log landings on it that were just solid small pines when I started the burning program and they all still have solid stands of small pines. The fire thinned them out and the ones remaining have gotten bigger, but I haven't been able to kill them all. I think you will need to have a really hot fire during the growing season to wipe out all of them.

I have another area of about 5 acres that was clearcut in 1999 and grew up in a really thick stand of volunteer loblolly. I thinned the stand with a dozer and a chainsaw, but the stand is still thicker than it should be. I've run several hot fires through it over the past 5 years and the ground under it is very open now. It used to be great bedding for deer, but not now. Even if I hadn't thinned it, the understory would still be open now due to the fire and the shading by the trees. Of course, I wanted it to be open and wasn't concerned with deer bedding, but I think the same thing would happen on your spot if you just cool season fire.

To keep it good bedding, you either need to do like NH said and use herbicide, or you need to run a really hot fire through it during the growing season every few years. If you don't kill the trees, they are eventually gonna get big enough to start shading the ground and killing your good cover plants.

Good luck with it.
Posted By: AUwrestler

Re: Maintaining thick areas on a property - 01/12/18 05:14 PM


Originally Posted By: NightHunter
Originally Posted By: Grant_UAB
If you can't burn to do leasing, would opening up the canopy still be beneficial? Obviously pines are off limits, but there are a lot of scrub trees around that I could cut to expose the forest floor.


Yes, then if possible, disturb the soil some. It's not a necessity but it does help.

I'll pm you info on a field day we are having in March. It is going to be on this exact topic. How to improve things for wildlife in industrial pines. It will have classroom info and field tours.
sign me up.
Posted By: ridgestalker

Re: Maintaining thick areas on a property - 01/12/18 05:29 PM

The place I hunt began getting cut when I started hunting it about 16 yrs ago.It was all mature hardwood Mtn timber.The first 12 or so years were awesome and we would hunt the cutovers that were cut the year before.The entire place was finished up about 4 yrs ago.The cutovers that are in the 10-15 yr old range are a wasteland now.They grew mostly back in gum,sumac and other soft woods. They have gotten to the point of shading out all the under growth and it's amazing how bad the hunting is compared to what it use to be.The land owner would never consider fire or anything due to the liability and difficulty of burning mountain land.This entire property is a couple of years away from being good for nothing and regeneration of hardwoods is poor at best.This is a big tract of land that is basically unfixable.
Posted By: hallb

Re: Maintaining thick areas on a property - 01/12/18 05:45 PM

Read up on the Whild Bill sanctuary method it's the only way to go.
Posted By: 2Dogs

Re: Maintaining thick areas on a property - 01/12/18 07:25 PM

Originally Posted By: NightHunter
Originally Posted By: Grant_UAB
If you can't burn to do leasing, would opening up the canopy still be beneficial? Obviously pines are off limits, but there are a lot of scrub trees around that I could cut to expose the forest floor.


Yes, then if possible, disturb the soil some. It's not a necessity but it does help.



thumbup
Posted By: CNC

Re: Maintaining thick areas on a property - 01/12/18 07:30 PM

Originally Posted By: NightHunter
LOL... Sounds like Matt Brock before a burn starts


I think I'm a pyro too.....I like it just a little too much. grin
Posted By: jbc

Re: Maintaining thick areas on a property - 01/12/18 07:35 PM

Originally Posted By: CNC
Originally Posted By: NightHunter
LOL... Sounds like Matt Brock before a burn starts


I think I'm a pyro too.....I like it just a little too much. grin


It’s one of my favorite hobbies
Posted By: joshm28

Re: Maintaining thick areas on a property - 01/12/18 07:36 PM

Originally Posted By: NightHunter
Originally Posted By: Grant_UAB
If you can't burn to do leasing, would opening up the canopy still be beneficial? Obviously pines are off limits, but there are a lot of scrub trees around that I could cut to expose the forest floor.


Yes, then if possible, disturb the soil some. It's not a necessity but it does help.

I'll pm you info on a field day we are having in March. It is going to be on this exact topic. How to improve things for wildlife in industrial pines. It will have classroom info and field tours.


You or Matt one please let me know the dates.
Posted By: MS_Hunter

Re: Maintaining thick areas on a property - 01/12/18 07:51 PM

Posted By: NightHunter

Re: Maintaining thick areas on a property - 01/12/18 07:56 PM

I will put out information on it next week. I am putting together a speaking lineup now. Just don’t want to advertise here since we don’t pay.

I’ll contact you directly so you can sign up.
Posted By: mike35549

Re: Maintaining thick areas on a property - 01/12/18 08:22 PM

Originally Posted By: NightHunter
I will put out information on it next week. I am putting together a speaking lineup now. Just don’t want to advertise here since we don’t pay.

I’ll contact you directly so you can sign up.


Where are you going to have this field day. Sounds interesting.
Posted By: NightHunter

Re: Maintaining thick areas on a property - 01/12/18 08:35 PM

I don’t need to advertise here. I will make the info available next week.
Posted By: joshm28

Re: Maintaining thick areas on a property - 01/12/18 09:00 PM

Originally Posted By: NightHunter
I will put out information on it next week. I am putting together a speaking lineup now. Just don’t want to advertise here since we don’t pay.

I’ll contact you directly so you can sign up.


If it's a state thing I would think Skinny would be ok with it. Skinny what do you say?
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