The Regeneration Opening (pic intensive)

[OneWithWood]

Last spring I entered into an agreement with the Indiana and US Fish and Wildlife services to create two regeneration openings on my back ridge with a small vernal pond to be placed between the two.  One opening is only a half acre in size and was predominantly big tooth aspen with a few tulip tree and red maples.  I chose this site because I will be milling the big tooth into dimension lumber for an addition to the barn and a separate building to house the bio diesel operation. 
The second site is located about 100 feet southeast is 2.8 acres in size and had a good stand of tulip tree along with a small stand of big tooth aspen and scattered red maples, sugar maples, hickories, red and white oaks.  The openings are designed to produce early succesional growth that should be attractive to birds, especially grouse and migratory warblers.  80 years ago the large opening was part of a hayfield worked by horse drawn equipment.

Access to the sites from my house is by a road I constructed that traverses a couple of steep ridges.  When I frist contemplated this project I thought I would not have any problem getting the work done during the summer of 2010.  Unfortunately I had a couple of issues that prevented that.  The first issue was notification that I would not be allowed to cut any trees greater than 4" dbh and definately not disturb any shag bark hickories or white oak trees between April 1 and October 1 due to maternal hibernacula activity of the endangered Indiana bat.  That shot my summer plans     One of the design elements of the openings required all slash to be removed so essentially only bare ground would be left.  This is to ensure the seed bed left would get adequate sunlight.  No problem, I thought, I will simply burn all the slash and incorparate the ash into the soil.  Unfortunately we had a bit of a drought last summer and the county was under a burn ban during the period I was allowed to fall trees.  This meant that my options became chipping all the material or creating rather large piles of slash on the boundaries of the openings.  I went with piling the salsh because getting a chiper of any size to the site would be problematic.  I did contruct a number of coverts from the slash.

Here in pictorial form is the creation of the large opening.  All of the work was down by me with a Stihl 441, a Stihl 460 and a John Deere 4520 with a CX400 loader.  I only used the crawler to pull down the one aspen I hung in the crotch of a cherry.  I definately got a lot of practice with directional felling. 

The first pic is representative of what the area looked like when I started.  I did not think to begin taking pictures until I had already cleared a lot of the underbrush.  The pic was taken October 17, 2010.
 



November 29, 2010.  The mid story has been removed.
 



It began snowing the first week of December which is about three weeks early for us.  The snow on the side of the ridges prevented me from accessing the site until it finaly melted in early March.  During a normal winter the snow would last only a few days, the mud would dry up and I could get work done.  This spring the snow lasted much longer and the ground took an extra-ordinarily long time to dry up.

December 28, 2011
 



It may be hard to ascertain the steepness of the slope from this pic.  Neither my tractor with chains or the crawler with grouser treads could navigate the road.
 



Wildlife habitat (covert) contructed from some of the slash
 



Site of the pond between the two openings.  You may be able to see the flags marking each end of the proposed dam.
 



Once I was able to access the site I hit it with a vengance.
March 20, 2011
 



Burning slash from the larger trees.
 



Almost done.  All the trees are down, bucked and stacked.  The tulip (yellow end coating) will be used as siding for the out buildings and paneling for my basement.  Further in the back is a small pile of big tooth aspen (white end coat) and some piles of maple and hickory to be cut up for firewood.  I left any oak trees because my long term goal here is oak regeneration.  The two tulip trees still standing have been girdled and will act as perches for raptors.  The other trees are all oaks.
 



The pond is dug, just need to seed the dam.  July 9, 2011.
 



And finally, the regeneration opening in finished form.  This picture was taken from the observation stand (seen in some of the previous pictures) looking south.  I took the pic on June 21, 2011 and I intend to take a similar pic on each of the solstaces, March 21, September 21, December 21 and June 21 for as long as I can climb into the stand.  I will post those pics in this thread and we can all watch the opening return to forest in the varying stages.
 



If you look closely in the last pic you may see on the left a number of trees bent over.  Not long after I completed the opening we had 60-80moh straight-line winds.  These trees had no resistance to wind and were permanently bent over.  This fall I will copice those trees and hopefully shoots will sprout next spring from the roots and be able to outcompete the brush that will be invading the site at that time.  The brush should cause the trees to grow tall and straight.  Time will tell.

[Tom]

That's quite a project for one man and a chainsaw.  Lookin' good.

[thecfarm]

Your luck or timing is just about like mine.Will look forward to more pictures. Lucky you only lost a few trees to the high wind.

[pigman]

Is the site just south of the old hay rake ?

[OneWithWood]

Directly east of the old hay rake.  As you crest the ridge on the path we walked up (now the access road) the rake was on your left (north).  If you continued straight ahead (east) on the access road you would enter the opening at the southwest corner.

The old hay rake, parked where Mr. Harris left it under the maple when he could no longer farm some 80+ years ago, if not longer.
 

[Ron Scott]

Great wildlife project! A lot of work to take on by yourself, but a nice accomplishment during retirement to increase your land values.

I did a similar project a few years back for a client landowner and the F&WLS and Conservation District, but I had a logging contractor clear the pond areas, also aspen, and another contractor with a drag line build the ponds.

The project along with a few others helped my client get the Conservationist of the Year Award for Wexford County that year. I'm sure that yours will get such attention when you are done. Keep us posted.


 

[mad murdock]

I didn't realize that there was timber in Indiana   Seriously, that is a nice job there OneWithWood!  nice looking project.  I bet it will look even better with water in the pond.  Will be a nice place to hang out on a sunny fall day. 
can't wait to see your milling/building projects as they come along. Thanks for sharing with us!

[tyb525]

Indiana is blessed with an abundance of eastern hardwoods

[g_man]

Quite a stroke of work OneWithTheWood. Thanks for posting your picture story. Its very interesting to watch nature and see if it follows your plan or goes off on its own.
Did you get WHIP funding to help with your project? (Wildlife Habitat Improvement Project). If so what kind of future requirements did they put on you in maintaining these sites? Just curious.

[Autocar]

Very interesting project thaks for scharing it with use ! Bill

[treefarmer87]

thats a pretty woodlot

[OneWithWood]

G-man,
Yes, I got some whip funding - basically paid for the fuel to run the chainsaws.  I am not complaining - any funding is good funding - I do these things because I think there is value in the activity and I love working in my woods.  I am very hopeful that over the years there will be an increase in the bird and amphibian populations as well as preserving the oak-hickory component of my woods.  As luck would have it the land is part of the Norman Uplands which is naturally heavy to oak-hickory after the demise of the American Chestnut.  The rest of the surrounding lands tend to maple-beech.  Without dedicated stewardship my lands would be increasingly maple-beech.  It is my intended goal to keep the climax forest at bay.  
As for maintenance going forward, the agreement stipulates letting nature take her course.  The only continuing activity will be to eradicate any invasives that might rear their ugly heads.  As part of the preparations I killed all the multiflora rose, autumn olive and ailanthus that existed.  Keeping these invaders at bay is a constant battle - not to mention a great excuse for constantly cruising the woods 

[Clark]

Awesome project!  I look forward to the future pictures.

Around here any stand with as little as 20 ft² BA of aspen will regenerate to aspen.  How do you expect the aspen suckers to compete with the other hardwoods in your area?

Clark

[WDH]

So that is what you have been so quietly working on  .  Now you will be sawing a whack of lumber and the kiln will be kilning .

[Magicman]

I love to see a plan come together.  You will enjoy that vision for many years to come.   

[WildDog]

You sure did hit it with a vengence Looks good, I am keen to see the area evolve. What species of mamals do you expect to move in?

[woodtroll]

I like it.
Did you have good advanced regeneration of oaks and hickories present before you opened it up?
I would guess you are going to be inundated with tulip poplar. They like wide open and scarified soil.
Keep up the good work, look forward to future pics.

[OneWithWood]

I do not expect to have any new mamals beyond what we already have.  The observation post does double duty as a deer stand to keep the oak vacuums in check.  I am very fond of venison and the does are much easier to dress and noticeably more tender 

There is good advance regen of oak.  I expect there will be a major flush of aspen and tulip.  Aspen and tulip will provide the desired escape routes for birds fleeing the raptors as well as providing some cover for the oak from the deer.  The gnomes will probably keep the aspen and tulip in check around the oak seedlings to get them above the browse line.  The real challenge will be keeping the deer from munching all the seedlings.  The natural progression would be an ealy successional stand of aspen, tulip, ash, red maple, beech and cherry followed by the oaks and hickories if the sunlight can get through.  I worry more about the red maple and beech than I do the aspen and tulip.  The gnomes have been known to treat the red maples and beech on the oak aspects to a dose of tryclopir on occasion.  Who knows, there may be a controlled burn or two in the future. 

[SwampDonkey]

Awesome project!  I look forward to the future pictures.

Around here any stand with as little as 20 ft² BA of aspen will regenerate to aspen.  How do you expect the aspen suckers to compete with the other hardwoods in your area?

Clark

Depends on the height potential of the hardwood on that ridge. Around here the aspen will grow leaps and bounds above the hardwood, live it's life (80-100 years) and fall down. Large tooth (big tooth) is our fasted growing native aspen up here.

I would thin the regrowth in 10-12 years with a brush saw. Then watch out. Won't interfere with the birds and critters, best to cut in the fall...no bugs...birds done nesting.

OWW, looks like a great little project to keep you busy working off your retirement.

About the wildlife, it's a good thing that you have no hare, they will chew oak up real good. mmm yum. I planted some a few years back under aspen and they eat them back every winter.

Was the pond idea, for ephemeral pools in the spring? My woods are full of them, but this year some are more permanent with all the rain. The rain however has slowed up, it's wet a lot in the bush, but just from showers mostly. Hasn't really rained at my place for 2 weeks except showers. There has been freak rain down pours from thunderstorms around, but not here. Yeah, I have lots of amphibians, if anyone needs any. Lots of hares to, and moose, couple bears....and yes you will attract birds in those holes. Song birds and grouse take to those cut overs like flies to honey. Grouse however need to be near water it seems. So, if that pond holds some water you'll get a grouse or two around. I've seen a lot of flocks this year on the thinning blocks, seen two flocks yesterday.

I was going to mention also, that goshawk like to hunt down woods roads and trails. I've drove or walked down a  good many narrow roads with a goshawk on the hunt. One winter I came upon one that took a grouse along the road just before I got there and I saw where he got another one off a trail on a later walk. Still, I see grouse on the woodlot most every walk. Mostly single birds.

Have a good one.

[Mooseherder]

I bet Mr Harris is smiling from up above with approvals of the right person got his farm.