What's in your Forest?

[chain]

We've been identifying our forest species of trees, vines, forbs, and grasses. We have found at least six invasive species that have become rather established and difficult to control. Most of these are found in old fields or abandoned farmstead areas. Here's our list ..so far...

Tartarian honeysuckle
Japanese honeysuckle
Crown vetch
Musk thistle
Muutiflora rose
Autumn olive
Sericea lespedeza

..and some good guys and gals...

White oaks
Red Oaks
Hickories
Service berry
Persimmon
SH pine
Eastern red cedar
Black gum [dens]

many, many others including a large Scarlet oak bee tree..
Two Bald-faced hornet nests, last year's.

A vast array of understory shrubs, trees, other grasses, forbs, vines, ferns, to identify!

[SwampDonkey]

You want to find them bald faced hornets, just run a brushing crew. I remember one hardwood site we cut on that was full of those Hymenopterans. Every nest was as big as a soccer ball. Hym en opteran, I work all day and sleep all night.  A friend of mine used to come up with little rhymes to remember those insect order names.

http://www.forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,17457.0.html

[chain]

My hat's off to those who have to work in the hot summer woods with all those critters that sting, bite and itch. I'm outta there about the  third week of April when the ticks and rattlers come out!

[SwampDonkey]

Last November.

[jeffreythree]

I to have the invasive multiflora roses and japanes honeysuckle. It has taken over the forest edge around my pond.  I like my unusual trees such as some large cedar elms, nutmeg hickory, and Texas honey locust.  Also have post oak, willow oak, green ash, ERC, persimmon, bois d'arc, and a few loblolly pines that have seeded in from the plantation next door.  Planted 250 bald cypress in one area and some mayhaws in a smaller area that flood for about 3-6 months out of the year next to our pond last year. 

I have never seen a hornet or wasp nest out there, but the chiggers will eat you alive in spring.  I have lots of suppressed,poorly formed, and damaged trees that need to come out, but thats the fun part for me.

Wow, some of my nutmeg hickory sure is slow growing, 50 rings and 5" dbh and with the smooth bark it looks like a vigorous young tree. It sure makes great smoking wood:


My favorite honey locust on the place, probably as old or older than the nutmeg hickory above and almost overtopped by 30+" post oaks and 24+" cedar elms:


Cut open a 35 year old 8" cedar elm to see how it looked inside, I like it a lot:

[Weekend_Sawyer]

 I have:

Ailanthus
stilt grass
barberry
multifloral rose
paulownia
there is another plant that will not come to me just now.

We are working the ailanthus and stilt grass but they keep coming back.

[mdvaden]

Driving up from Crescent City, CA, toward Grants Pass, OR, not far from Gaquet, CA, I saw some purple chains of flowers on vines across tree tops of conifers like Douglas fir and incense cedar.

I suspect that it was Wisteria. That was last year. Called the parks office so they could go and take a look.

 

[Weekend_Sawyer]

 Garlic mustard, that's the other one I was thinking of, it carpets the valley floor along the old loging roads.

[Dodgy Loner]

I have multiflora rose, English ivy, Japanese honeysuckle, Japanese cherry (which I don't mind too much), mimosa, and the worst of them all, Chinese privet . Even after multiple herbicide applications, it keeps sprouting back. All but the rose  and privet are under control now.

[SwampDonkey]

You guys seemed to be plagued with stuff, if that's the term, with invasives. I can't think of a single invasive that would be remotely bothersome in the woods. I think it's due to our environment. Most of the nasties won't survive our forests. Box elder, black locust, bristly locust, Norway Maple, and a species of foreign elm or two will not survive in the wild here. They get killed out. We have rose bushes, but that's in pastures not in the woods, won't live in closed canopy around here.

[Gary_C]

Here is the solution to all your invasives problem.

Try “Goat Round-UP” For Exotic Weed
Control Terry Hutchens, Extension Associate for
Goat Production
There are an estimated 25,000 exotic
plant species that have been introduced into
the U.S. Approximately 5,000 of these have
become established in natural and managed
ecosystems.

There appears to be a need for
managed weed control systems in Kentucky
that are more environmentally friendly than
herbicides and more cost effective than labor
and equipment. Browsing and grazing goats
for weed and brush management may serve
as an affective yet environmentally friendly
alternative for controlling weed pests.
Secondly, such an enterprise may well be an
excellent opportunity for agribusiness
development in both urban and rural settings.
The western U.S. has been quite active in
using goats for grazing exotic weed pests,
fire brakes and land reclamation. In general,
landowners pay the grazing company
$1/grazing goat/day with a stocking
rate of 100 goats/acre. It is accepted that 100
goats will clear 1 acre/day.

Franklin Co. Kentucky
Extension Agent, Keenan Bishop, together
with Hank Schweickart, KSU livestock
manager and myself conducted a one-day
trial for a field day in mid-July. A total of 45
adult goats were place on 0.20 acres for a 24
hr period. The goats grazed through a dense
stand of buck- bushes, greenbrier and
multifloria rose in 12 hrs of browsing.
Hypothetically, 45 goats could graze 1 acre in
less than 5 days.

[thecfarm]

Sawmpdonkey,yes,that cold weather we have here is good for something after all.Not only for invasive plants,but animals and people too.My woods are the same way.About the worst thing I have are poplar trees.Cut one and 100 will come back.But some salt in the stump will stop that from being a pest.I only have a few on my land.

[Samuel]

Some of us like poplar trees...   Especially with HW pulp selling for ~ $980 a tonne right now.

[Tom]

PIGS!?!?

[Samuel]

PIGS!?!?

PIGS?  How so?

[SwampDonkey]

Ferrel hogs down there in the south Samuel, not the poplar trees. They've been tearing his wife's lawn up and grubbing out his pines. 

As I was swinging the brush saw today, I darn near took the head off a timber chicken. She was crouched in under a fir tree, didn't move until the saw buzzed over her head. I took a step back for a second to see what I had uncovered and cursed the darn thing.

There was no nest, the grouse chicks are all hatched out by this time and off the nest.

[woodtroll]

pulp $980 a ton? WOW!
what about softwoods?
we can barely pay trucking.

[Samuel]

SW is actually higher...its running just over $1000

[ncsuclell]

Hogs are a problem in FL too b/c they will eat my LL Pine seedlings.  We trap and kill most of the ones here. 

Some invasives we have to control are:
Cogon Grass
Chinese Tallow
Japanese and Old World Climbing fern
Lantana
Mimosa
Rose natal grass

In cut overs that we have planted in LL pine we kill off the sand pine with fire.  All the other stuff we round-up and chopper.

[SwampDonkey]

I drove bye a closed in pig pen about 1/4 acre in size and they had that ground all rooted up like it was plowed. 

[Jamie_C]

pulp $980 a ton? WOW!
what about softwoods?
we can barely pay trucking.

You do know that Samuel is talking about the price for pulp as a finished product and not "pulpwood" delivered to the mill.

[Jeff]

I should try to do an official list making expedition next time I'm up to my property, but off the cuff I know I have these Tree species and more I'm sure:


Black Spruce
Balsam Fir
Yellow Birch
Paper Birch
White Pine
Northern White Cedar
Black Willow
Tag Alder
White Spruce
Norway Maple
Red Maple
Black Ash
Striped Maple
Mountain Maple
Aspen
Tamarack

[jim king]

This a list of 12" DBA and larger trees on one parcel we have.  About 800,000,000 BF


    FORESTRY INVENTORY ANALYSIS MANAOS DEL TIPISHCA
NOTE:  CONTAINS ERRORRS IN DUPLICATION OF SPECIES SUBJECT TO FINAL REVISION   7000 hect   
26 SAMPLES   Nšs 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 13, 20, 21, 28, 29, 35, 36, 43, 50, 51, 52, 53, 58, 59, 60, 61, 67, 69, 77, 84
   EACH INVENTORY PLOT SIZE  25mt x 100mt         

    FORESTRY INVENTORY ANALYSIS MANAOS DEL TIPISHCA
NOTE:  CONTAINS ERRORRS IN DUPLICATION OF SPECIES SUBJECT TO FINAL

      
26 SAMPLES   Nšs 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 13, 20, 21, 28, 29, 35, 36, 43, 50, 51, 52, 53, 58, 59, 60, 61, 67, 69, 77, 84
   EACH INVENTORY PLOT SIZE  25mt x 100mt

NAME OF
SPECIES
 
MACHIMANGO
QUNILLA
AŅUJE MOENA
PASHACO
COPAL
CASHIMBO CASPI
CAUCHO MASHA
APACHARAMA
MURURE
TANGARANA
PUCUNA CASPI
CUMALA
TORNILLO
YACUCHAPANA
MOENA
QUILLOSISA
AGUANILLO
CAIMITILLO
CANELA MOENA
MOENA AMARILLA
AZUCAR HUAYO
QUILLO BORDON
MOENA NEGRA
CAPINURI
CARAHUASCA
REQUIA
QUINILLA BLANCA
SHIRINGA
CEPANCHINA
SACHA UBILLA
QUINILLA ROJO
MANCHARI CASPI
RIFARI
CHULLACHAQUI
SACHA CHUCHUHUAZA
MOENA BLANCA
LECHE CASPI
MARI MARI
HUAYRURO
SHIMBILLO
PUCAQUIRO
HUAYRA CASPI
PEINE DE MONO
REMO CASPI
QUINILLA ROJA
YAHUARACHI CASPI
MARUPA
CUNCHI MOENA
SHIMBILLO BLANCO
SACHA CUMACEBA
MASARANDUBA
SHIMBILLO COLORADO
CETICO
CHARAPILLA
MENTOL CASPI
SACHA CHUCHUHUASI
SAPOTILLO
CHIMBILLO ROJO
SACHA CASHO
SACHA CHARICHUELO
CHUCHUHUASI
PAMPA REMOCASPI
QUINILLA NEGRA
ASUFRE CASPI
SIETE HERMANOS
ACEITE CASPI
ITAUBA
PALOMETA HUAYO
HUIMBA
TORTUGA
SACHA CAIMITILLO
CASCARILLA
QUINILLA NEGRO
PALISANGRE
YASHINGO CASPI
SHIRINGA MASHA
MACAMBILLO
GASOLINA CASPI
ANIS MOENA
SACHAHUACAPU
FILTRO CASPI
SACHA MARUPA
ALMENDRA
MACHIN SAPOTE
ZORRO CASPI
LANZA CASPI
HUAMANZAMANA
MOJARRA CASPI
CESAR GRANDEZ
CUMACEBA
SHIMBILLO BLANCO
HUACAPURANA
PARAGUILLA CASPI
CHARICHUELO
SHIRINGA NEGRO
QUINILLA NEGRA
SACHA TAMARA
BOA CASPI
YESCA CASPI
CHULLACHAQUI CASPI
SACHA CACAO
         

[SwampDonkey]

I am never surprised to see a red oak or an apple tree in wet woods. I blame the bear for that. 

[Tom]

Gasolina Caspi !?!?

Sounds like you have a version of Fat lighter. 

[John Mc]

Red Cedar
White Cedar
White Pine
Tamarack
Hemlock
Hard Maple
Red Maple
Striped Maple
White Oak
Red Oak
Burr Oak
Shagbark Hickory
Bitternut Hickory
Some other kind of Hickory whose name I can't remember
Hophornbeam (aka "Hardhack")
Aspen
Butternut (not much of that left)
Elm
White Ash
Yellow Birch
Black Birch
White Birch
Beech
Black Cherry
Basswood

And Buckthorn... lots of buckthorn

Now ask me again in 20 years after Beech bark disease, Asian Longhorned Beetle, Emerald Ash Borer, Hemlock Woolly Adelgid, and a host of others I've forgotten about, have made their mark on this part of Vermont.

[t444e]

White Oak
Post Oak
Scarlet Oak
Red Oak
Black Oak
Black Jack Oak
Sweetgum
Hickory
Maple
Sycamore? I could be wrong.
Short Leaf Pine (SYP)
Redbud

Snakes And Ticks.

I'm sure to discover more.  Land is in the Missouri Ozarks