When to expect regeneration regrowth after logging

[agross]

Hunted this year and although I saw plenty of does I realized during gun season that the property was very open, especially after the storm of opening weekend took most of the leaves off of the trees by Thanksgiving.

My question is this, we had the property logged August of 2014 and although I am seeing green briar pop up I don't know what else to expect or how soon to expect it as far as regeneration growth.  When it was logged I had the logger leave the tops.  I am planning on dropping 20 or so poplar trees, giants that serve no purpose and are shading out the canopy as the logger did not want them.  We had a forester come through and he said that they shade out the canopy and serve no real purpose to wildlife at that age.  With all that being said and a new cutting by me this Spring of the poplars, when should I expect to see a difference.  Also after I drop the poplars I am going to plant some pines throughout this area in the tops of the cut trees for additional cover and to also protect the seedlings. 

Thanks

[travisrage]

Sounds awesome. Id expect two years or so for thick growth but your well on your way to making some great bedding


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[LET EM GROW]

I'm doing the same with my poplars thus winter/spring. They are shading out a lot of young maple and oaks and few pines that have are growing well. They serve zero purpose besides maybe cover or some woody browse maybe once they are down. But I'm doing the same thing you are. Planting a few pics especially, some more white oaks. And possibly a patch of soft mass trees.

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[chads]

Chop and squirt them.  They will die and fall down all on their own a little at a time and do not hurt any of the young trees.  My FIL did this to about 500 Poplar and Big Tooth Aspen in our woods and it worked awesome.  This lets the light in, and the woodpeckers love it.  Makes for a lot of dead falls and blow downs in a year or so and the deer love to hide in them.

[bigpaul]

Also a good time to plant trees of your choice.  NYS and most counties sell a variety of seedlings.

[OldNewbie]

I am considering doing to the same in my woodlot. I have large and small poplars, plus ash, hemlock, and pine that are dying from infestations. Thinking I should either drop or hinge cut a bunch of it this winter, in hope that it will benefit the maples, oaks, and the few white pines I have left.

Seems like many species of trees are dying from one thing or another on our hill (Chemung County NY). I have a large hemlock that is riddled with insect holes, ash borer, pines have some bug that makes holes in horizontal lines, beech are mostly gone, and I've had healthy maple and red oak blow down in wind storms, I think due to drought stress this summer. The only type that seems healthy and disease free is the poplar (of course..). Feels like the whole forest is sick.

[thphtm]

After they logged by me in 2 years there were many wild blackberry plants and other young trees that sprouted up , the deer, bears and other wildlife loved it, once the young trees reached 5' to 6' there were not that many coming around, they seemed to like the 1' to 2' high growth the best.

If you plant young pine trees , put some chicken wire around them the deer like to brouse on them also, the same goes for hemlocks .  

[LET EM GROW]

Also a good time to plant trees of your choice.  NYS and most counties sell a variety of seedlings.

I just planted a half dozen crab apples a few weeks ago. I would have bought and planted more if I had the time to do the work lol. Come March or April I'll put some more in the dirt.

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[LET EM GROW]

Chop and squirt them.  They will die and fall down all on their own a little at a time and do not hurt any of the young trees.  My FIL did this to about 500 Poplar and Big Tooth Aspen in our woods and it worked awesome.  This lets the light in, and the woodpeckers love it.  Makes for a lot of dead falls and blow downs in a year or so and the deer love to hide in them.

I would do this but I want to fall the trees in certain directions the best I can. Also I don't want them falling if I was in the stand near by. Lol. I was also told to cut off poplars low to the ground, less than a foot as they will grow shoots if left too high.

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[Steuben Jerry]

My property was logged in the winter of 2006/2007. There were some pretty barren areas from the tight canopy prior to logging. The following spring I had a "what did I do" feeling when I saw how open everything was. By the second spring/summer cycle I had some good brush and saplings coming up. By the third and fourth spring cycle it was darn thick!

In 2009/2010, I had a bear and her three 1st year cubs den up in there. Then I was glad I did it! 

[outdoorstom]

The  important thing is to make sure you have taken enough trees out to open up the canopy and get plenty of sunlight in. It took 3 years before it really thickened up in my woodlot. I would hinge cut the small poplars and they'll live for a couple years, plus you'll get some shoots....both good for providing cover.

[dbHunterNY]

i would try to hinge cut the poplar trees too but poplar is pretty hard to do that with.  stuff just ends up giving too much and breaks. the downed tree tops will still provide cover.  you need other trees around though to create the growth.  otherwise you'll just get a field of rose bushes.

[Bigfoot 327]

I had a major timber stand improvement project on 30 acres which removed over 1,400 trees completed this Summer. I am pretty sure that the results will not be uniform, mostly a function of how much sunlight will reach the forest floor. I had two areas of Black Locusts which were totally cleared out. These have already started to regenerate, but it's 100% locust. I had no idea how much deer prefer locust. They treat it like candy until it's about 18 inches tall- then they don't touch it. I watched a doe and her fawns munch on the newly sprouted locust from my kitchen window this Summer day after day. I have other  areas were trees were taken out to benefit "crop" trees and while it should help in the short term, eventually the canopy will close in and regeneration will suffer. I also have two areas that are quite open, I plan on planting and fencing red oaks, since I currently have zero regeneration of this species.