Just getting started

[KeithJones]

I think I have an aerial shot in my album if everything worked right.  I can't figure out how to load a shot here.  Take a look and see what you guys think.  I haven't gotten out and taken and ground level pictures, yet.

[thecfarm]

Here it is.

 



The hard part is done. I like to go to my gallery first,than I start a reply. I click onto what ever album I want,will be a bunch of thumbnails,click onto the picture you want to post,it will get bigger. A few inches down,in green it will say,do you want to post this picture to your post,click onto it,it will ask you are you sure,click yes and you have done it. I like to hit the enter key to drop it down from the text and if I add text after the picture hit the enter key a few times again. If posting more than one picture with no text in between hit the enter key a few times for some white space. Just makes it easier to follow and view your pictures. All the above can be checked with the preview button. Don't like it,edit it some more. Where is your land?

[thecfarm]

Here's my land. Don't ask me how I did the paint. I forgot how.

 



Long Link

This is a link to explain my land.
Forgot to mention too if you go to anybody albums and do the above that I told you to,down below where it says to post the picture, is another line in green that says to search the forum for this picture click here. That's how I found the post that went with my picture.

[KeithJones]

I appreciate you posting my pic and explaining the process.

My land is in Southwest Missouri, right down in the very corner, about 6 miles N of Pineville.  I've got a lot of oaks, mostly black, white, and red, and hickories.  There's a few walnuts mixed in, plus a variety of other trees, such as black gum, cedar, dogwood, and redbud.  Ultimately, I want it to be a healthier piece of land, with good timber production (that my grandkids will probably benefit from) and healthy population of wildlife.  I'm not all about the money, plus I want to get some benefit from the land myself, even if it's just to have a good place to hunt with my kids.  I think I have a good grasp on what I want to do, but I'm always willing to listen to advice and what has worked for other people.  I'm a little afraid that I'm going to do too much and it will be 200 years before the land is right again.

[KeithJones]

I just uploaded some pics I took on a frosty Christmas morning walk.  It's not all of the land, but it's the sections that I'm probably going to start with first.  One section, the pics that are taken on the slope, I want to manage more for timber since it's going to be the most likely section for good timber sooner.  The other pics are from the edge of the yard looking into the brush.  I want to do some tree thinning in some areas, but I would like to try managing this area for rabbits and other wildlife.  Any thoughts?

[beenthere]

Load the pic you want us to see.

Once the pic is in your gallery, just click on it and scroll down below that pic to see how to paste it in your post. And you can do this by going to "modify" on your last post. It is not difficult.

[shelbycharger400]

is that funky arrow pointin to somethin hidden?
that sure is a odd boundary.
80 acres, you would definately take you a while to clean out the dead trees.  sounds and looks like you should have a nice hunting place next to that creek or river

[KeithJones]

 

  

  

  

 

Let's try this and see if it works...

Two of these, the really brushy ones are areas right beside the house, just off the yard.  I'm thinking I'd like to do some wildlife habitat for rabbits, possibly even quail, though that's a long shot around here.

The one that's on a slope isn't ready to be logged, but probably will be in a few years.  Probably just going to do a low intensity burn to kill some of the undergrowth and remove some fuel off the ground, then some thinning and culling. 

The other one won't be ready to be harvested for quite a while, but I want to do some thinning.  There's quite a few walnut trees growing there so I'm thinking maybe some brush piles and burning to promote some plants growing down low.

I'm not sure if any of these pics show anything that can help.  Basically, I just took some shots of some of the areas I want to work on first.  I know I can get carried away with my "projects" so I want to get plenty of opinions and input before I start doing anything.

[shelbycharger400]

reminds me of the lake house whereas it is 5 acres none the less,   15 years ago, we cut out a lot of underbrush,  and the trees that are on the edge of the clearing areas have grown quite a bit  more vrs the ones still in the woods left untouched. 

[WDH]

My experience is that fire is detrimental to hardwoods.  Scarring by the fire on the butts create an entry point for butt rot fungus.  Burning the areas that you want quail and rabbits is perfect as that will maintain early successional plants that rabbits and quail occur, especially the seed bearing weeds.  In the established hardwood stands, you might consider hack-n-squirt with a herbicide to remove undesirable species leaving the more desirable species.  Fire in these stands could be more harmful than helpful unless you want to get rid of the hardwood.

[KeithJones]

I have a few questions, the more I study up on TSI.  First, what tree density would be ideal for timber production?  I read on MDC's website that prior to European settlement, the density was usually around 10-60 trees per acre.  The article I was reading was for quail habitat, so the author was trying to keep the density somewhere between 50 and 120 trees.  I want to increase the quality of wildlife habitat on my land, as well as improving for timber production.  Second, I'm wanting to increase the amount of grass and other plants under the trees.  Is it appropriate to plant a seed mixture under the trees?  I had considered doing a very light prescribed burn, but there really doesn't seem to be much leaf matter on the ground in the first place, and since I have no friends who are interested in what I'm doing, getting help with a burn won't happen, so I'm probably better off using the hack and squirt method mentioned in another post.  I know fire can be detrimental, but it is used a lot by the MDC and the USFS to restore woodlands back to their original composition and increase the number of species on the forest floor.