Any luck with TSI ?

[dhuntley2]

I'm trying to get more cover on our hunting land. Has anyone had any luck creating cover and browse with TSI? This is my first experience with trying to create cover. In my area way up north there are hardly any oak trees. Right now I am releasing cherry trees so there will be some value growing still for future logging. Any opinions ? If you have done TSI work what do you do to maintain the regrowth say after 8-10 years when it is above browse height. Do you go through and thin again?

[G-Man]

Yes, tsi is a way to go but you have to have specific goal in mind, and it needs to be done at certain times to allow regrowth/suckering. Aspen/poplar should be cut in winter an almost clear cut to allow light to hit ground. It will sucker and sprout from stump and roots, great browse for deer and grouse. Cut every tree over . Four Inches in diameter to allow suffient regrowth in a few acre cut, leave the tops !!!

[dbHunterNY]

yes... it works to accomplish different things.  you can release younger oaks to produce better woods to log years down the road.  you can improve the quality and quantity of browse for deer.  also you can create cover.  when you do TSI you're not necessarily cutting whole sections of woods.  a forester will pick the best trees to cut here or there.  a decade or more down the road you'll work the same woods possibly.  trees that were big before might be logged off and the ones that you released will take their place.  these trees aren't as mature though and will produce more hard mast for the deer.

[Zag]

Deff a great option, we did it and it has a ton of value. We did most of it during the winter which provided a ton of tree tops for them to eat, plus I found 4 sheds the first yr around the tree tops. Has anyone done any prescribed burns?

[dbHunterNY]

nope.  burning is a whole other animal there.  some zoning laws don't allow it too.

[dbHunterNY]

I wouldn't do it in woods and then plots just get sprayed and tilled under.

[NYSuperSportsman]

I have had TSI done by loggers where they cut a lot of aspen, beech and maple that were crowding other good timber. I have also done about 5 acres of hinge cutting. I basically went through and cut anything that wasn't an oak or cherry in the whole area. I cut partially through it and pushed it over. I did this mostly 2 years ago and this year I noticed a huge difference in the amount of deer bedding on my property. And the key to it all with the professional logging was to LEAVE THE TOPS!! I have had tons of guys come to me asking to cut firewood and I said NO because the whole point of the cutting was to not just make room for the better timber but to give the deer security cover!! 

[dhuntley2]

Hey thanks guys, that's what we are doing. We are clearing some spots, taking out the big lumber and then anything that is left we are hinging it. I didn't want to do all this work and have it not amount to anything. But I guess anything will help. This chunk of land is mostly firewood anyways so its not that valuable and if it doesn't amount to good cover o well.

[ididnotvoteforobama]

My property was selective  logged about 12 years ago . Half the property one year then the other half the next year .I have 175 acres so there is room for food plots and the logging took care of the tsi. Heres mypoint, 2 years after the logging , the number of deer was easily 10 times what it is now. Predation seeems to be about the same , but the number of quality bucks has dropped off dramtically over the last 5 years. The heavily timbered area where so thick , you could not walk through , only in winter. This past year , was the worst hunting ever , the thick areas are dying off due to overstory growth which eliminates the browse cover. Its time for some TSI to create these areas again, I've been building my log home ,so I didn't put in the time into keeping up with the tsi . I will this year , so I can improve my hunting . Bottom line, TSI is the cheapest  form of improvement to improve your hunting.

[dhuntley2]

So I need to put in place some kind of rotation every six years or so ?

[WNYBuckHunter]

If you really want to create cover, like a sanctuary type area, and you arent looking to have it logged out, squash it. Have someone come in with large enough equipment and have them literally run the trees over, knocking them down, but not completely breaking them off. It will make a complete mess, but thats really the whole point. Plus, you will get suckers growing off of the trees, as they do not all die. The smaller branches will become available as browse, it lets light in for smaller brush, etc to grow, and you will have almost impenetrable cover for the deer to hang out in.

[dbHunterNY]

Hey thanks guys, that's what we are doing. We are clearing some spots, taking out the big lumber and then anything that is left we are hinging it. I didn't want to do all this work and have it not amount to anything. But I guess anything will help. This chunk of land is mostly firewood anyways so its not that valuable and if it doesn't amount to good cover o well.

 

keep in mind a logger won't want to stop and slow work to have you point out individual trees to fell where.  however, you can come up with a general direction you want groups of trees to be hing cut.  when you hing cut a tree it creates a barrier that the deer will walk around.  you can use hinge cuts to funnel deer naturally.  in more open timber you can create check points the deer may go to for browse.  then where it's real thick the deer will take paths easier to travel so using them as barriers work.  come up with a general idea.  fill the logger in that's doing to hinge cutting and then let them be to do their thing, unless they come to you or it's not at all what you want.

 

[dbHunterNY]

....when I say funneling deer I mean shifting there path of travel from where they already go to.  that it unless you're creating whole new sources of significant cover.

[dbHunterNY]

get references or ask people that the loggers did work for too.  some loggers go in and do the work but leave a mess of your land and woods.  good loggers don't.

[dhuntley2]

I'm going to do the work myself, I am the logger. Just wanted to see if it would be worth my time, which it sounds like it will be.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

You may want to look into what WNY suggested. I toured a property done this way and the use by the deer was unbelievable. The tonnage per acre of food and protein content exceeded their plots.

[ididnotvoteforobama]

Check out this link. It will give you a tremendous amount of information.       http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/forestmanagement/documents/24315/23.pdf

[dhuntley2]

CulverCreek what property did you tour ? North country whitetails ? The dozer option is no good because these are 20 inch diameter trees a dozer won't push that over too hard and way too dangerous. Also the loss of money from the timber doing it that way would just not make sense. We got a good start so far and it is a mess, a promising mess. Had 6 doe in their on my last trip with the skidder eating the tops already.

Edited December 12, 2013 by dhuntley2

[Culvercreek hunt club]

It was theirs. There suggestion was to have a logger pull out every marketable tree out. And as part if the contract have them push anything remaining over in your marked out areas. If you have 20" trees it would mean money in your pocket and the work is done. Select the areas with the wind in mind and just like food plots, keep the edges irregularly shaped

[dhuntley2]

Does their tour cost much? I also want to plant conifers in a lot of places, our biggest problem besides lack of cover and browse is we have too many open fields near roads. Anyone know a good place to get spruce seedlings and what spacing to plant as a screen, I'm thinking a double row all along the roads.

[WNYBuckHunter]

They dont do the tours normally any longer. They opened it up to our QDMA branch this past summer.

[G-Man]

most loggers do tsi for timber,leaving more valueable timber trees, cutting aspen in summer will kill it, it is a no value timber tree but very high value wildlife tree, cutting or hinge cutting in winter will encourage cloning and sprouting, you really need to develop an overall management plan, timber value is great but i like my hunting more than a big paycheck every 10-20 years... done correctly i get the best of both worlds

[Culvercreek hunt club]

done correctly i get the best of both worlds

A+++ Have a master plan prior to starting anything.

[growalot]

I'll be out in late Jan /Feb dropping poplars...hinging unwanted maples and iron wood even thinning over crowded oak...and damaged and dead trees...this is the time deer really  need a boost in their  food supply...also encourages them to start spending more time on our place...if snow is deep they like the trails and then the tops to eat and bed next to...then in the spring the energy in the root system will go right to starting new limbs or suckers of the roots...if it's beech you cut...go in and spray to kill new growth or it will be every place

[Zag]

I'll be out in late Jan /Feb dropping poplars...hinging unwanted maples and iron wood even thinning over crowded oak...and damaged and dead trees...this is the time deer really  need a boost in their  food supply...also encourages them to start spending more time on our place...if snow is deep they like the trails and then the tops to eat and bed next to...then in the spring the energy in the root system will go right to starting new limbs or suckers of the roots...if it's beech you cut...go in and spray to kill new growth or it will be every place

 

U said it grow about beech. Our property was logged back in the late 80's and now 5 to 10 acres is overgrown in beech. Its going to be a big task fixing it. The last week of muzz I walked around that beech stand and that was the only place on the property with no deer tracks. There are hundreds/maybe even thousands of small diameter beech saplings. Its gonna take a lot of time to fix but I may have an awesome solutions that's in the works right now!! Its a long shot but some barriers might be broken!!