The Regeneration Opening (pic intensive)

[OneWithWood]

Sept. 21-22, 2016

I had to spread the photo shoot over two days because my iPhone is draining the battery at an alarming rate.  Oh, well, just means I had to stop running in circles and get out on the property 

The sycamores are really beginning to assert themselves.  I may have to just call this Sycamore Grove - not really what I had in mind when I started this project 

The small opening:
 

 

Slightly different angle and lighting of small opening:
 

 

The pond between the two openings:
 

 

The seed head of the unwelcome reed in the pond - I have to agree with Mesquite that it is Phragmite australis - Giant reed. 
I could use some suggestions on the best way to eliminate it without contaminating the pond.  The amphibs have really taken to this pond.
 

 

It has been a tremendous growing season with all the rain and warmth. 
The large opening from the observation tower looking northeast:
 

 

From the tower looking due south:
 

 

From the tower looking northwest:
 

 

Quercus alba - white oak seedlings on the edge by the tower:
 

 

Ground level looking east:
 

 

Ground level facing due south:
 

 

Ground level facing west:
 

 

From the southern edge looking back north: 
 

 

Can't see the forest for the trees (old saying) - I think this is the picture I took of the cedar tree in post #207.  Kinda hard to see it now as it has been subsumed by the sycamores.
 

 

Standing on the southern edge looking west by northwest:
 

 

Reference Quercus ruba (northern red oak) in left foreground - used to be able to see the observation tower on the northern edge from here:
 

 

Argh! the Dang Japanese stilt grass continues to be a pain in the patootee 
 

 

The Plantanus occidentalis (sycamore) jungle 
 

 

Two Quercus velutina (eastern black oak) leave trees trying to survive:
 

 

Tick trefoil waiting to hitch a ride on my pants:
 

 

asters, trefoil, boneset hanging on in a small open area:
 

 

This one has me stumped.  Any guesses?:
 

 

[WDH]

You have made the animals happy.

[SwampDonkey]

Looks like a goldenrod Robert, lance-leaved maybe, Solidago graminifolia.

Nice little critter patch,  and the forest doing it's best to take over. 

[g_man]

What a nice thread this is, being able to see such a long term change. Going back to the March 20, 2011 pictures in your first post and watching the development each season pretty informative and interesting.

gg

[red]

This was not just clearing land but a beautiful project started in 2011 . With great pictures.

[crazy4saws]

While doing some research, I came across this thread and just finished reading it. Excellent thread, the pictures are great.

I was looking at doing this same thing in my woods with the ultimate goal of creating oak regeneration. I have a good amount of red oak with a few white oak but the young saplings are not in the under story.

My question is this. Instead of letting nature take its course with the openings you created why not plant select 1 year oak saplings in the clearings either row planting or spot planting? This way you control what will be growing there?

Also with regards to the deer and rabbit issues would the growing tubes or tree shelters or even plastic mesh solve this issue? I understand these protection devices are expensive but if it produces a better oak regeneration than to me it would be worth it.

[mike_belben]

Ive been observing deer chewing very closely in a clearing i cut at my place.. They go bonkers for red maple and sourwood sprouts.. Which is great because those species coppice abundantly here.  I have deer come through and chew on those every night without minding the oaks at all. 

Give them an abundance of alternative food and youre oak odds will be much improved. 

[TKehl]

I'll second what Mike said based on what my goats (little deer) go after.  They hit the Elm, Hackberry, Locust, Mulberry, and Hedge hard.  They'll eat a little Oak and Walnut, but won't seek it out and it's far from first choice.

Thorny overgrown areas also can help regrowth.  Have left a couple blackberry patches in the pasture go a few years because I like to pick them with the kids.  This year was the first time I noticed 2-3 6' Black Walnut saplings poking up through the 5' canes.  Guess I'll let them grow now.   

[mike_belben]

Thats a good point too, i built a gnarly thicket in order to hold more deer via bedding down, around a creek bed under my stand.  I was doing TSI on the whole place but for this spot i just switched to intentionally barber chairing everything i would have normally culled and dragged out.   Naturally with all that water and sunlight it bushed into a heck of a tangle with all those live tops laid out overlapping everywhere.  Got so thick i lost the deer for a while and had to cut access notches into it. 

So basically, and i never thought of this.. Pick a spot thats already too thick with rubbish that ought be culled, plant your heirloom oak acorns harvested from a treasured crop tree (best to release other oaks around it to avoid confusion) and plant them in a protective thicket youve built by barber chairing a barrier ring around it. 

Coppicing a few little maple bolts around this makeshift fort will provide adequate alternative feed.  Deer are surprisingly lazy and fairly easy to reroute if you get to know their habits.

The open canopy but bushy ground layer inside the seedling fort will also help promote straight vertical stems as your oaks endeavor not to be over shadowed by the early competition.  Let those new maples, gums, and other shade tolerant species come back to help reduce side branching on the oaks as they reach for the canopy.  You want the sun to be a spotlight from from directly overhead, not a side light from the horizon.  That just bends stems and fills them with branches.

[JOE.G]

Any updates?

[WDH]

I would love to see an update, too, but OneWithWood has gone AWOL. 

[red]

Time to stop being a wannabe is another posting from OWW . . That was my alltime favorite posting 

[SwampDonkey]

I would love to see an update, too, but OneWithWood has gone AWOL.

Have not seen a post in 4 years, in any topic.