Since my last posting I have been asked to explain in more detail what TSI is and what specifically I did in regards to that on my own property. To those questions, I wrote up a response in the forum but I’ll reiterate it below along with some additional details/photos.
I have spent as much time as possible reading and watching what different deer biologist, habitat specialists and other hunters had to say about improving their hunting grounds for wildlife. As my research progressed, I had a paradigm shift at how I look at habitat. I used to be like many that thought if the timber looked thick from wherever I was standing, it must be great habitat for deer. I could not be more wrong!
In reality, what looks good to you standing up may or may not be ideal for your herd. To see things as the deer do, you really need to crouch down to the deer’s world which is in that 0-4ft range. Also, what is there in this range might be an invasive and/or something of little nutritional benefit to the deer. Because of that, I’ve come to really look at Timber Stand Improvement (TSI) as more than just logging because it really isn’t. With that said, I see TSI as improving existing stands of timber (which is probably mature forest) to supply deer and turkey with adequate protective cover and browse while increasing the native forage production in the 0-4 ft rage they spend their lives in.
For my property I have set four main objective that I want to attain through TSI: 1) To remove mature non-productive trees from the canopy (nothing was physically removed) that will open up the forest floor allowing sunlight to hit the ground. This will allow native browse to flourish in the 0-4ft range 2) Hinge cut trees or down trees to create and improve bedding areas 3) Remove invasive species 4) Allow mast trees such as my white oaks to expand their canopy so they can increase mast production.
Being a DIY hunter doesn’t mean I feel the need to tackle this all on my own. While my home is on the property, I still have too much invested and little time to waste to make any major mistakes. If you cut the wrong trees or even the right trees at the wrong time, you could be costing yourself anywhere from 10-20 years in time to recover the damages.
The last thing you want to do is to attempt to improve your property and end up cutting it wrong wherein you destroy the bedding area, promote disease (i.e. oak wilt) or give invasive species and opportunity to take over. Because of that, I felt more comfortable having an expert survey my place and do the work. Usually you can find a forester to do this sort of work for you. In my case I ended up hiring an environmental engineer at the rate of $45 per hour plus the cost of chemically treating unwanted trees. The bill I ran up this spring was right around $500.
I did not have much for invasive species that to be treated so the chemical cost was pretty low for me. Most of what was used for chemical treatment is where the large maples that were too tall to fall over without snagging up on other trees were treated. When that happens, you can girdle cut the tree and treat the area around the roots. Over a the next several days to a few weeks, the tree will die off allowing sunlight to hit the forest floor. Eventually it will fall over creating some additional back cover.
For those of you that are not familiar with hinge cutting, it is the practice of cutting most of the way through a tree (cut at a deer’s head height) and then pushing it over. Since the tree was not cut all the way through it will continue to live on and grow new shoot for one to several years. Depending how you design your cutting this can create a great canopy or back cover for bedding, great browse while allowing the vegetation to grow up where none existed before to make the spot even thicker. If you do tackle this on your own, you’ll want a nice handsaw and chain saw with protective gear for the larger trees. A good rope is also handy for bending the taller trees over and positioning them in desirable locations.
The design and benefits from hinge cuttings is more than enough for a standalone article. Sine I am not an expert on it, I will defer you to a habitat specialist or check out the QDMA website. I know from my own research, the QDMA form is loaded with threads about this topic.
Both of the cutting situations I’ve highlighted are going to allow the white oak on my property to expand their canopy so I should start seeing more hard mast in the years to come. I’ve also had a lot of blackberries and elderberries fill in where the sun hits the ground. Both are excellent sources cover in the 0-4ft range produce a lot of soft mast. Deer also really like to browse on the elderberry stems during the winter.
My place now has the three basic requirement of food, water and cover met. The question now is for how many deer and for how much of this year are all three requirements available.
A nice example of a hinge cut on my property (Shot taken in late April). Notice all the new growth around it, how it provides back cover as well as canopy protection.
Remember the shots where you could see all the way through my woods. Not anymore!
I expect this to be a nice bedding area for years to come (L and north of J in the 3/29 article). If you notice, I still have a fair amount of mature trees. Some are left to be cut in future years but really you do not need to cut as much as you think to receive some benefit.
The world from where a deer beds.
Great article Shawn! You can come do TSI at my farm anytime!
Thanks!