Revive the woods.

[SambhaSena]

Long time reader, first time poster. Located in washington parish louisiana

I want to make the trees on my land as close to how they would have been 500 years ago. At the moment my large trees are dominated by pine, various oaks, and sweetgum  with some red maple, hickory (bitternut I believe), and a few substantial sassafras speckled here and there. The underbrush is almost all chinese privet, tung oil, tallow trees, chinaberry, and (as of yet) unidentified small trees, but with some nice huckleberry bushes, some blackberries, and muscadine. How would I go about recreating and traditional louisiana forest. I think my first step would be to remove invasive like the privet. But after that  I'm clueless. Any advice?

[Autocar]

I would think that there would be native trees already started in your woodlot. Work on your invasive plants and more then likely there have to be sprayed to kill them. Around here Honey Suckle is a invasive plant we have to cut it off at the ground and spray the stump  to kill it. By cutting it at ground level then spraying, your spray can be controled a little better. And also try cutting a area and work at it a little at a time and replanting with seedlings. Good luck Bill

[Texas Ranger]

Take out the invasive, as suggested, The rest will take care of themselves.  You may end up, after the invasive problem is taken care of, doing a little selective thinning/harvest to balance species/stands.

[Ianab]

Yeah, sounds like your main problem is some invasive weeds like the Privet.

I'd suggest you just start chipping away at that. I'd think cutting that off and ground level and painting the stump with concentrated herbicide (concentrated Glyphosate) would be the best control. Avoids over spray from affecting your more desirable species.

Here's a local fact sheet on dealing with the Privet.
http://www.weedbusters.org.nz/weed-information/ligustrum-sinense/59/

The privet will re-infest open areas quickly from seeds left in the ground. So if you clean up a large patch of it, come back and plant something more desirable to take over the space. Then check back in the future and keep the weeds down so the don't overtake your desirable species.

It's going to take years to get the forest looking how you want it, but the sooner you start, the sooner you start seeing results. Good news is the larger trees you have sound like they belong, so what you really have is just a weed control exercise.

[Claybraker]

The best method for privet is to spray it with glyphosate in the dead of winter- January-February. The reason being everything else is sorta dormant. Some folks have received cost share money to treat it, and that's the reccomended method. You might look into cost-share on some of your invasive species if they offer that in Louisianna.

[WDH]

Fire, fire, and more fire.  That country had a fire ecology.  Privet cannot stand fire.  Nor can the other invasives.  They are not adapted to fire.  The native plants are.  You can hire a licensed Prescribed Burning contractor if you don't have the skills or equipment to do it yourself.  It will take 3 or 4 burns at a minimum to get a good head start, and any of the invasives that are too big for the fire to kill can be killed by injecting herbicide, hack and squirt method.

[Texas Ranger]

Oh, and about that tallow tree, it will be the last one standing.  Persistent pest.

[petefrom bearswamp]

500 years?
Let it grow and momma nature will take care of things.
unfortunately you wont be around as wont be the rest of us
the Adirondacks of NY as well as the rest of the northern tier of states as well as a good portion of Canada were absolutely devastated in the late 1800s and now have a good bit of climax forest species in many  areas.
100 yrs is a long time to us but just a burp in the scheme of things.
Maybe he southern states are different but I doubt it.

[WDH]

Fire, fire, and more fire  .