Trees for sub-par ground in SoIL

[PartTimeJack]

I have a ~2 acre patch on a piece of ground that isn't suited for crops, and is grown up in russian olives, and ceders.
It is well drained, but the soil is a little on the acidic side, not great fertility, and mostly clay, but not highly erodible.
I can clear it easy enough, and lime it to help with ph, but would like something to plant on it that has some saw value, but grows some what fast.
Would a white pine, or other pine, work for this? Not too worried about market for pine if I grew it, could use most of it myself i'm sure.

What are your thoughts or advise?

Thanks!

[Southside]

In my experience White Pine prefers a sandy soil.  Will Loblolly Pine grow in your neck of the woods or are you too far north?  That does well in clay. 

[PartTimeJack]

In my experience White Pine prefers a sandy soil.  Will Loblolly Pine grow in your neck of the woods or are you too far north?  That does well in clay.

Never seen any loblolly grown around here, but I was wondering about them also. How does the wood compare to other pines?

[Southside]

It's denser than white pine, makes better structural lumber but I prefer white for interior siding, accent walls, etc, I think white just looks better.  Around here both will grow and white grows much faster than yellow.  I have had a couple 30 - 35 year old white pines that were 32"-36" DBH

[Texas Ranger]

If your looking at pine, shortleaf's range is closer to SI.

[TKehl]

I first I thought you were asking about growing trees in soil based on your topic title, and I was like, "that's a good start". 

I know the ground isn't ideal, but I would put in Black Walnut and Black Locust with a plan to cut most of the Locust at fencepost size and let the Walnut mature.  They'll grow, just slower.

BTW, the Russian olives are nitrogen fixers and don't get all that big.  Since they're already there, it may make more sense to leave them for now.  Great fodder for a couple of goats.  Just chop and drop and they'll eventually take care of regrowth.

As cheap as pine lumber is, it can be hard to justify cutting it over buying it, much less growing it.  If you go pine, I'd look for one that grows locally as close as possible.  I don't know IL, but pines sure don't thrive in western MO, though Cedar sure does.

[Ianab]

If cedar wants to grow there, how does it respond to a bit of management? Like thinning and pruning for better log quality? Open grown cedar gets a bad reputation because it's got lots of taper and branches (knots) so it's hard to find a "good" sawlog. But maybe a bit of management early on could improve things. Nice cedar is worth more than fast grown pine anyway. Leaving some of the Russian Olives standing might also act as a "nurse" crop, which encourages the cedars to grow up, rather than spreading. They also help fix nitrogen, and then clear out the olive for firewood later?

[Ron Wenrich]

The cedar in my area takes a long time to mature.  I have some down in my meadow that is about 30 yrs old and its about 4" dbh and not very high.  Pruning is not too much of an issue.  The pin knots are not considered a defect.  Cedarman knows a lot more about cedar than I do.  I do know the deer like the cover of the cedar.  Your extension agent can probably give some advice as to what is suited for your area.

[mike_belben]

I have noticed that about deer rubbing antlers on ERC sapplings specifically.

[TKehl]

Goats rub it to.  Have several small ones I trimmed low so they could have longer line of sight.  They LOVE to rub those and a few turned into "golden torches" when they died and dried standing in August.  

Don't know IL, but all the MO department of conservation plans I've seen say clear and kill all the ERC.

[Southside]

all the MO department of conservation plans I've seen say clear and kill all the ERC.

What do you want to bet in 20 years the same agency will be begging for folks to accept grant $$ to plant ERC?  I have an older "How to" book that covers a lot of homesteading things and in it the author talks about smoking hams, he explains how his neighbor has a nice set up but he can't get it inspected to sell pork as he has yet to INSTALL the required asbestos!!!  Can't make this stuff up.