Timbering off a few acres

[Nelly W]

Heyall. Well the oaks are dying; seems like half of everything else too. Nobody's said as much but I was guessing emerald borer beetle. Being a woman I can't seem to let things go in a waft of shades of gray; gotta be black or white for sanity's sake.

So much tupelo that apparently are no good to anyone beside apiarists in Georgia.

Forester has offered up for bid 100s of oaks & maple. And maybe even what could be my last aspen and cherry birch, AFAIK. (They can have 'em if they're goners anyway.)

I was thinking about trying to replace things I've not seen on that property for way too many years. Should I give up & let nature have its way, or would it do any good to try something...old?

Like butternut, sassafras, or maybe try to plant more aspen or cherry birch somewhere on the other side of the property. Serviceberry, I believe, used to inhabit some of the land. White dogwood used to dot all the hillsides too, IIRC. Some pines...was too young then to know them well but, maybe with the proper spore offerings? Something they might like to cohabitate with, mychorhizally speaking. Or how about a truffle grove?

But I don't wanna stop at trees...there were sweetferns too. Anyone who's old enough to remember that green-colored "herbal essence" shampoo knows the fragrance of those. Heady! I won't bore you further with the list of plant oddities & rarities but, I'd welcome some suggestions as to what I might could do kind of prod things along after the trees are removed. (I'm saving all the trees that surround the immediate lodge, so tough toenails there.)

My primary focus (beside my own selfish purposes) are to help maintain the wildlife there. I'd love to hear the Whippoorwills again. The lowbush blueberries will survive, as well the mountain laurel.

Sorry so verbose.

[hubops]

Here in Canada , we would go to the local Natural Resources Office - that is their speciality ! The Field Naturalists are also a good resource .. If you find any useful info, here in the wide-world-web -

- that applies to your little corner of Georgia USA - you have done well ... Good luck. John T.

[songbird]

...

haha! no problem with me. :) i'd rather read a long description that gives enough details than not enough.

if you are looking to encourage wild life look into some fruit and nut trees. oaks for sure.

on the bigger scheme of things i would always go for diversity and encouraging it further.

if you want to do a food forest that can be a lot of fun. at first you start with the nitrogen fixers and can plant veggies in between until the trees get bigger and cast too much shade. once you have some shade then you can go for a mixed planting of other trees like removing or cutting back every other nitrogen fixer tree and replacing with selected fruit and nut trees.

bush cherries if you can find any that will work in your area.

bush blueberries are always good food for human and others. depends upon how high up you are if it is cool enough long enough to make it worth it.

cider apples, or just random scattered apple seeds which some may be interesting or not, but animals will like the fruits in the late summer and fall, besides you might like some hard cider.

for the super long term keeping some area covered enough to grow some dense hearted long lived trees for superb musical and furniture woods. things you would not see in your lifetime, but eventually someone would benefit.

do not burn any of the trimmings or stumps, they make good habitat and fodder for the animals and bugs and of course fungi.

wish i had enough area to do likewise... :)

songbird

[Nelly W]

My uncle once tried to start a pine grove up there (in the very rocky soils of Appalachian PA, btw) but it failed. I was thinking if he'd planted them with some Suillus spores they might've fared better. The one butternut tree that used to be up there languished for a couple decades before it croaked, boy would I love to see those again. Beechnut might be nice, too. Most likely the trimmings will be left, except for the ones impeding pathways. Eventually someone's gonna need kindling & they'll gradually get picked up. Hope they don't house any chiggers, is all. The property was tindered off before it came into family possession in the 60s, at the time the chiggers were pretty bad but haven't encountered any for many years. I'm hoping for some chicken mushrooms and hen-of-the-woods to take over the oak stumps (-:

[Terry Coombs]

  When I harvest a tree for firewood I almost always pile up the leafy trimmings for habitat for the small critters . Might be part of the reason we have such a diversity of wild birds . But then we have 12 acres of heavily wooded land . Not everyone is that lucky ...