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.