Prairie Drifter
Well-known member
As land managers trying to maximize our land's productive potential for wildlife, we are in a constant battle with plant succession. When our grasslands are not managed correctly, grasses tend to dominate the stand and the brood-rearing potential drops as the forb and associated insect population is inadequate. When our woodlands age and canopy, blocking sunlight from reaching the ground, they too become less capable of supporting game birds. Luckily, we have a diverse arsenal of tools we can use to battle this advancing succession.
I recently began working more on my woodlands here by girdling and treating elms and locust and cutting understory cedars. Our methodology is to go into a stand and girdle these target species chainsaw bar deep, then treat the cut with Pathway herbicide. We do this from first frost until sap starts heading back up, so mostly in the fall and winter. Girdling is far cheaper than cutting and stacking those trees and we won't have the bare spots that burning those piles of logs will promote. Benefits are seen from both the removal of the individual tree and eliminating the seed production of the same. Many other wildlife species will use the standing tree for housing and food and eventually the tree will fall and our fires will help to recycle their nutrient content back into the system.
Doing this work is one of those projects that, while working, seems to be moving far too slowly. However, when you reach the end of the day and look back, it is really impressive how much you have actually gotten done. Of course, I am rarely satisfied with my progress and have often wished I had started this program 10-20 years ago, however, there were more important tasks at hand then.
On the prairie side, I have 4 of my 7 grazing units in Patch Burn/Patch Graze ( google OSU Patch Burn ) and am very impressed with the results. I may try to put two of the remaining units into that system in the future. I'm mainly talking bobwhite here and maximizing "useable space" is paramount to increasing and supporting a higher population. The greatest success would be influencing my neighbors to utilize a similar system that would improve a larger footprint in the area for bobwhite, which would help to stabilize the population in the area at a higher density. Add to that the continuing assault we project on other invasives like: sericea lespedeza, multi-flora rose, tall fescue, smooth brome, Johnson grass, etc, and there is rarely a day where we have to look for something to do.
I recently began working more on my woodlands here by girdling and treating elms and locust and cutting understory cedars. Our methodology is to go into a stand and girdle these target species chainsaw bar deep, then treat the cut with Pathway herbicide. We do this from first frost until sap starts heading back up, so mostly in the fall and winter. Girdling is far cheaper than cutting and stacking those trees and we won't have the bare spots that burning those piles of logs will promote. Benefits are seen from both the removal of the individual tree and eliminating the seed production of the same. Many other wildlife species will use the standing tree for housing and food and eventually the tree will fall and our fires will help to recycle their nutrient content back into the system.
Doing this work is one of those projects that, while working, seems to be moving far too slowly. However, when you reach the end of the day and look back, it is really impressive how much you have actually gotten done. Of course, I am rarely satisfied with my progress and have often wished I had started this program 10-20 years ago, however, there were more important tasks at hand then.
On the prairie side, I have 4 of my 7 grazing units in Patch Burn/Patch Graze ( google OSU Patch Burn ) and am very impressed with the results. I may try to put two of the remaining units into that system in the future. I'm mainly talking bobwhite here and maximizing "useable space" is paramount to increasing and supporting a higher population. The greatest success would be influencing my neighbors to utilize a similar system that would improve a larger footprint in the area for bobwhite, which would help to stabilize the population in the area at a higher density. Add to that the continuing assault we project on other invasives like: sericea lespedeza, multi-flora rose, tall fescue, smooth brome, Johnson grass, etc, and there is rarely a day where we have to look for something to do.