More chainsaw work and covey headquarters

J

jaytee

New member
Went out on Thanksgiving day and put in a pretty good days work with the ole Johnsered chainsaw and bottle of Tordon RTU and 50 gallons of Roundup. This first pic is of an area that borders a plot of milo. I rotate the crop in this plot from year to year and sometimes just let it go fallow for a year. Not sure what I'll plant in it next year, might go back with milo again. Anyway, this area is bottom ground thats bordered by the creek on three sides and is roughly 3 acres total but only about 2 of its usable right now as the rest is full of walnut sprouts and some larger trees. This little line of trees pretty much split the area in half so I went in and whacked 'em down and treated the walnut stumps with the Tordon. The area was sprayed with RU and I'll go back in and plant some shrubs at a later date.

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And here is the after shot. With cutting the walnuts and treating the stumps, this will allow me to plant a variety of shrubs that are intolerant to juglone.

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I tried to resize these last two pics, even deleted them from photobucket and started completely over but for some reason they keep coming back this size. Weird.

Here's the rest of this line of walnuts, buckbrush and wild plum. I'll do the same as I did in the previous pics and cut out all the walnuts and treat.

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This area is at the end of the milo plot and is rank with fescue. It was sprayed yesterday and once dead, I'll go in and plant a variety of quail friendly shrubs like aromatic sumac, wild plum, gray dogwood, false indigo and others.

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A few more pics. This area already has some shrubby growth along with some taller trees that will be hinge cut and some more shrubs planted to make a nice escape area.

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This is the edge that seperates the milo plot from the timbered ridge. Its got lots of blackberry briars, some river birch that I planted 6 or so years ago, along with some sumac, wild plum and plenty of small walnuts that have been cut and treated. I'll augment this area with more shrubby plantings once the fescue is dead.

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Jaytee, if you'd treat the stumps of more susceptible trees with a mix of diesel and Remedy you wouldn't have any problems with with the tordon residue. That residue can affect future plantings for over 3 years. If you're planning of going back with new stock, the Remedy would save you some disasters. Unlike Tordon, it doesn't have any soil activity.
 
Great job!:thumbsup: Habitat is what it is all about! Do you have much of a bird population on the property now?
 
I had my first confirmed successful hatch this year in probably 20 years. I've seen a covey of about 10 to 12 birds. My goal is to get at least three coveys on this 40 acre area.
 
Oh I've got lots of projects still left to do. Got 750 shrubs to be planted along with 3 or 4 downed tree structures, a hillside glade area to be cleared of some invading cedars and fescue plus some more covey headquarters areas so the work continues.:cheers::cheers:
 
Sounds like your going to be plenty busy,which is a good thing. Does the State help at all? What type of cover did the birds actually nest in? Is there good habitat on the surrounding properties?
 
Jaytee, I didn't hear any fire in your plans! Is there opportunity for that? Also, from the pictures, looks like you have shrubs out your caboodle. What makes you think that you need more? Shrub planting is an expensive, time consuming venture.
 
Prairie Drifter said:
Jaytee, I didn't hear any fire in your plans! Is there opportunity for that? Also, from the pictures, looks like you have shrubs out your caboodle. What makes you think that you need more? Shrub planting is an expensive, time consuming venture.
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Troy, while I do have shrubby growth, most of the trees that you can see in the pics are either walnuts or thorny locust, niether of which I'm too fond of. Granted there are several species of shrubs that are tolerant of the juglone toxin in the walnuts but I'd rather just whack 'em along with the locust trees and plant a more varied group. As for the fire, I'll probably try to burn the area surrounding the milo plot late this winter or very early spring, let it regenerate new growth and then hammer it again with RU. That should nip it in the bud pretty good and give the shrubs a good head start. The hillside glade area also will need to be burned but I'll need some help with it, last time I burned that area I almost had a catastrophe as in involving the neighbors property, not good.:cheers::cheers: Oh and I am getting some cost share money from MDC and QUWF. I'll probably start this next week on the hillside glade area by whacking cedars!!
 
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