Effective signs?

[SwampDonkey]

I suspect it is either a reed or marsh grass (like bluejoint Calamagrostis canadensis) since you are near cedar stands. Some of that marsh grass I've seen on power lines grows 7 feet high. The ground is quite soft in those areas. One place was so soft we almost lost a dozer (D8) in it, and the escavator that fished it out had all it could handle.  :

[Radar67]

Jeff, glad to hear you got your piece of land. I spent 14 years looking for mine. Bought it 2 years ago. I constantly have ideas running through my head about what I want to do with it. Sit down and make of list of things you want to do, then prioritize it, it helps. Having Ron come out and look it over for you is a very good idea, I need to have a forester come out to my place and do the same. I am contemplating putting signs up on my place as well, just not sure if I want to. I did find an old deer stand on it, but it looked like it hasn't been used in a couple of years. There is no mistake now of the lines, as they are cleared 8 feet wide. Makes a dang good fire break too. I hope you enjoy your land as much as I'm enjoying mine.

Stew

[Patty]

All the signs and gates in the world won't help if they REALLY want to get in. Good nosey neighbors are a far better deterant. We live at the end of a lane, a mile or so off the highway. Folks used to come back here and park and do the thing folks do on old empty lanes  : before we moved in. Now that it is obvious that we live back here, the traffic didn't slow down a bit, so we posted signs and put up a cable at the end and for the most part it keeps folks honest. But just this week we woke up to our cable down, and both anchor poles pulled out of the ground.     I figure whoever hit it must have been going along at a pretty good clip. The poles are telephone poles buried down about 3 feet. I was even more shocked that the cable was still attached. I am guessing the pick-up that hit it now has an indent just about at headlight height all around the front end and probably through the grill. Bummer.  ;D    Norm buried the poles even deeper this time, just waiting for the next guy to come around where he doesn't belong.

[bitternut]

Congratulations and good luck on becoming forest owners. I think you will be having many happy and fruitful times ahead. Being an absentee forest owner I can give you the benefit of my experience over the last 15 years.

I learned quite early that it is a good idea to talk to your neighbors and give them a chance to get to know you and for you to know them. Don't be afraid to let people know what you expect as a property owner. Once you have met your neighbors you probably will be able to determine who will be a good neighbor and who won't. Be nice to them all but befriend only the good ones. The good ones will keep an eye on things for you.

Try not to visit your property on a regular schedule. Vary the time and days that you are there. Something about not knowing when the owner is going to show up does a lot for keeping some people honest. Don't be too open about yourself till you are really sure about your neighbors. A little mystery about you is a plus. :-\

I found that I had two good neighbors and two not so good neighbors. The good neighbors are now good friends and keep watch over my property. They have done me many favors and I have been able to do a few favors for them in return. Kind of like one hand washes the other. The bad ones gave me some problems for a while but I think we have reached an understanding that I will not tolerate being taken advantage of. I got a feeling your neighbors will enjoy having you as a neighbor.

My last tip is to always plan on staying one extra day when you visit the property. Its been 15 years and I still get almost nothing done the first day that I arrive. Seems like I just have to walk the woods and get reacquainted with every tree. ;D My wife can usually tell when its time for me to head for the woods. She says I get edgy and cranky when I don't get a chance to be there. She will usually tell me its time to for me to head to the woods. :D

Nothing like owning your own little piece of woods. Enjoy. ;)

[rebocardo]

I have more then 30 acres in Central Maine. I know people snowmobile, ATV, cross to reach a large lake, and hunt across it (hunting club on my property line).  Yea, I found someone sugaring my maples too. I let the locals get all the free hay they want from the six or so clear acres. I have gone 4x4ing with my small trucks on some of the trails. So, I decided not to sign it.

When I find people on my land, I tell them I don't care if they use the land, just don't trash it, and please don't shoot in my general direction (point where I am working). Works so far for me. I ask them when they expect to be leaving and I tell them I will be quiet until then or I will just come back later to work so I don't ruin the hunting (not a hunter myself, I can appreicate it though).

I guess it depends on the law. As long as I didn't lose any rights I probably wouldn't prevent people from using the land except for the 300-600 feet directly around my house and just put up signs for rifle hunters not to shoot in the house's direction and paint it flame orange,like you clothe your dogs in Sept.  :D

I think I would have to be seriously in danger or hassle to prevent a bow or shotgun hunter from using the land.

I think there is always a urge to stake your claim, but, when you get down to it, we own nothing, God does.  We don't even pay rent. Some things you are suppose to do, such as not pick the gleanings from your crops and trees and to leave it for the poorer folks. If someone wants to hunt to eat (which I am not doing) or sugar trees I have no intention of sugaring, I don't see the need to get heavy handed and lock them out, my poorer neighbors.

Just some things I thought about in regards to signing.

[SwampDonkey]

There seems to be this appetite to burn vacant houses, or attempt to knock all the windows and doors out.  :

[OneWithWood]

Jeff, I forgot sumpthin'.  When you are preparing paradise for the next piggy roast don't forget to build the 'Woodshed'  ;D

[Jeff]

Tammy and I spent the dry parts of the last two days exploring our twenty acres. Its amazing how much area that really is and that as much as I have been over it it seems I have only saw a small portion.  I got a couple better photos of the grass on the power-line.





I was surprised how dry the woods are considering it is mostly cedar, we are near the end of a rapid thaw of the snow pack, the frost is still in the ground and we got over an inch of rain during the two days we were there.

Tammy found one of our trees has lips.



ANd this whitepine has arms!



Takes a pretty good cedar to hide me behind


There is a small creek that runs on the property, last fall it was running, but mostly underground, emerging here and there. You can see its path better now with the spring run off.


My Seester Leenda and Tammy an one of the natural benches in the cedars.



Chet would probably title this picutre "Trolls in Yooperland" 


Hide and seek!

[LedlieLogs]

Jeff that is so nice. It is just perfect. I'm sittin in my chair mentally walking the property with you guys. Very nice my friend. I will enjoy watching this thread over the years.
Keep us and the property posted.
Ledlie

[WDH]

Looks like y'all were having fun ;D.

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah that picture of the hay, looks like a species of reedgrass, probably blue joint which is very common. We have it here and quite often in soft ground along power lines.

[Jeff]

Yeah that picture of the hay, looks like a species of reedgrass, probably blue joint which is very common. We have it here and quite often in soft ground along power lines.

Any suggestions on removal?  I'm planning on letting it start to green up then giving it a drink of round up. 

[leweee]

Plan on a few applications. Dormant rhizomes send up new growth, not to mention all that seed. Best of Luck.....she's one tough grass. :P

[Jeff]

I was opeing to defeat it soon enough this year to get sumpthing in for the deer.  I sure wish I could just burn it off to begin with to see what lays underneath for terrain but I'm sure the power company and a few thousand electic company customers would not be to impressed with that idear. :D

[Norm]

Hmmmm wood power poles huh. :D

Round up works best if the plant is growing well when applied. I'd wait until it gets good and green and growing up through the old dead growth so you get good contact. Is there any way to get a tractor with a brush hog or flail mower in there? It would really help to get rid of as much dead growth if possible before spraying.

[Jeff]

I think a mower can traverse thr length OK, but when they put those new poles in they left serious rutage. I'll need to perhaps to some manual labor in creating a turn around at one end. Problem is that DanG grass does not seem to rot away, it looks like there is years worth there, layer upon layer and you can't get a feel on how rough it really might be. Its also keeping the ground from drying out.

[Tom]

I wonder if it might be something that they planted to keep the trees and brush from growing in the Right of Way?

[Gary_C]

That is Reed Canary Grass. It is considered an invasive species but is still planted sometimes for hay and erosion control. Could have been seeded by the power company to crowd out anything that would grow taller and threaten the power lines. Here is one site from Wisconsin DNR on control measures:  Reed Canary Grass

After it exists for many years on that soil, there may not be any native seeds remaining for any other regrowth.

[Jeff]

Here are some views of the powerline from the corner. There is aproximatly 800ft on the property, less then 2 acres'

This is straight down the powerline from the corner, looking south southeast


This view is looking east down North Caribou, the 1320 side


This is looking down Peisley rd. the 660 side

[SwampDonkey]

I don't believe it's invasive, we have this reedgrass here in places where I know it was never planted. One place I know is at the head of a brook and it's real tall and thick. As Jeff says, it looks like it never rots and if you get walking through it you get tripping on the sod clumps as bad as the tangling hay. It will grow up in abandoned, dried up beaver ponds to.

[Ron Scott]

Ditto! to what Gary C said. It appears to be Reed Canary Grass and may have been seeded by the power company to comtrol any woody vegetation. It's very invasive and difficult to eradicate. Repeated burining is a good option to start with, but need to discuss situation with power company for any possible surface management to benefit wildlife with some native plant and shrub species.

[Gary_C]

I would say that power line right of way needs a controlled burn to start with. Just get plenty of help together with rakes, a four wheeler or two with water tanks, and set small backfires and work your way down the length of your property.  Just clear the dead grass away from the power poles and soak them with water so they will not burn.  Then you can use Roundup or mowing to control the regrowth.

Did you get Ron up there to look at the trees? Looks like you have a lot of nice trees and a very high basal area. Needs some thinning, but then you can never trust a logger like me to determine that.   :D :D

[ely]

i say burn it. you will only have to really worry about the poles that have dripped the creasote to the butt of the pole really bad anyway. and like they said above a little raking away at the butt of the poles will usually not let the pole catch fire. also a small pump sprayer will do alot for the fire control if a pole was to actually catch fire. i have put out numerous pole fires in the past and most folks do not even bother to think about repercussions before lighting the fire. good luck and stay safe. nice lookin property by the way.

and jeff, does she always dress yall to match like that. ;D

[stonebroke]

Jeff

The one way I have found to get rid of canarygrass is serious overgrazing with cows. You put them in and let them graze it to the ground. Then you feed them round bales and let them keep it grazed down to the ground. After a few years like this you will have set it back. It is much easier if you have lotsa cows. You might want to mow it as low as you can as much as you can to recreate the overgrazing scenario. The roots and rhizomes on it are horrendous. It is the next thing to bamboo. I don't thing one application of roundup would do it. The other think you could do is have somebody plant corn. Lotsa nasty herbicides and the deer would really like the corn if you left it standing.

Stonebroke

[SwampDonkey]

hmm......... never mind. Just a brain fart. ;)